03/06/2011

Shooting has been underway in Tel Aviv for the past two weeks on Lorraine Levy’s third feature: Le Fils de l’Autre (“The Son of the Other”). After her two comedies (The First Time I Was 20 in 2004 and London Mon Amour [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2008, which amassed 169,000 and 674,000 admissions, respectively), the director is tackling a more sensitive family subject which touches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The cast includes Jules Sitruk (discovered in I, Caesar and recently seen in My Father Is a Cleaning Lady [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Mehdi Dehbi (who came to attention in He Is My Girl [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Emmanuelle Devos (soon to grace screens in Bachelor Days Are Over [+see also:
trailer
interview: Katia Lewkowicz
film profile]), Pascal Elbé (Turk’s Head [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Areen Omari and Khalifa Natour.

Co-scripted by the director and Nathalie Saugeon with collaboration from Noam Fitoussi, the film centres on Joseph (Sitruk), an Israeli Jew who has to join the army in three months’ time for his military service, and Yacine (Dehbi), a Palestinian Arab who has just passed his baccalaureate exams and lives in France.

Nothing could have predicted that they would one day meet. But after medical tests, it is discovered that the two boys were swapped at birth in a hospital in Haifa amid the chaos of the bombings.

This mistake will shatter their vision of the world and their Israeli (Devos and Elbé) and Palestinian (Omari and Natour) families.

Le Fils de l’Autre is produced by Virginie Lacombe and Éric Amouyal for Rapsodie Production for around €2.7m . The budget includes co-production support from France 3 Cinéma, Cité Films and Solo Films, and a pre-acquisition from Orange Cinéma Séries.

Also backed by Touscoprod, the film will be shot in Israel over seven weeks. Haut et Court will handle French theatrical distribution, while Roissy Films is managing international sales.

(Translated from French)