19/12/2012 - The star of The Intouchables is back in cinemas in a police "buddy movie", produced by Mandarin Cinéma and released by Mars Distribution

After he was catapulted to the top by box office hit The Intouchables [+see also:
film review
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film profile] (over 19 million admissions in France and almost 30 million viewers elsewhere in the world), has Omar Sy (2012 Cesar for Best Actor) become an actor able to single handedly guarantee the success of a film at the box office? We will soon find out as David Charhon's On the Other Side of the Tracks [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is out today in French cinemas, its 475 copies distributed by Mars Distribution.  

The film, welcomed by the press with relative indulgence, is a "buddy movie" that recounts the misadventures of two very different policemen (a Parisian captain from the crime squad played by Laurent Lafitte and Omar Sy as an investigator from the financial police of a town in the suburbs) brought together by the dead body of a leading business owner's wife. The film could turn out to be excellent business for its producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer (Mandarin Cinéma), who have also been credited with the original idea on which the screenplay is based, who handled the film's casting and budget (€7.9m) before Omar Sy skyrocketed into fame. The actor reflects: "We started shooting the day after The Intouchables came out. While my life was turned upside down, and as each day the figures were even more incredible, this film allowed me to keep my feet on the ground." Now based in Hollywood, Omar Sy is to appear next spring in Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo and he is most probably also aware of the very good international sales for On the Other Side of the Tracks, which was notably bought from Other Angle Pictures by the Weinstein Company for North America, Latin America, and China.

The following films are also out this Wednesday: Valérie Donzelli's Hand in Hand, a film that earned Jérémie Elkaïm Best Actor in Rome (Wild Bunch Distribution in 253 cinemas), as well as Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier's Love is All You Need (read the interview), discovered this year out of competition in Venice and distributed by Les Films du Losange on 51 copies.

Four more films are also worth pointing out: Stephan Schesch's German-French-Irish animation film Jean de la Lune [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (based on Tomi Ungerer's comic book - Le Pacte in 266 cinemas), Daniel Sicard's first French feature Drift Away (Zelig Films Distribution in six cinemas) and two films that went to the 2011 Venice Film Festival: American director Abel Ferrara's contender 4:44 Last Day on Earth (co-produced for France by Wild Bunch and Funny Balloons - distribution: Capricci Films in 37 cinemas) and Polish filmmaker Leszek Dawid's My Name is Ki (watch the interview at the Venice Days - Aramis Films in six cinemas).

(Translated from French)