Le Groupe Ouest reveals its 2022 Annual Selection
- Among the auteurs selected for the Breton writing residency are Elie Grappe, Rachid Djaïdani and Élisabeth Vogler; eight projects are in the showcase, including five first features
The top European writing residency for film and fiction of recent years, the Groupe Ouest has unveiled its Annual Selection 2022 and the list of the eight auteurs (plus three co-writers) selected for this new nine-month residency, which will be supervised by a team of consultants including Marcel Beaulieu, Ralitza Petrova, Pablo Agüero and Delphine Gleize. The selection was described as "biting" by Groupe Ouest's co-director Charlotte Le Vallégant, who emphasised "the generosity, the strength that fills with hope, the will to fight and the poetic power" of the selected projects.
Headlining the 2022 Selection is Elie Grappe, with Belle-Île (co-written with Victor Jestin), his second feature film project after Olga [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elie Grappe
film profile], winner of the SACD prize at 2021’s Cannes Critics' Week, Swiss candidate for the Oscar for best international film and winner of three Quartz awards (including the title of best Swiss film of the year) last Friday (read the news).
Rachid Djaïdani also shines with Une Dinguerie, his third feature project after two films presented in Directors' Fortnight: Hold Back [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile] in 2012 and Tour de France [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile] in 2016.
Another third feature project is on show with Les Chevreuils by Elisabeth Vogler, who has made a name for herself with Paris is Us and Roaring 20’s [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] (Best Cinematography Award last year at Tribeca and screened in a special screening in Karlovy Vary).
The five other projects selected this year are first features, two of which are animated (Le dernier des Cailloux by Caroline Cherrier and Pépite by Cyril Houplain) and three are fictional: A moi aussi ça fait mal by Josza Anjembe (noticed with the shorts Le Bleu, blanc, rouge de mes cheveux and Baltringue), To bled or not to bled by the French-Algerian Azedine Kasri (co-written with Margaux Dieudonne and Simon Serna) and Pigeon Wars by the Lebanese Dania Bdeir (winner of this year's Sundance International Short Film Competition with Warsha).
Here are the mini-synopses of the projects:
A moi aussi ça fait mal – Josza Anjembe
Just as he is about to fulfil his dream of becoming a journalist in a major newsroom, Abi, 25, black, reserved and solitary, meets Gaëtan, 35, white, good-natured and enthusiastic. Gaëtan falls under Abi's spell at first sight. Determined to seduce him, Gaëtan sets his sights on Abi. Fascinated by Gaëtan's joie de vivre, Abi succumbs. A romance of madness, ardour, intoxication and passion begins. At Gaëtan's side, Abi emancipates himself, gradually freeing himself from his shyness and discovering a world he knows little about: the gay, hip, Parisian milieu. Despite the worlds that separate them, Abi flourishes and falls madly in love. The two lovers live the perfect love. But as the days go by, with habits, encounters, and events, Gaëtan shows a side of him that Abi was unaware of until then, and reveals himself to be humiliating, degrading, and racist.
Pigeon Wars – Dania Bdeir
Rana (20) lives alone in a student neighbourhood in Beirut. A fearless and competitive young woman, she now only spends time with her younger sister Nadine, who is passionate about birds and towards whom she is very protective. When Rana goes too far, putting Nadine and her friends in danger, Nadine decides not to talk to her sister anymore. To win her back, Rana wants to give her the Nicobar, a rare and beautiful pigeon. Nadine had praised it when they met Hassan (21), a pigeon trainer from a traditionalist family. Hassan had told them then about the mysterious world of pigeon racing. Rana convinces Hassan to teach her the rules of this competition and to help her capture the Nicobar. Throughout the training sessions, a friendship develops. Rana agrees to let her guard down and to finally dare to show her vulnerability.
Le dernier des Cailloux – Caroline Cherrier
Firmin Caillou has just lost his explorer parents, who disappeared at sea. Taken in by his aunt Anna in Brittany, he has trouble with this family of cockle fishermen, so humble, far from the adventurous spirit to which he aspires. Fleeing the mockery of his cousins, he finds himself with Ricette on the lighthouse of which she is the keeper. At night, he discovers a huge, lost sea creature trying to communicate with the lighthouse foghorn. Firmin becomes attached to this lonely monstress, the last of her kind.
Une Dinguerie – Rachid Djaïdani
Zyna, 30 years old, works as a security guard on the docks of Fos-sur-Mer alongside her father. But her passion is the Seventh Art. Thanks to an international competition, she wins the opportunity to make her short film and then screen it at the Cannes Film Festival... Alas, an insurmountable wall rises before her. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood radically oppose the filming, which they believe is influenced by "the devil's malice." Requiem, the local wholesaler, offers her his protection. In return, Zyna will have to close her eyes and let a container of coke pass through. Will Zyna accept this deal, at the risk of betraying her father and her convictions? This is the price to pay to make her Dinguerie, her short film in homage to Sohan, her late and beloved homosexual big brother…
Belle-Île – Elie Grappe and Victor Jestin
One afternoon in August 1934, fifty-six boys escape from the penal colony for minors of Belle-Ile-en-Mer. They spread out over the island. Overwhelmed, the colony offers twenty francs to anyone who brings back a fugitive. Locals, fishermen, tourists, everyone joins the hunt…
Pépite – Cyril Houplain
"Pépite has disappeared, Pépite is my friend, my friend is an ant, a red ant.” Thus begins the most incredible of epics, a journey of initiation across the world that will not fail to put to the test a very singular friendship – the one that unites a young London vagabond and a red ant from the Arizona desert.
To bled or not to bled – Azedine Kasri, Margaux Dieudonne and Simon Serna
Dali, a Frenchman in his thirties of Algerian origin, joins his parents who have retired in a village in Kabylia. He wants to live the Algerian dream: to found a company and get married, as his parents wish. But his meeting with Raïssa, 26, a young, black Algerian woman of Tuareg origin and ready to do anything to cross the Mediterranean, will change everything. In the midst of sheep fights, misappropriated subsidies and youth movements for freedom, a question arises: To leave or to stay? To bled or not to bled?
Les Chevreuils – Élisabeth Vogler
Jarod is about to turn 30 and is mixed race. He is facing a series of setbacks and will soon have to leave his flat. His sister suggests that he moves into a house they inherited from a great aunt in Dordogne. Jarod accepts out of desperation. He feels even more lonely than in the city, and because of the lack of network, he cannot work. Just as he is about to lose his job, he crosses the path of a deer and has a revelation. His life changes, he will stop being sad. He starts to make friends with the people around him. He turns his house into a place of passage. He dresses in women's clothes. His sister is sceptical of this change and wants to take over the house. But Jarod is only too happy to be able to truly live and really connect with others, and he sets out to organise a rave party.
(Translated from French)
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