30/11/2022 - Grégoire Colin and Vassili Schneider also star in Adrien Beau’s first feature film, produced by Les Films du Bal and sold by WTFilms

Actress Ariane Labed (© Georges Biard) and actor Kacey Mottet Klein (© RTS)

Adrien Beau has been shooting his first feature film, The Vourdalak [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrien Beau
film profile], in Aveyron since 15 November. This adaptation of the first vampire novella written in Europe in the 19th century is toplined by French-Greek talent Ariane Labed (crowned Best Actress in Venice 2010 for Attenberg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Athina Rachel Tsangari
film profile], as well as in Locarno 2014; nominated for the Best New Hope César in 2015 via Fidelio: Alice’s Journey [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucie Borleteau
film profile]; recently well-received in both chapters of The Souvenir [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; set to return to our screens in April via Avant l’effondrement) and Switzerland’s Kacey Mottet Klein (nominated for the 2013 and 2017 Best New Hope Césars, at her best in last year’s Happening [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
film profile] and hitting cinemas on 21 December via Tempête).

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Joining them in the cast are Grégoire Colin (well-received this year in Paris Memories [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Winocour
film profile] and Both Sides of the Blade [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and whom we’ll be seeing again next year in And Yet We Were All Blind [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Béatrice Pollet
film profile] and La Vénus d’argent), Vassili Schneider (Forever Young [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
film profile]), Claire Duburcq (After Blue), Gabriel Pavie (A Family for 1640 Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Erwan Ribard (a familiar face in the Larrieu brothers’ films).

Adapted from Alexeï Konstantinovitch Tolstoï’s La Famille du Vourdalak, the story written by Adrien Beau and Hadrien Bouvier kicks off as follows: "My children," implores old Gorcha before leaving, "wait six days for me. If I haven’t returned by the end of the sixth day, offer a prayer in my memory, for I will have been killed in combat... But if, God forbid, I should return after these six days have passed, I order you to forget that I was your father and to refuse to let me in, no matter what I say or do, for I will be nothing other than an accursed Vourdalak."

The Vourdalak is produced by Judith Lou Lévy (the European Film Promotion’s 2022 Producer on the Move – read our interview) on behalf of Les Films du Bal, in co-production with Master Movies. Pre-purchased by OCS and Amazon, the feature film also enjoys support from the Occitanie region and the SOFICA company Cinémage, as well as from the CNC’s CVC fund (for visual or sound creation via digital technology) and agnes b. The 24-day film shoot will continue in Rodez and the surrounding area until 16 December, with David Chizallet (nominated for the 2016 César in his speciality thanks to Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile]) heading up photography. International sales are steered by WTFilms, while distribution in France is entrusted to The Jokers.

(Translated from French)