07/04/2005

After Bouli Lanners, who directed Ultranova (Versus Production) which was screened in Berlin in the Panorama section and will be released in France and Belgium on the 27th of April (distributed by Lumière), another member of the Snuls, the crazy comedy show which has been running for ten years on Canal + Belgium, has become a director.

Stefan Liberski, who was assistant director for Fellini’s City of Women, then went into advertising, became a journalist, started making videos and then writing scripts, is now a director and one the most famous television people in Belgium. Besides the Snuls, Stefan Liberski is famous for his extravagant sketches (such as JAADTOLY), the cartoon Froud & Stouf (Canal +), the dialogues of Allô, c’est Moi, and for a series of short TV fictions and documentaries he started making in 1998 (especially for Canal +). With his first feature, Bunker Paradise, this Jack of all jobs moves to bigger screens. The film has just finished shooting ; it is now being edited, mixed, and cut. This sarcastic comedy, previously entitled ‘King Kong Paradise’, recounts the story of a taxi driver (François Vincentelli) with dreams of wealth and fame who meets a young dandy (Jean-Paul Rouve, from the Robin Hoods, another troup of pranksters who could be seen on Canal + France) who give him a taste of life as a jet-setter. When Bunker Paradise was still called another name, Liberski met our partner Cinergie, and explained : ‘In King Kong Paradise, I want to investigate what our society conceives as an ideal : be rich and free of work. That’s what rules our world, at everybody’s expense.’ The cast includes the director’s partner-in-crime Bouli Lanners, Audrey Marnay, Sacha Bourdo, as well as Yolande Moreau, and Philippe Grand’Henry...

This relatively low-budget film (€1,750,000) is coproduced by Artémis Production (BE), Media Service (BE), and Liaison cinématographique (FR). Cinéart should distribute it in Belgium, and Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp will launch it in France. It should be released next Autumn...unless we can see it in Cannes —this remains to be seen.

(Translated from French)