23/11/2006

Filming on Où est la main de l'homme sans tête? [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (lit. "Where is the Hand of the Headless Man?") has been in full swing since October 16 and will continue until December 1.

Guillaume Malandrin, one of the producers at La Parti Productions (see interview), co-wrote with his brother Stéphane Malandrin a "labyrinthine thriller", an "absurd and slightly surrealist film" says Guillaume and "a slightly offbeat black thriller", according to Stéphane. Both belong to the highly unusual vein of Belgian cinema.

For their previous, more light-hearted film, I Don’t Care If Tomorrow Never Comes (see interview with director) – which went into production straight after it was written – the Malandrins co-wrote "a clockwork mechanism-like script", "quite a complicated tale, with several flashbacks, where the character gets lost and tries to piece together a puzzle that he can’t make sense of".

Cécile de France – enthusiastic right from the start over this dark Alice in Wonderland – plays Eva, a young swimming champion, who wakes up from a coma after an accident, begins to look for her cat and then her brother and who, because of astounding misunderstandings, gradually feels "encircled by a disturbing character and perhaps feels responsible for his disappearance. The character in question is the man without a hand, Jacky Lambert", who put on a surprising performance in the Malandrins’ previous film.

Lambert stars alongside Germany’s Ulrich Tukur (The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile], The Ax [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) as Eva’s father and coach. This is another troubled role, as the young woman gradually begins to feel threatened by him.

Bouli Lanners plays his brother (see Focus on Ultranova [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile]) and Jan Hammenecker (Like Everybody [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Start Walking! [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Kings and Queen [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) rounds off the cast.

The €2m Où est la main... is produced by La Parti, who already have some successful films of the same "Belgian genre" to their name (notably Aaltra and The Ordeal [+see also:
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile]).

With support of €315,000 from the Communauté française de Belgique and additional funding from Wallimage and the Belgian Tax Shelter, Où est la main… is being co-produced with Liaison cinématographique (France) and Graniet Film (Netherlands).

The film will be sold internationally by Wild Bunch and the title is slated for a summer 2007 release through BFD in Belgium and Pan Européenne Edition in France.

(Translated from French)