Christine Paillard has been shooting Billie Melody, her first solo feature film after A Smile Doesn’t Lie (co-directed by Chad Chenouga and released last year), since 30 June.

The cast stars Roschdy Zem (awarded the collective male acting performance prize in Cannes in 2006 for Days of Glory [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jean Bréhat
intervista: Rachid Bouchareb
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intervista: Arnaud Desplechin
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intervista: Koya Kamura
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intervista: Bertrand Bonello
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intervista: Lucile Hadžihalilović
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intervista: Catherine Breillat
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Written by Christine Paillard herself and Chad Chenouga, the story focuses on 14-year-old Billie who witnesses a violent argument between her parents the day before her father dies. She moves away to start a new life with her mother, a tenebrous beauty with a troubling personality, and her brother who’s in the throes of a teenage crisis. But how can she grieve and grow when she’s haunted by doubts?

Billie Melody is being produced by Florence Borelly on behalf of Sésame Films and by Édouard Mauriat for Mille et Une Productions, and has been pre-purchased by Ciné+ and France Télévisions. The feature also enjoys support from the Pays de la Loire region, where the film is being shot (in Nantes and the surrounding area) until 31 July, with Julien Hirsch (awarded the César in his speciality in 2007 and nominated again in 2012) heading up photography. Distribution in French cinemas will fall to The Jokers Films.

For the record, Sésame Films recently steered production on Sylvain Desclous’ Grand Expectations [+leggi anche:
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