15/12/2005

Shooting starts on the 9th of January for La question humaine ("The Human Question"), the 5th feature fiction by Nicolas Klotz whose last work The Wound [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was screened in 2004 at Directors Fortnight and was very well received by the critics when it came out in France. Following illegal immigrants, the filmmaker decided this time to take on the totalitarian world of big business by adapting the novel by François Emmanuel. La question humaine with a cast of Mathieu Amalric (César 2005 for best Actor), Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Michael Lonsdale, Édith Scob, Valérie Dréville, Michael Lonsdale and Lou Castel. Initially with Gémini, the project was picked up by Sophie Dulac Productions who also handle French theatrical rights.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Adapted by Elisabeth Perceval, La question humaine retraces the strange investigation by Simon (Mathieu Amalric), a psychologist working in Human Resources for the Parisian subsidiary of a German multinational. Specialist in role play, motivational seminars and evaluation aimed at restructuring, Simon is asked by the director of the subsidiary Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), a liberal through and through, to investigate Mathias Jüst (Michael Lonsdale), a director general who is suspected of being mentally unstable. Weighing up a possible power struggle between the two men, the psychologist will, bit by bit, uncover a culture of denouncement and surveillance. Resembling the elements of an enigmatic puzzle bringing back the horrors of the nazi period, Simon will discover worrying links between the nazis methods and those of the personal departments in modern big business.

With 328 000 euros from Ile-de-France Region aid for the film and audiovisual industry and an Advance on Receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC), La question humaine will shoot for 7 – 8 weeks till the end of February 2006.

(Translated from French)