14/09/2007

While the Venice Film Festival was getting underway – which launched Joachim Lafosse onto the international scene last year with Private Property [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see article) – the young Belgian director was busy starting shooting on his fourth feature, under the working title Elève libre. The nine-week shoot has been taking place in Belgium and is expected to wrap up early November.

In a cast featuring Yannick Rénier (Private Property), Claire Bodson and Anne Coesens (Cages [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), young debut actor Jonas Bloquet and the established Jonathan Zaccaï (They Came Back, The Beat That My Heart Skipped [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) play the central characters, a complex pair, something which Lafosse particularly likes.

Young teenager Jonas has dreams of becoming a professional tennis player but these are dashed when he fails his exams. Faced with a consequent lack of support from his parents, he turns to the only adult in his entourage in whom he can confide, Pierre. Pierre accepts to help, encourage and support Jonas. But their paternal, master-student relationship gradually becomes a more complex and ambiguous one of dependence and manipulation.

Produced by Liege based Versus Production on a €2,100,000 budget, Elève Libre is a French co-production with Mact Productions and RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française), Ryva and intermediary agent Versus and Les Films du Fleuves, Inver Invest.

Supported by Le Centre du Cinéma de la Communauté française de Belgique, the film also received backing from Wallimage, Eurimages and the MEDIA programme. French television channels Canal + and Ciné Cinéma provided further financing.

Elève Libre is being sold internationally by Versus’ regular partner Films Distribution and will be distributed in Belgium by Cinéart in 2008 and in France by Haut et Court.

(Translated from French)