GERMANY, FRANGE, BELGIUM – 2022 – DCP – color – 102’

Direction: Kilian Riedhof
Screenplay: Jan Braren, Marc Blöbaum, Kilian Riedhof, Stéphanie Kalfon dal romanzo di Antoine Leiris
Cinematography: Manuel Dacosse SBC
Editing: Andrea Mertens BFS
Set design: Sebastian Soukup VSK
Original music: Peter Hinderthür
Costumes: Catherine Marchand
Cast: Pierre Deladonchamps (Antoine Leiris), Zoé Iorio (Melvil), Camélia Jordana (Hélène), Thomas Mustin (Alexandre), Christelle Cornil (Julie), Anne Azoulay (Annie), Farida Rahouadj (Sylvie), Yannick Choirat (Bruno)
Produttori: Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, Maren Ade in coproduzione con Carole Scotta, Julie Billy, Jean-Yves Roubin, Cassandre Warnauts, Klaus Dohle, Timm Oberwelland, Peter Eiff, Jens Wolf, Neshe Demir, Bastie Griese, Peter Kreutz, Christian Granderath (NDR), Sabine Holtgreve (NDR), Andreas Schreitmüller (Arte), Arlette Zylberberg (RTBF), Tanguy Dekeyser (Proximus)
Production: Komplizen Film in coproduzione con Haut Et Court, Frakas Productions, Ndr, Tobis, Mmc Movies Köln, Erfttal Film, Rtbf (Télévision Belge), Proximus, Shelter Prod
World Sales: Beta Cinema

SYNOPSIS

On November 13, 2015, Antoine sees his wife Hélène for the last time. She will be the victim this evening, along with eighty-nineother people, of the terrorist attacks in the Le Bataclan concert hall in Paris. While the world, shocked and deeply saddened, tries tofind an explanation for the incomprehensible, the journalist posts an open letter on Facebook. In moving words, he addresses the assassins. Antoine struggles internally with despair and hatred, but he does not want to give a place to either in his heart. Only when he realizeshow much his little son needs him does he confront the new reality: a life that accepts loss and ventures a new beginning. A new beginning that knows the fragility of happiness, but does not lose faith in life. This he owes to Hélène and his son…Based on the autobiographical novel by Antoine Leiris.

THE DIRECTOR: KILIAN RIEDHOF

Kilian Riedhof, born in 1971 in Jugenheim an der Bergstraße, started his career as a director and screenwriter at the Hamburg Media School, before receiving not only critical accolades but also numerous awards – including the Grimme Award and the German Television Award – for the television dramaHomevideo. In 2018, he filmed the hostage drama Gladbeck, which was based on realevents, as a two-part television series, which also became a major international success. The reward was another German Television Award for the Best Multipart Series and a nomination for the 2019 BAFTA TV Award. In 2013, Riedhof scored an audience hit inmovie theaters withBack On Track, in which Dieter Hallervorden excelled as a fictional, aging marathon runner. His current project Stellais about a young German Jewish woman, played by Paula Beer, who dreams of a career as a jazz singer in 1943 when she iscaptured by the Gestapo. The film is currently in post production. Kilian Riedhof is married to the author and actress Jana Voosen andis the father of a daughter.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“We wanted to stay close to Antoine Leiris’s original story. Changing the narrative would have felt dishonest. Antoine’s story is very poetic, very refined and touching. So we had to be extremely careful with it. We brought his text into a dramatic form wherenecessary. The secondary strand with his family was added as a fictional element in order to make Antoine’s inner transformation tangible.This is the story of a man who experiences the severe blow of his wife’s murder and, with his despair and feelings of hatred, is indanger of falling apart. In order to survive, he has to fully focus on his love for his child. A very intimate, emotional drama thatoscillates between life and death, between heaven and darkness.”

FILMOGRAPHY
2006 Bloch – Der Kinderfreund (Tv)
2007 Dr. Psycho – Soko Wg/Der Doppelte Psycho (Tv)
2008 Tatort Münster – Wolfsstunde (Tv)
2011 Homevideo (Tv)
2013 Sein Letztes Rennen
2015 Der Fall Barschel (Tv)
2018 Gladbeck (Tv)
2022 Stella
2022 Vous N’aurez Pas Ma Haine (You Will Not Have My Hate)

PREMI E FESTIVAL
2021 Premio per la Sceneggiatura Tedesca: Premio per la Sceneggiatura a Jan Braren, Marc Blöbaum, Kilian Riedhof
2022 Locarno FF – Piazza Grande