EXCLUSIVE: Menemsha Films has picked up distribution rights in the US for When The Night Falls (La Troisième Nuit), the Second World War drama directed by and starring Daniel Auteuil that world premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May.
The film is based on the true story of Jewish-born Catholic priest Father Alexandre Glasberg and a young civil servant who risked their lives to save children from deportation during the Nazi occupation.
Screen’s review described the film as “a robust moral thriller, both intellectually chewy and emotionally finely-calibrated”.
Auteuil co-wrote the script with Camille Lugan. It is the veteran actor’s sixth feature as a director and bowed in the Cannes Premiere section of this year’s festival after his previous film An Ordinary Case premiered as a special screening there in 2024.
Antoine Reinartz, Gregory Gadebois and Luana Bajrami co-star in the film, which was shot in Lyon and is produced by Frederic Jouve for Les Films Velvet, the production outfit behind Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life. Co-producers are Palatio Films and La Smala Productions. SND will release the film in France on January 20, 2027.
The deal was negotiated between Menemsha Films president Neil Friedman and SND’s head of sales Ramy Nahas.
Menemsha plans to send When The Night Falls onto the film festival circuit before a theatrical release in spring 2027.
Friedmann said: “Given that Menemsha recently had great success with Daniel Auteuil in a starring role in the film Farewell Mr. Haffmann, we are over the moon to commence work on the distribution of When Night Falls in the United States.”
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