From left to right: Justin Pechberty, Damien Megherbi, Clara Marquardt, Nabil Bellahsene

Source: Samir Hamiche

From left to right: Justin Pechberty, Damien Megherbi, Clara Marquardt, Nabil Bellahsene

EXCLUSIVE: Brazilian director Ricardo Alves Jr has signed to direct his third feature the psychological thriller The French Teacher, which is being produced by Damien Megherbi and Justin Pechberty  of Paris and Bordeaux-based Les Valseurs.

The €1million film will star Grace Passo as a French teacher who returns to her childhood home to care for her ailing father and faces judgement on her same-sex relationship from her conservative neighbours.

The French Teacher is being made as a co-produciton between Les Valseurs, Brazil’s EntreFilmes and Portugal’s Karo Filmes.

The film is the latest move by Megherbi and Pechberty to put together a slate of films by international auteurs. They are in Cannes with three titles in official selection: Chilean filmmaker Diego Cespedes’ The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo in Un Certain Regard, Ukrainian feature documentary Militantropos directed by Alina Gorlova, Yelizaveta Smith and Simon Mozgovyi in Directors’ Fortnight and Spanish director Guillermo Galoe’s Sleepless City at Critics’ Week.

“They represent the pursuit of an idea of cinema as a space of freedom and resistance, artistic, political, narrative,” said Megherbi of their productions. 

Topics