Yahoo Lifestyle ‘Gagarine’ Star Alseni Bathily Joins Linda Lô’s Buzzy ‘Lucky Girl’ From France’s Maneki Films (EXCLUSIVE)
Alseni Barthily, who headed Cannes 2020 main competition breakout “Gagarine” is set to star in “Lucky Girl,” the feature debut of Linda Lö set up at France’s Maneki Films, which is shaping up as one of the buzz titles at the Marrakech Festival’s 2024 Atlas Workshops.
Selected in the Workshops’ Projects in Development showcase, “Lucky Girl,” also written by Lô, begins during a vacation in Bordeaux, where Lili, 4, and her brothers, aged 9 and 20, are left to their own devices when their flamboyant mother returns without them to Gabon to run her restaurant- discotheque.
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Depicted in three acts – as a little girl, teen and young woman – Lili grows into Linda, determined to make her mother proud and reconnect with her African heritage.
“‘Lucky Girl’ is inspired by Lô’s own experience when, as a very young girl, along with her older brothers, she unwillingly migrated to France while their Cameroonian mother stayed in Gabon.
Expanding on Lö’s short “We Had Fun” in its ambition, scale and fantasy tropes, “Lucky Girl” underscores a new cinema at the Atlas Workshops projects that bucks traditional social drama.
“Following Lili at three different ages allows me to make a story of a great magnitude that revisits three decades on three continents,” Lö told Variety. “Even when success and happiness are found, I believe many migrants never totally recover. As this was the case for me, I instilled the feeling of a lost paradise in each chapter.”
She added: “Growing up, Lili questions her identity and tries to accept the complexity of belonging to both nowhere and everywhere. Still, I also intend to play with and explore the cosmic idea of the roads not taken: my coming-of-age film then takes a few exciting side trips into fantasy.”
“Lucky Girl’ is Linda’s first feature, and her short definitely confirmed her as a director with a real vision and universe. She has also shown how good she is at directing kids, which is one of the challenges of the feature,” added Didar Domehri, the former head of international sales at Playtime who, in 2009, founded Maneki Films, a classic French indie producer of multiple big fest plays, such as “Paulina,” “White Elephant” and “Bang Bang.”
A breakout in a Cannes Official Selection, though the festival did not take place on the Riviera due to COVID-19, Barthily was described by Variety as a “superb newcomer” for his utterly engaging performance in “Gagarine.” He was nominated for a Lumière Award as the most promising actor and won best actor at the 2020 Seville European Film Festival.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Alseni on board for ‘Lucky Girl,’ which builds on the short ‘We Had Fun’ in which he was already playing the key role of the older brother. We have loved him since we discovered his great performance in the ‘Gagarine,'” said Domehri.
Lô and Maneki will start the rest of the casting soon. “I know from experience that casting kids and teenagers will take a lot of time. Our film spans over three continents and three decades, so we will need to cast actors from different countries and at different ages. We are hoping to shoot in 2026. Alseni will be the only one to be there for the entire shoot,” Domehri commented.
Maneki is in talks with different potential co-producers. “The Atlas Workshops are the perfect time and place to meet more potential co-producers, sales agents, distributors and funds,” Domehri said.
Lö and Domehri will attend and pitch “Lucky Girl” at Marrakech, “probably illustrating it with a few images from the short,” Domehri noted.
The Atlas Workshops take place Dec. 1-5, the Marrakech Intl. Film Festival from Nov. 29 to Dec. 7.
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