FRANCE
2013 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H31 MAINLY IN FRENCH
Synopsis
Deep in the Sahara desert, as they try to get to Europe, Léonard, a young man from Cameroon, rescues Hope, a Nigerian woman. In a fiercely hostile world where safety requires staying with one's own people, these two try to find their way together, and to love each other.
DIRECTOR: Boris Lojkine
SCREENPLAY: Boris Lojkine
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Elin Kirschfink
EDITING: Gilles Volta
SOUND: Marc-O Brullé
MUSIC: David Bryant
CAST:
Justin Wang
Endurance Newton
Dieudonné Bertrand Balo’o
Martial Eric Italien
Henri Didier Njikam
Nabyl Fally Koivogui
Richmond N’diri Kouassi
Bobby Igiebor
Dandy Amienoho Osawaru
PRODUCTION
ZADIG FILMS
Bruno Nahon
DISTRIBUTION
PYRAMIDE
Eric Lagesse
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 96 02 20
elagesse@pyramidefilms.com
SALES
PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL
Lucero Garzon
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 96 02 20
lgarzon@pyramidefilms.com
PRESSE
RENDEZ-VOUS
Viviana ANDRIANI
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 66 36 35
viviana@rv-press.com
CONTACT CANNES
PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL
Office: Riviera F6
Lucero Garzon
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 96 02 20
lgarzon@pyramidefilms.com
The power of Hope lies in its unflinching portrayal of the reality of the tragic conditions of the exile of Africans travelling through the Sahara to reach Europe. The film tells this story through an incredible tale of love, which allows this oft ignored situation to reach us. “As long as there is another person, wrote Serge Daney, there is hope for filming". Hope is the story of this hope.
«I came to cinema by way of documentaries. I made two films in Vietnam, a country whose language I learned, trying to get into the Vietnamese experience of the memories of war. Hope follows the same motivation: going through to the other side, getting into different, more dramatic, more intense, more heroic lives than mine. Lives that have something epic about them.
By relying on very extensive documentation, I firstly wrote a fairly classic script. I wanted a strong dramaturgy, twists and turns and a tight plot. But at no point did I want for this film to write dialogue aimed at professional actors. I went for a guerilla style casting call in Morocco. When I met Endurance, she was begging in a mosque, with her baby. Justin was struggling to get by after having played briefly for a third division Moroccan football team. Both had reached the country through the desert and Algeria.
Among the rest of the cast, there are ex-thieves, traffickers and even a pimp. The forger was one once as well as the Nigerian chairman in Tamanrasset. They introduced me to this world and its codes very well. I had them improvise scenes and then re-wrote them. One owes to these actors to be as close to the truth as possible and to keep things simple, go straight to the point.»
Interview by Charles Tesson
