FRANCE
2015 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H33 – IN FRENCH
Synopsis
Adama is a 14-year-old boy who lives with his mother in a small two-room flat in Stains, in the suburbs of Paris. He fails in school, although he is a bright pupil. Because of an unexpected event, he will reverse the situation with Mamadou, who is younger than him.
DIRECTOR: Mathieu Vadepied
PRODUCTION: Bruno Nahon
SCREENPLAY: Olivier Demangel - Vincent Poymiro - Mathieu Vadepied
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Bruno Romiguière
EDITING: Marie-Pierre Frappier
SOUND: Dominique Lacour
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Alexandre Vivet
MUSIC: Flemming Nordkrog
CAST:
Balamine Guirassy
Ali Bidanessy
Guillaume Gouix
Joséphine De Meaux
Léontina Fall
Adama Camara
Bass Dhem
Aristide Tarnagda
Marion Ploquin
PRODUCTION
UNITÉ DE PRODUCTION
Bruno Nahon
Caroline Nataf
caroline.nataf@unitedeproduction.com
CO-PRODUCTION
TEN FILMS
Eric Toledano
Olivier Nakache
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 67 05 05
foucauld.barre@gmail.com
DISTRIBUTION
GAUMONT
Françoise Dauvergne
Tel. +33 (0)1 46 43 20 00
fdauvergne@gaumont.fr
SALES
GAUMONT
Cécile Gaget
Tel. +33 (0)1 46 43 20 00
mpereira@gaumont.fr
FRENCH PRESS
Tony Arnoux
André Paul Ricci
Tel. +33 (0)6 80 10 41 03
Tel. +33 (0)6 12 44 30 62
tony.arnoux@wanadoo.fr
apricci@wanadoo.fr
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
GAUMONT
Sophie Bollotte
Tel. +33 (0)1 46 43 20 00
sbollotte@gaumont.fr
CONTACT CANNES
GAUMONT
Carole Dourlent
Quentin Becker
Tel. +33 (0)6 71 93 11 79
Tel. +33 (0)4 93 68 90 20
cdourlent@gaumont.fr
qbecker@gaumont.fr
The film takes a stance opposite to general accepted ideas. In this story, all the ingredients for dark drama are reunited: two kids are dealing in order to uproot themselves from the prevailing social determinism which entombs them in their condition of immigrants’ children. But Mathieu Vadepied chooses a luminous and humorous approach, without taking the easy way about it. Learn by Heart is not a slapstick comedy, full of punch lines and comical situations. And the reason why it is so deeply embedded in the fierce reality, is to better disprove all its simplistic and defeatist stereotypes. Thanks to its sharpness, its quirky humour and a very accurate sense of irony, both puzzling and engaging, it sweeps away naive optimism with a healthful laughter, totally disregarding the politically correct clichés. Polygamy, school failure, drug traffic, the film grabs all topics, as cheeky and impertinent as its two young heroes.
“In the writing process, a quite difficult balance needed to be found between the raw aspect that couldn’t be watered down and the “fable“ part which allowed more innovation and fantasy. In the meantime, the researched point of view was that of the child’s-eye and the fidelity towards their own way of understanding the events. Therefore, during the shooting, came the idea to stay close to a documentary approach. For instance, all the scenes involving the two heroes were shot with two cameras and with no additional lighting. I wanted to seize the unknown and the unexpected. Grasping something of the specific moment when, as a teenager, everything arrives with uncommon force and energy, is sometimes difficult to master.”
By Xavier Leherpeur
