21/01/2019 - Mina Farid, Zahia Dehar, Benoît Magimel, Clotilde Coureau and Nuno Lopes are among the cast of this Les Films Velvet production being sold by Wild Bunch

Standing out among the new titles freshly added to the slates of the international sales agents at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris (organised by UniFrance from 17-21 January) is An Easy Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile], the fourth feature by Rebecca Zlotowski, following Planetarium [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile] (revealed out of competition at Venice in 2016 and also screened at Toronto), Grand Central [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile] (presented at Cannes in 2013, in Un Certain Regard) and Belle épine [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Cannes Critics’ Week in 2010).

Shot last summer, shrouded in the utmost secrecy, the film boasts a cast including young actress Mina Farid, the highly newsworthy Zahia Dehar (a former escort who was embroiled in a 2010 scandal involving a number of famous professional footballers, and who subsequently reinvented herself as a fashion designer), Benoît Magimel (Best Actor Award at Cannes in 2001 for The Piano Teacher [+see also:
trailer
film profile], César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2016 for Standing Tall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuelle Bercot
film profile], popular recently in Memoir of War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Finkiel
film profile], and set to grace screens later this year in Pure as Snow, Nous finirons ensemble and Dune Dreams), Clotilde Coureau (who was nominated for the Lumières Award for Best Actress in 2016 for In the Shadow of Women [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], won the European Film Award for Best Actress in 1991 for The Little Gangster, and filmed Benedetta last summer) and Portugal’s Nuno Lopes (Best Actor Award in the Orizzonti section at Venice in 2016 for Saint George [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Marco Martins
film profile], also giving great performances in With the Wind [+see also:
film review
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interview: Bettina Oberli
film profile] and An Outpost of Progress [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

The story, written by Rebecca Zlotowski and Teddy Lussi-Modeste (the duo previously teamed up on writing duties for The Price of Success [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teddy Lussi-Modeste
film profile] and Jimmy Rivière [+see also:
trailer
interview: Teddy Lussi-Modeste
film profile]), revolves around Naïma, who has just turned 16. This summer, she will have to decide what she wants from life if she doesn’t want to miss out. Then her cousin Sofia arrives – 22, with an amazing body and a dangerously seductive lifestyle. Naïma desires only to follow her own path, so long as it leads upwards… Despite the warnings of her best friend Dodo, she and Sofia will live through unforgettable encounters during a long summer that will mark them forever…

Produced by Frédéric Jouve (see the interview) for Les Films Velvet, An Easy Girl was co-produced by France 3 Cinéma. Having been pre-purchased by Canal+, the feature has also secured backing from the Cinécap, Indéfilms and Cinémage Soficas. The French distribution will be handled by Ad Vitam, and the international sales are being managed by Wild Bunch. It’s worth noting that, given the fact that the director is already getting stuck into the shoot for the series Les Sauvages [+see also:
series review
interview: Souheila Yacoub
series profile], there is no guarantee that the film will be ready for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival (14-25 May 2019). 

As a reminder, Les Films Velvet has Scents and Senses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Grégory Magne
film profile] by Grégory Magne and Banlieusards by Kery James (a Netflix film in co-production with SRAB Films) in post-production. The company’s filmography also includes all of Rebecca Zlotowski’s features, A Violent Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Thierry de Peretti, Good Luck Sam [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Farid Bentoumi, 40-Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Stéphane Demoustier, Willy 1^er [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma, Marielle Gautier and Hugo P Thomas, and Let the Girls Play [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julien Hallard (currently on the line-up of the MyFrenchFilmFestival).

(Translated from French)