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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Italy / Belgium / France / UK

Felix Van Groeningen adapting The Eight Mountains with Charlotte Vandermeersch

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- The pair are working together on the film adaptation of the Italian bestseller by Paolo Cognetti

Felix Van Groeningen adapting The Eight Mountains with Charlotte Vandermeersch
Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch

Paired up both romantically and professionally, Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch are getting stuck into The Eight Mountains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen & Char…
film profile
]
, the adaptation of a novel by Italian author Paolo Cognetti, which won the Médicis Award for a Foreign Novel in 2017. They will write and direct this new project as a joint effort.

The story revolves around city boy Pietro. One summer, when he’s 11, his parents rent a house in Grana, in the heart of the Aosta Valley. There, he makes friends with Bruno, a cowherd his age. They both roam tirelessly around the mountain pastures, exploring forests and craggy paths. Twenty years later, the young man will return to Grana to find refuge and attempt to make peace with his past.

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Vandermeersch is an actress and author: among other projects, she collaborated on the screenplay for Van Groeningen’s successful film The Broken Circle Breakdown [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
interview: Felix Van Groeningen
interview: Felix Van Groeningen
film profile
]
. She made appearances recently in Adoration [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile
]
, De Premier [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Belgica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Artemio Benki, Sylvie Leray
interview: Felix Van Groeningen
film profile
]
.

For his part, Van Groeningen burst onto the global arthouse film scene in 2009 with the Cannes (Directors’ Fortnight) premiere of The Misfortunates [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
film profile
]
, which, in turn, was also an adaptation – of the work by Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst. In 2013, The Broken Circle Breakdown was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film, thus rounding off a phenomenal international run for the movie – a US adventure that piqued Hollywood’s interest. In 2018, he directed Beautiful Boy, starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, which was also an adaptation of two memoirs, those of a father and a son whose relationship is put to the test by the latter’s drug addiction.

As was the case in Van Groeningen’s previous films, friendship, family, destiny and acceptance will lie at the heart of this story, with the unspoiled natural beauty of the Italian Alps serving as the backdrop. The director will hook up once again with his regular DoP, Ruben Impens, as well as his usual editor, Nico Leunen.

The Eight Mountains will be produced by Wildside Productions (Italy), Menuetto (Belgium), Rufus (Belgiym), Pyramide (France) and Elastic Film (UK).

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(Translated from French)

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