After two months of filming in the Parc aux Lièvres neighbourhood in Évry-Courcouronnes, in the outlying Paris suburbs, in a housing project chosen by the director for its airs of “fortified castle” and its atmosphere “rather timeless within a very contemporary environment,” Romain Gavras’ Athena [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Romain Gavras
scheda film] is now in post-production.

The cast of this 3rd feature from the director of Our Day Will Come [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (2010) and The World Is Yours [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Romain Gavras
scheda film] (Directors’ Fortnight 2018) includes rising star Dali Benssalah (a revelation in the series Savages [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Souheila Yacoub
scheda series], appreciated recently in Cannes in La Traviata, My Brothers and I [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], currently in cinemas in No Time To Die [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] and next year in The Line [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ursula Meier
scheda film] and Tropic of Violence [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]), the now well-known Anthony Bajon (winner of the Best Actor award in Berlin in 2018 for The Prayer [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Cédric Kahn
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intervista: Stéphane Brizé
scheda film] and currently in cinemas in The Third War [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Giovanni Aloi
scheda film]), Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti (winner of the 2020 César for Most Promising Actor for his role in Les misérables [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ladj Ly
scheda film], seen recently in San Sebastián in Undercover [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Thierry de Peretti
scheda film] and in cinemas in 2022 in L’amour selon Dalva) and Sami Slimane.

Written by Roman Gavras, Ladj Ly (nominated for the 2020 Best Screenplay César and Lumière awards) and Elias Belkeddar (My Days of Glory [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Antoine de Bary
scheda film]), the script, whose details are kept under wraps, plunges at the heart of tensions between policemen and young people of the banlieue. 

Athena is produced by Iconoclast Films directly for Netflix, which has significantly increased its contribution to the French film industry as part of the entry into force in France since 1 July 2021 of the Smad decree that includes funding obligations for SVOD platforms (20% or 25% of their turnover in France must go towards the production of cinematic and audiovisual works that are European or of French origin  — of which at least 20% must go towards films). Some tensions remains however, as the new media chronology (which dictates the rhythm of films’ screening windows across various types of media) that was supposed to come with said reform is still in limbo (because it depends on the result of interprofessional negotiations where the interests and demands of cinemas, pay-TV broadcasters such as Canal+, free TV channels and SVOD platforms are very difficult to reconcile). 

Among its other directly-produced French films, Netflix also has Louis Leterrier’s The Takeover (the sequel to On the Other Side of the Tracks [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], released in 2012), currently in post-production and starring Omar Sy and Laurent Lafitte, and Big Bug by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The streaming platform will also launch on 24 October the comedy 8, rue de l'Humanité, created by and starring Dany Boon. It has also already greenlit the sequel to Lost Bullet [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Guillaume Pierret.