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Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz reunite at a special reception party for his movie Mickey 17 held on Sunday (January 26) in Paris.

The 38-year-old actor and the 36-year-old actress, of course, co-starred in the DC movie The Batman, and met up at the event, which he served as host.

Also in attendance were actors Elizabeth Debicki, Danny Ramirez, Lee Jung Jae, Daphne Patakia, Jeremy O’Harris, Marisa Berenson, Louis Garrel, Paul Hameline and Sang Heon Lee, models Adriana Lima and Gabbriette, singers Eric Nam, Paco Amoroso and Camelia Jordana, filmmakers Bertrand Bonello, Kim Chapiron, Romain Gavras and Zoe Wittock and producer Mohammed Al Turki.

Just a couple of days prior, Robert was in attendance at the Dior Homme fashion show during Paris Fashion Week.

The week before, Robert joined his Mickey 17 director Bong Joon Ho at a press conference for the movie in Seoul, South Korea.

The upcoming movie was...

Imagine if John Waters directed a New French Extremity film, and you would have a pretty good idea of what to expect with Sheitan (Arabic for Satan). These days, Kim Chapiron’s deranged debut escapes virtually all mention in talks about that particular era of French transgressive filmmaking, however, that omission is more due to its scarcity rather than an actual lack of memorability. Certainly no one who has witnessed this cinematic exercise in sustaining unease can say it is bland — after all, the director went out of his way to make the characters as well as the audience uncomfortable. And, without a doubt, show-stealer Vincent Cassel did not hold back as the on-screen conveyer of said disquiet.

Sheitan may not be considered part of the Extremity club, on account of its comedic and seemingly straightforward execution, but its induction wouldn’t be too out of order, either. There is...

Exclusive: Vincent Cassel has built a reputation over his 30-year career for playing bad and good guys with a menacing, violent edge from Vinz in La Haine, to ruthless gangster Jacques Mesrine, or a tough-talking mercenary in the Apple TV+ series Liaison.

It is a surprise then to discover the French star in the role of the Greek mythology figure of Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, reimagined as a gentlemanly taxi driver, with charmingly accented but grammatically perfect English in The Opera!, which world premieres in the Rome Film Festival on Friday evening.

Based loosely on tragic love story Orpheus and Eurydice, Davide Livermore and creative director Paolo Gep Cucco’s original telling of the ancient legend mixes opera arias from Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart, Vivaldi, Boito and Gluck with pop classics such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “The Power of Love.”

Cassel tops a cast also featuring Caterina Murino,...

Logical Pictures is launching a new Africa venture that will see the production, financing and distribution outfit expand its global footprint into the fast-growing African market.

According to the group’s head, Frédéric Fiore, the move will help position Logical Pictures as the preferred financing partner on the continent for the international industry and the leading production company of African content with global ambitions.

“Logical Pictures has now established in Europe a uniquely positioned group that can finance, distribute and produce content internationally with outstanding talents,” said Fiore. “With Logical Pictures Africa, we want to emulate a similar ecosystem in one of the most creative places in the world, dovetailing our approach to the specificities of each part of the world.”

Launched in 2016, the Logical Pictures Group has become a leading player in film and TV equity, producing, financing and distributing a range of content in France and internationally through...

Pape Boye’s Black Mic Mac, a recently launched banner championing African and Middle Eastern talent, is kicking off a strong first roster of projects including “Let the Earth Burn” from Sundance-prizewinning Sofia Alaoui and “The Bridge” creator Måns Mårlind.

“Let the Earth Burn” is a six-part series following Kenza, a recent graduate of the police academy working in a remote station nestled in the Atlas Mountains. Surrounded by misogynistic colleagues, she starts investigating on the disappearance of some shepherds’ children.

Alaoui’s credits include “So What if the Goats Die,” which won best short film at Cannes and Sundance in 2021, and “Animalia,” which won the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance. Mårlind is one Europe’s best-known series’ creator with credits including “Midnight Sun” and “The Bridge” and “Shadowplay.” The film is produced by Barney Prods. and co-produced by Black Mic Mac. Other projects on the outfit...

Other titles include Dea Kulumbegashvili’s new film and ’Like A Son’ starring Vincent Lindon.

Goodfellas, the Paris-based sales company formerly known as Wild Bunch International, has unveiled a lively slate of titles ahead of Cannes, including starry period drama The Flood, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Those Who Find Me, French social drama Like A Son, prison drama Inside, football documentary Napoli 1990, Napoli 2023 and Spanish thriller When The Party’s Over, along with several titles in Cannes’ Official Selection.

The Flood is the second feature from Italian director Gianluca Jodice following The Bad Poet and stars Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet as...

More than 300 leading figures from the French film and TV world have gotten behind a petition decrying controversial pension reforms spearheaded by the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

French stars Juliette Binoche, Audrey Fleurot, Camille Cottin, Swann Arlaud, Jeanne Balibar, Bérenice Béjo, Laure Calamy, Camille Cottin, Pierre Deladonchamps and Noémie Merlant; directors Michel Hazanavicius, Alice Diop, Kim Chapiron, Maimouna Doucouré, Robert Guédiguian and Alain Guiraudie, as well as producer Saïd Ben Saïd were among the signatories.

“It is high time to make our voices heard, because cinema, theater, culture, even if they sometimes offer dreams and a means of escape, above all speak of our world,” read an open letter to Macron accompanying the petition.

The petition was launched under the banner of the Cinema Entertainment Collective on the Liberation newspaper website on Thursday afternoon, as a national strike brought public services to a standstill and saw outbreaks of violence...

Exclusive: Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled the bulk of its French slate for the first half of 2023 as it gears up for the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris, running January 10-17.

New titles on the slate include Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Marseille gangland-set fantasy Salem about a former gang member who believes his daughter is the only one who can save his community from an apocalyptic curse uttered by a rival gang member in his dying breath.

Salem is Marlin’s second feature after the gritty romance Shéhérazade. That drama, also set against the backdrop of Marseille

, debuted in Cannes in 2018 and went on to win best first film in France’s 2019 César awards as well as most promising actress and actor for its big screen debutants Kenza Fortas and Dylan Robert.

The new film, which is currently in post-production, is co-produced by Bruno Nahon’s Unité and Vatos Locos Productions,...

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French filmmaker Romain Gavras is best known to the screen-watching world thanks to his arresting and visually ambitious music videos, which have included Jamie xx’s “Gosh,” Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild” and M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls,” among various others. But that could change when his third feature film, Athena, releases on Netflix on Sept. 23 after its world premiere this week in Venice.

The film arrives as if the perfect vehicle for Gavras background and ambitions. The youngest son of Oscar-winning Greek director, Costa-Gavras, and French political journalist and film producer, Michèle Ray-Gavras, Romain Gavras grew up steeped in the Greek classics and politically informed art and activism. In 1995, he co-founded the film collective Kourtrajmé with his childhood friends Kim Chapiron and Ladj Ly (director of the Oscar-nominated Les Misérables), and his second feature, The World Is Yours, debuted to...

After the edgy crime comedy “The World Is Yours,” Romain Gavras is back with thriller “Athena.” Produced by Paris-based Iconoclast for Netflix, the ambitious, €15 million film (15 million) unfolds in the aftermath of the tragic killing of a young boy in what appears to be an act of police brutality. An all-out war sparks in an imaginary community called Athena. It’s the first French movie that Netflix is presenting in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

“Athena” tells the story of the boy’s three siblings, who are responding to the tragedy in different ways and clashing with one another. French star Dali Benssalah plays the older brother, Abdel, a devoted French soldier. Faced with an impossible moral dilemma, Abdel is called back from the frontline to help diffuse the all-out war that has been sparked by his younger brother Karim (Sami Slimane), who wants revenge. Athena becomes the backdrop...

First production is South African director Sibs Shongwe-La Mer’s previously announced second feature film Halo Daze.

International sales and production veteran Pape Boye is teaming up with growing French audiovisual and technology company Logical Pictures Group on his fledgling Paris-based African film and TV content-focused outfit Black Mic Mac.

Boye, who was previously co-head of French sales company Versatile, has been building the new company under the radar for more than a year and is now stepping up its activity with this new partnership, which will see it join the Logical Pictures Group.

Based in Paris, Black Mic Mac will focus on packaging,...

Company enjoyed A-list festival success in 2021 with Cannes and Venice winners Titane and Happening.

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled an eclectic French-language slate for 2022 featuring new films from Louis Garrel, Kim Chapiron, Alice Diop, Léa Mysius and Rebecca Zlotowski as well as directorial duo Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern.

The company is launching sales on the new French titles at the Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema, which is scheduled to run as an in-person event in Paris from January 11 to 17.

Wild Bunch enjoyed a high-profile festival run for its 2021 slate which saw Titane win the Palme d’Or in...

Benjamin Elalouf’s Moonshaker, the Paris-based banner behind Netfix’s popular documentary “Lords of Scam,” has joined forces with TF1-owned Newen to expand its scope, and is developing Noé Debré’s “The Last of the Jews,” among other director-driven projects.

“The Last of the Jews” will mark the anticipated feature debut of Debré, the critically acclaimed co-screenwriter of “A Prophet” and “Stillwater,” whose latest short film “On n’est pas des animaux” — also produced by Moonshaker — competed at this year’s Sundance.

A burlesque bittersweet comedy, “The Last of the Jews” will be headlined by a strong French cast including Agnes Jaoui and Michael Zindel.

Set to start shooting in March, the movie takes place in an underprivileged suburb on the outskirts of Paris and revolves around a 27-year-old Jewish man, Bellisha, who lives with his mother, Giselle. The suburb has seen the synagogue shut down, and now the...

Exclusive: WME has signed actor Lucas Bravo, who can currently be seen starring opposite Lily Collins in the new Netflix series Emily In Paris from Sex In The City and Younger creator Darren Star.

The show follows Collins’ character Emily who moves from the Midwest to Paris for an unexpected job opportunity. Bravo plays chef Gabriel, Emily’s neighbor and love interest.

In addition, Bravo is in production on the Anthony Fabian-directed drama, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, alongside Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, and Jason Isaacs. It tells the story of a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London who falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress and decides that she must have one of her own

Other credits include French thriller, L’Equipe, and Kim Chapiron’s Smart Ass.

Bravo continues to be repped by Definition Entertainment.

We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2019, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2020. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 40 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year (and beyond) that either have confirmed 2019 release dates or are awaiting a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful of films seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months, which can be seen here.

Les Misérables (Ladj Ly; Jan. 10)

Les Misérables is–incredibly, it should be said–the first feature of Ladj Ly, a 39-year-old Saint Denis native and a product of Kourtrajmé, a short film collective that was set up by Romain Gavrais and Kim Chapiron in 1994. (Gavrais’ artistic fingerprints can be seen all over Ly’s fascination with football jerseys and male tribalism.

France’s Oscar® Entry for Best International Feature ‘Les Miserables’ 2019Les Miserables directed by Ladj Ly is not based on Victor Hugo’s classic story, but it’s set in the same region in France and has the spirit of the original. Ly originally directed an acclaimed short in 2017 of the same name that set the stage for this larger feature focused on police brutality and crime. This is a powerful, powerful film coming from the inner city of Paris.

Les Misérables, French director Ladj Ly’s debut film, was inspired by his original short. It was the joint winner of the Jury Prize at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival

Les Misérables depicts life in the gritty Paris suburb of La Cité des Bosquets. It is a powder keg ready to ignite, with tensions running high between the immigrant community and the authorities.

Director Ly, who grew up...

The new film Les Misérables may take only passing glances to Victor Hugo’s text but it does boast a synopsis worthy of the sheer exuberance of that title. Hugo wrote his classic novel in the early-to-mid 19th century, but this film couldn’t be more wired-in to contemporary Paris if it tried. In it, we see the fuse of gang warfare lit when a young man, named Issa (Issa Perica), steals a lion cub from a traveling circus. Issa is a black kid in Saint-Denis, a buzzing multi-cultural suburb in the north of the French capital. The circus owners are Gypsy travelers. The most seemingly reasonable community leader is an ex-con turned Muslim Brotherhood sage named Salah (Almamy Kanoute), who runs the local kebab shop. The unofficial mayor of the block (Steve Tientcheu) wears not a shirt and tie but a jersey of the French national team with “Le Maire” on the back.

Amazon Studios on Friday acquired U.S. rights to writer and director Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables,” following the film’s world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

“Les Misérables” is Ly’s first feature and the only debut in the competition section at the festival. The film premiered Wednesday evening to great fanfare. An individual with knowledge of the deal said it was likely around $1.5 million.

Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, and Ly’s César-nominated short film of the same name, “Les Misérables” takes a provocative look into the tensions between neighborhood residents and police. It centers on Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), who has recently joined the anti-crime brigade in Montfermeil, the Paris suburb where Victor Hugo set his classic novel Les Misérables. Alongside his new colleagues Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga) — both experienced members of the team — he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs. When...

Cannes buzz movie Les Misérables has sold to Amazon Studios in one of the biggest domestic deals ever for a French-language movie.

Writer-director Ladj Ly’s feature debut received strong notices here after launching on the Croisette. It’s in the vein of Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine and Fernando Meirelles’ City Of God and is the only debut in the Official Competition. The deal is understood to be between $1-2M.

Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, and Ly’s César-nominated short film of the same name, Les Misérables takes a provocative look into the tensions between neighborhood residents and police. It centers on Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), who has recently joined the anti-crime brigade in Montfermeil, the Paris suburb where Victor Hugo set his classic novel Les Misérables. Alongside his new colleagues Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga) — both experienced members of the team — he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs.

Whenever a first-time feature director makes it into the Cannes Film Festival Competition it’s worth taking notice. Only a small handful have achieved the honor in recent years, and one, László Nemes back in 2015, took his Son of Saul all the way from the Croisette to the Foreign Language Film Oscar. This year, Ladj Ly has the distinction of being the sole debutant with Les Misérables, not adapted from, but echoing some of the strife of Victor Hugo’s classic 1862 novel of the same name, and set in today’s Paris.

Ly is a French actor and documentary filmmaker who hails from the Parisian suburb of Montfermeil, which inspired the setting of the Hugo novel. To give a hint at expectations for Ly’s film, Vincent Maraval, the co-founder of Wild Bunch, describes Ly’s talent thus: “Ladj is a ray of sunshine in a peevish cinematographic landscape. He’s the new boss,...

Exclusive: Here’s first English-language footage for buzzed-about Cannes Competition film Les Misérables by writer-director Ladj Ly, who has just signed with CAA.

Ly, who is also a Deadline One to Watch this year, makes his feature debut with the movie that’s in the vein of Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine and Fernando Meirelles’ City Of God. In a rare turn for a first-timer, Les Misérables is in Competition at Cannes and is the only debut in the section.

Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, and Ly’s César-nominated short film of the same name, Les Misérables takes a provocative look into the tensions between neighborhood residents and police. It centers on Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), who has recently joined the anti-crime brigade in Montfermeil, the Paris suburb where Victor Hugo set his classic novel Les Misérables. Alongside his new colleagues Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga) — both experienced members...

Exclusive: Les Misérables writer/director Ladj Ly has signed with CAA. Ly, who is also a Deadline One to Watch this year, makes his feature debut with the movie that’s in the vein of Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine and Fernando Meirelles’ City Of God. In a rare turn for a first-timer, Les Misérables is in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival and is the only debut in the section.

Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, and Ly’s César-nominated short film of the same name, Les Misérables takes a provocative look into the tensions between neighborhood residents and police. It centers on Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), who has recently joined the anti-crime brigade in Montfermeil, the Paris suburb where Victor Hugo set his classic novel Les Misérables. Alongside his new colleagues Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga) — both experienced members of the team — he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs.

Slate also includes Cannes hopefuls Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s The Truth and Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole.

Wild Bunch has boarded sales on zeitgeisty drama Les Misérables, the directorial debut of filmmaker Ladj Ly, a long-time collaborator of French street artist Jr, whose work focuses on the tough eastern suburbs of Paris where he grew up.

Inspired by the 2005 riots in the notorious Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil suburbs east of Paris, Les Misérables revolves around three members of an anti-crime brigade who are overrun while trying to make an arrest.

“It’s a challenging, exciting title for us,...

This last half-decade, few French screenwriters have run up such an illustrious list of co-write credits as Noé Debré. Thomas Bedigain’s writing partner on Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Deephan,” Debra co-penned Bedigain’s own debut, “The Cowboys,” “Racer and the Jailbird,” by Michael Roskam, and “Le Brio,” directed by Yvan Attal. He has now made his directorial debut, “The Seventh Continent.” Few films in MyFrenchFilmFestival, which launched yesterday.

In it, Emile, a rotund-girthed private investigator is asked by Thybaud to find his girlfriend Claire Soares, who has been abducted by billionaire John Rapoport, or so Thybaud says. The first person Emile down his local club says she knows Rapport very well – he comes to cry on her shoulder every night; the second announces he’s going to a party at Claire’s place, just nearby. But Emile really shouldn’t take Mdma, when he’s on the job.

Tiff’s Midnight Madness program turned 25 this year, and for two and half decades, the hardworking programers have gathered some of the strangest, most terrifying, wild, intriguing and downright entertaining films from around the world. From dark comedies to Japanese gore-fests and indie horror gems, the Midnight Madness program hasn’t lost its edge as one the leading showcases of genre cinema. In its 25-year history, Midnight Madness has introduced adventurous late-night moviegoers to such cult faves as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. But what separates Midnight Madness from, say, Montreal’s three and half week long genre festival Fantasia, is that Tiff selects only ten films to make the cut. In other words, these programmers don’t mess around. Last week I decided that I would post reviews of my personal favourite films that screened in past years. And just like the Tiff programmers,...

The prologue of Kim Chapiron's Dog Pound illustrates the drastically different crimes that three teenage boys have committed, thus landing them in the Enola Vale juvenile detention center to serve out their sentences. Butch (Adam Butcher) was charged with aggravated assault of an officer, Davis (Shane Kippel) for narcotics possession with intent to sell and Angel (Mateo Morales) for vehicle theft. The three boys are tossed into a large dormitory room with twenty or so others, presumably representing a menagerie of criminal histories. The mere presence of three new boys is a catalyst for a Darwinian realignment of the power hierarchy. The scariest and most violent will rise to the top of the heap, as the meekest cower at the bottom. At the heart of Dog Pound is the fact that most teenage boys seem hardwired to not rat each other out. The boys brutally attack each other, but nobody talks.

French director Kim Chapiron created quite a stir with his debut effort Sheitan thanks in no small part to an absolutely insane central performance by Vincent Cassel. Chapiron followed that effort with 'kids gone wrong' picture Dog Pound and it would appear he will continue his exploration of wayward youth - although in a radically different setting - with his upcoming Smart Ass (aka La Creme De La Creme). On the first day of term, the dean of their prestigious business school tells his students: "You are the elite... the crème de la crème. Soon the rules of a market economy will no longer be a mystery to you. Learn, work and apply." Kelly, Dan and Louis take him at his word. Starting from the...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Because, looking forward, 2013 promises to be such a fruitful cornucopia of cinema, we were excited to be able to easily list an additional 100 titles we are eagerly looking forward to catching in the new year. From these 200-101 titles, we’re happy to list several projects featuring the extremely busy Isabelle Huppert, include two English language projects, Ned Benson’s split film project The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby His/Hers and the Niels Arden Oplev film, Dead Man Down (and don’t forget her French projects, a starring turn in Serge Bozon’s followup, Tip Top as well as Guillaume Nicloux’s The Religious).

Additionally, the horror genre should be extremely noteworthy in the coming year, with new projects from Neil Marshall (The Descent), Alexandre Aja (High Tension), Fabrice Du Welz (Calvaire), Lucky McKee (May) and directing team Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury (Inside). We’ve got two Australian beauties playing...

Sagnier had acted since infancy and was touted as 'the new Bardot'. Yet nine years ago, when her big moment came, she shunned it. The French actor talks about staying grounded, her latest film Love Crime – and why she's now finally ready for her breakthrough movie

It is a chill December day when I meet Ludivine Sagnier at her local cafe, in a grungy neck of eastern Paris. No press minders or lavish hotel suite for Ms Sagnier. I'm sitting inside, fretting that I must have the wrong venue, when I spot her through the greasy window. She has her wool hat pulled low; she's sucking on a cigarette, stamping her feet to keep warm. She might be an office worker on lunch break or a student idling between lectures. Sometimes the lack of a statement can be the most eloquent statement of all.

Nearly a decade ago, Sagnier arrived at a crossroads.

Our Day Will Come is released on Blu-ray from Monday 22nd August and we have three copies of the Blu-ray to give away to our readers. Read on to find out how;

The directorial debut of Romain Gavras, best known for his controversial Music videos for M.I.A (Born Free) and Justice (Stress), Our Day Will Come is a bold and savagely humorous outsider epic, telling the story of Patrick (Vincent Cassel) and Remy (Olivier Barthelemy) a pair of outcasts joined together by their dislike of society and their own red hair.

Patrick is a charismatic but cynical therapist, long bored with listening to the banalities of his clients’ problems, he is desperate for any situation he can manipulate for his own amusement. A defining opportunity comes in the form of Remy, an awkward, alienated teenager, bullied by his family and ostracized by his peers who use his red hair as prime ammunition for their taunts.

French director Kim Chapiron’s second feature takes him to Canada for a remake of Scum, the famed 1970’s gritty BBC film about life in a borstal, now entitled Dog Pound.

Four law-breaking teenagers (who we are introduced to via a nifty pre-credits sequence) find themselves incarcerated in a detention centre where revenge and retribution are a daily occurrence where the guards offer little in the way of sympathy or empathy. One of the youngsters, 17 year-old Butch (Adam Butcher), remanded for a violent attack on an officer at his previous institute, struggles to curb his aggression towards the authorities and some of his fellow intimidating inmates.

A film like this really lives or dies on the believability of the cast and Chapiron has assembled an authentic-looking bunch of young actors. They all acquit themselves extremely well and the lead Butcher (in the Ray Winstone role from the original) is particularly impressive,...

To mark the release of Dog Pound on DVD and Blu-ray, 3rd January, we are giving away copies of the brutal prison drama.

Dog Pound is Scum for the 21st Century, a tough and brutal film set in a young offenders institute for teenage boys that the system doesn’t know what to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations.

Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals. They have never met before but they all soon realize that the odds are stacked against them and that their only hope for getting through their sentences is if they watch each others’ backs. But friendship will only get them so far when their endurance is stretched to the limit…

Kim Chapiron (Sheitan) directs a brutal and action-packed prison drama that takes a long...

We’ve been sent over a couple of brand new clips from Kim Chapiron’s ace juvenile prison drama Dog Pound. It has been released this very week on Blu-ray and DVD. You can read our review here: Dog Pound.

If you loved Alan Clark’s controversial prison flick Scum, then Dog Pound is for you. It really is a knock-out film with a brilliant central performance from newcomer Adam Butcher. Check out the two brand new clips below. It’s definitely worth owning either on Blu-ray or DVD.

Dog Pound is Scum for the 21st Century, a tough and brutal film set in a young offenders institute for teenage boys that thesystem doesn’t know what to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations.

Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals.

French film-maker Kim Chapiron makes an impressive volte-face with the American set Dog Pound. Ostensibly a loose remake of Alan Clark’s controversial Scum (1979), Chapiron’s stylish direction and assured narrative control allows the material to never feel like a cheap imitation.

The director relocates the drama to Nowheresville, USA (actually Montana) and focuses on the experiences of three young boys, each with their own issues and problems, and how they navigate through a tense, new world.

Prison flicks by their very nature are restricted to certain themes and issues. Not until recently with Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet did we get a new take on the genre. Here we follow the lives of three young lads as they are introduced into juvenile detention and the misery that follows. Butch, Angel and Davis are misfits taught a very harsh lesson on the inside as they struggle in various capacities.

Thrust...

Set in a young offenders' institute full of disenfranchised teenage boys, Dog Pound introduces us to Butch, Davies and Angel, new recruits in for various crimes, including drugs, assault and theft and the assault of an officer. The institution's long-term inmates have built a system based on fear and power, with Banks as the ringleader and the most powerful guy at the 'Dog Pound'.

Realising they must stick together to get by, the new-found friends find themselves watching each other's backs. Butch and Davies are subjected to Banks and his gang's violence and general mental torture. The trio join forces and manage even to out-do some of the power-crazed mob. But friendship alone won't save them...

This is an intense film that takes a look at what young offenders' institutes are like; there's scum and even bigger scum. The film inspires conflicting feelings between sympathy with its protagonists...

To mark the release of Dog Pound on DVD and Blu-ray, 3rd January, we are giving away 3 copies of the brutal prison drama.

Dog Pound is Scum for the 21st Century, a tough and brutal film set in a young offenders institute for teenage boys that the system doesn’t know what to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations.

Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals. They have never met before but they all soon realize that the odds are stacked against them and that their only hope for getting through their sentences is if they watch each others’ backs. But friendship will only get them so far when their endurance is stretched to the limit…

Kim Chapiron (Sheitan) directs a brutal and action-packed prison drama that takes a long...

Kim Chapiron’s award-winning and very tough Us re-styling of Alan Clark’s seminal film classic Scum receives its Blu-ray and DVD from 3rd January. We’ve got five copies up for grabs.

Dog Pound is Scum for the 21st Century, a tough and brutal film set in a young offenders institute for teenage boys that the system doesn’t know what to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations.

Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals. They have never met before but they all soon realize that the odds are stacked against them and that their only hope for getting through their sentences is if they watch each others’ backs. But friendship will only get them so far when their endurance is stretched to the limit…

Kim Chapiron (Sheitan) directs...

Son of famed political French filmmaker Costa-Gavras Romain Gavras’ debut Our Day Will Come has been screened at the Toronto Film Festival to mostly positive reviews, with one critic suggesting that Gavras has “created something in the realm of a French Fight Club”.

The film stars Vincent Cassel and Olivier Barthelemy as two redheads who embark on a road trip from France to Ireland to escape all the ginger-related prejudice they’ve faced throughout their lives.

Gavras is a well known provocateur and this film sounds similar in theme to the promo he made for M.I.A earlier this year, a twisted “ginger genocide” narrative which managed to get banned from YouTube. His video for the Justice track Stress is equally controversial, but it’s also incredibly raw and powerful, suggesting Gavras might be following in his Dad’s footsteps.

Gavras, Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz (who directed the actor...

Year: 2010

Director: Kim Chapiron

Writers: Kim Chapiron, Jeremie Delon

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: Marina Antunes

Rating: 7 out of 10

It’s always quiet ones you have to look out for. At least that’s the case in Kim Chapiron’s Dog Pound.

Taking place at a youth correctional facility in Montana, Chapiron’s film opens with an introduction to three soon-to-be new arrivals at the Enola Vale Youth Correctional Center. We meet Angel, a 15 years old thief, Davis, a 16 year old drug dealer and Butch, at 17, the most soft spoken yet violent of the bunch. The rules at Enola Vale are laid out early on: stay out of trouble and stick to the rehabilitation program and chances are you’ll limit your stay. Not an easy thing for the three newcomers whose arrival immediately pegs them as fresh meat for picking.

Butch takes some of the abuse (though not...

Kim Chapiron's unrevealing account of three teenagers having terrible times in a youth correctional centre in Montana is a Franco-Canadian remake of Scum, a TV play about the violent, dead-end absurdities of borstal life, directed by the gifted British realist Alan Clarke from a script by Ray Minton and famously withdrawn by a shocked BBC and remade as a low-budget picture. The film lacks the narrative clarity and moral complexity of Clarke's film and ends up clamorous, dislocated and pointless.

DramaPhilip French

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This account of life in an American juvenile detention centre may not be particularly original, but it's tough and well put together, writes Xan Brooks

Here is a tense, tautly wound penal drama, a kind of pocket A Prophet that charts the mis-education of three young tearaways at the Enola Vale correctional centre in Montana. Perhaps this tells us nothing new about life on the inside in the Us (there are rapes, riots and suicides), but it at least handles its brief with pace and precision. Director Kim Chapiron lines up his cast and lets them go, rattling through the yards and corridors where danger lurks at every turn. Angel (Mateo Morales) is a fallen innocent, Davis (Shane Kippel) a tattooed Oedipus and Butch (Adam Butcher) a lanky, charismatic hothead. All Butch has to do, he is told, is make it through two weeks without blotting his copybook; without manhandling a guard,...

Dog Pound is essentially an American re-tooling of Alan Clarke’s seminal television drama-turned-film Scum. Director Kim Chapiron relocates the drama to Nowheresville, USA (actually Montana) and focuses on the experiences of three young boys, each with their own issues and problems, and how they navigate through a tense, new world.

Thrust into the fresh hell of a correctional facility for teenagers, the newbies are met with stern authority and even sterner inmates, naturally leading to confrontation and power struggles.

The prison drama by its very nature is a restrictive genre and can only do so much, but they are rich with subtext and stereotypes to be dissected. Everybody’s favourite remains The Shawshank Redemption, but that romanticised the world of incarceration and the institutionalisation of the individual. Inmates aren’t re-invented by the state, they’re remade – and it can go in either direction.

Thanks to its well-drawn characters...

Dog Pound is just one in a long line of prison flicks that owes a debt to the fierce political savvy of Alan Clarke

Ah, what joy it is to settle back into the plush comfort of a cinema seat and breathe the heady scent of stale sweat, slop buckets and fear. That's assuming, of course, that you enjoy the prison movie, that enduring sub-genre which offers audiences the chance to experience stories of Darwinian survivals of the fittest while generally remaining free of the risk of being shanked on their way to the laundry room.

For the connoisseur of the form, the latest entry is Dog Pound, to be released in the lazy last days of the summer schedule. Director Kim Chapiron's blistering tale of three ordinary(ish) American teens in juvenile detention is, however, anything but wilted. A semi-remake of the late Alan Clarke's borstal masterpiece Scum,...

Complete with interview snippets, behind the scenes shots and exclusive unseen clips from the film, this featurette offers a preview glimpse of what’s in store in the upcoming drama, Dog Pound.

The Enola Vale Correctional Facility. A juvenile detention centre for teenage boys that the system doesn't know what else to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations. Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals. None of them know each other but they all swiftly realise that the odds are stacked against them, and that their only hope for getting through their sentences is if they have each others' backs. But friendship will only get them so far when their endurance is stretched to the limit. Kim Chapiron (Sheitan) directs a visceral and action-packed prison drama that takes a long...

This is the trailer for Dog Pound, directed by Kim Chapiron and starring Adam Butcher, Shane Kippel, Mateo Morales, Lawrence Bayne, Bryan Murphy, Alexander Conti, Tim Turnell and Dewshane Williams. The Enola Vale Correctional Facility. A juvenile detention centre for teenage boys that the system doesn't know what else to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations. Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals. None of them know each other but they all swiftly realise that the odds are stacked against them and that their only hope for getting through their sentences is if they have each others' backs. But friendship will only get them so far when their endurance is stretched to the limit...

Following the poster which was released yesterday for the forthcoming prison drama, Dog Pound, a shiny new UK trailer has been offered up by Optimum, who will distribute the award winning film in the UK.

The trailer gives up a good indication of what to expect, and there’s evidence of some intense performances and the film’s director Kim Chapiron looks to be focusing on the central relationship between a group of inmates before things turn very nasty.

Dog Pound stars Lawrence Bayne, Shane Kippel, Mateo Morales and Adam Butcher and is out in the UK on the 27th of August.

Here’s the trailer,...

Empire have debuted a new UK poster for Dog Pound. The film, which premiered the Tribeca Film Festival, has been met with acclaim, leading to Optimum Releasing acquiring the UK distribution rights.

Synopsis: Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

Dog Pound stars Lawrence Bayne, Shane Kippel, Mateo Morales and Adam Butcher and was directed by 30-year-old Kim Chapiron, who was responsible for the 2006 horror feature, Sheitan.

The film resembles that of other prison dramas such as Hunger and A Prophet, with the emphasis this time switching to a juvenile prison, giving a astonishing look at how young people deal with the uncompromising standards of prison.

Check out the UK poster below:

Dog Pound will hit UK cinemas on August 27, 2010.

If there's one thing more likely to leave you staggering dazed from the cinema than a brutally uncompromising prison drama - Bronson, Hunger, A Prophet take a bow - it's an uncompromising juvenile prison drama, with extra levels of searing vérité provided by a cast partly made up of real-life inmates. Step forward, then, Dog Pound and its suitably bruising new quad poster.Inspired in part by Alan Clarke's '70s borstal-set Scum, Dog Pound tells the story of three young inmates at Montana's Enola Vale Youth Correctional Center. As the title implies, it's a dog-eat-dog world for drug dealer Davis (Shane Kippel), car thief Angel (Mateo Morales) and violent tearaway Butch (Adam Butcher). Each learns the hard way that lock-up isn't quite what they remember from old episodes of Porridge.Dog Pound is the handiwork of 20 year-old Parisian Kim Chapiron, whose debut, Faustian horror Sheitan, saw him bring...

We are delighted to report that two Tff 2010 films have announced distribution deals in the past week! Last week, Variety (link requires login) reported that New York-based Elephant Eye Films secured the U.S. rights for Kim Chapiron's Dog Pound, a gritty narrative feature that takes an unsentimental look at the American juvenile justice system. For his efforts, Chapiron won the Best New Narrative Filmmaker Award at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Then just today, Codeblack Entertainment acquired Thomas Ikimi's Legacy for a North American release later this year. Legacy stars both Idris Elba and Eamonn Walker in a political thriller that goes undercover with Black Ops soldiers bent on exposing drug dealers and corruption. Shadowandact.com reports that ActNow New Voices In Black Cinema Screening Series will sneak preview the movie in August. More details to come... And if that's not enough excitement, you can now watch the...