EXCLUSIVE: Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired the international rights to the goofy, kung fu-themed action rom-com Zenithal.
Vanessa Guide stars as a woman struggling to establish peace between the sexes after her longtime boyfriend falls under the sway of a Machiavellian schemer, who murdered and harnessed the virulent powers of a famous master of kung fu, as part of a plan to restore the absolute. male dominance.
This is the first feature film by Jean-Baptiste Saurel, who has just been signed as one of the directors of the next France TV program Zorro reboot starring Jean Dujardin, with previous credits including the French sci-fi original Disney+ Parallels.
The feature film expands on his provocative 2012 walking sticks Short Film of the Critics’ Week The cock stroke (The Bifle). BFF has released a first photo hinting at one of the wacky plot twists.
First look at ‘Zénithal’
“Zenithal questions the injunctions of virility through comedy, with a visual style inherited from American comic and manga culture,” said Saurel.
“At the time of the redefinition of gender relations, I offer my own response, making fun of the seriousness with which these subjects are approached today. The intimate enemy is men’s ignorance of their own bodies and of women’s bodies and the difficulty in questioning themselves.
Vanessa Guide (30 days left, the all new adventures of Aladdin) is joined in the cast by Franc Bruneau, Cyril Guei (Full time, how i became a superhero), Xavier Lacaille (Parliament), Bruno Gouéry (Emily in Paris, The White Lotus).
The core team includes director of photography Yann Maritaud (The great success, Slalom) and stunt coordinator Samuel Kefi Abrikh (Valerian, Dunkirk, Mission: Impossible – Fallout).
“Zenithal is a unique, cathartic and necessary film, which teenagers, as well as their parents, will be able to identify with through a relaxed, benevolent and fair laugh”, the leaders and co-founders of BFF, Martin Gondre and Charles Bin.
Producers Kazak Productions are best known internationally for the 2021 Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titaniumwith other credits including Bodice And Arabic blues.
The Jokers Films will release the film in France.