Berlin 2017 opens with world premiere of DJANGO.

Rarely is an opening festival film so compelling and overwhelming that you feel as if the festival ended right there the trip to Berlin would have bern justified,

Reda Kateb as Django Reinhardt. the gypsy musician with the German sounding name, made me forget I was watching an actor playing a part but felt like I was watching the jazz legend Django himself back from the great beyond in the flesh.

France in 1943 during the German occupation. Every night, guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt delights Parisian audiences with his witty, life-affirming ‘gypsy swing’ music. Whilst many other Romany people are finding themselves the target of racist persecution and being murdered in concentration camps, Django believes himself to be safe due to his popularity – until agents of the Nazi propaganda machine demand that he goes on tour to Germany in order to counteract the influence of ‘negro music’ from the USA. Django Reinhardt refuses. One of his Parisian admirers helps him, his pregnant wife and his mother to hide out in a village close to the Swiss border; here he meets members of his large extended family who are also on the run. But when he tries to cross Lake Geneva into Switzerland with his wife and his mother, the Nazis are hot on his heels. In his directorial debut, Etienne Comar portrays an unconventional artist and free spirit whose life is as improvised as his music. Faced with the question of whether or not to allow his art to be misused for politcal purposes, he has to make a decision of vital significance.

WITH

Reda Kateb (Django Reinhardt)
Cécile de France (Louise)
Beata Palya (Naguine)
Bim Bam Merstein (Negros)
Gabriel Mirété (La Plume)
Vincent Frade (Tam Tam)
Johnny Montreuil (Joseph Reinhardt)
Raphaël Dever (Vola)
Patrick Mille (Charlie Delaunay)
Alex Brandemuhl (Hans Biber)
Ulrich Brandhoff (Hammerstein)

CREW

Director: Etienne Comar
Screenplay: Etienne Comar, Alexis Salatko
Director of Photography: Christophe Beaucarne
Editor: Monica Coleman
Music: Django Reinhardt, performed by Rosenberg Trio, Warren Ellis
Sound: Cyril Moisson, Vincent Guillon, Stéphane Thiebaut
Production Design: Olivier Radot
Costumes: Pascaline Chavanne
Make-up: Nelly Robin
Assistant Director: Luc Bricault
Casting: Stéphane Batut
Production Manager: Philippe Hagège
Producers: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier
Executive Producer: Christine de Jekel
Co-production: Arches Films, Curiosa Films, Moana Films, Pathé, France 2 Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes Cinéma

BIOGRAPHY

Etienne Comar

After graduating from the Parisian film school La Fémis, he began working at Erato Films as a production manager on films including Boris Godunov by Andrzej Zulawski and Van Gogh by Maurice Pialat. He then produced 15 feature films with Playtime and Vendôme Production before, in 2009, moving to Arches Films to work as a screenwriter and producer on titles such as Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men) by Xavier Beauvois and Mon roi (My King) by Maïwenn. Django is his first feature film as a director.

Filmography (as director)

2017 Django

PRODUCED BY

Fidélité Films
Paris, France
+33 1 55349808
contact@fidelite.fr

WORLD SALES

Pathé International
Paris, France
+33 1 71723305
sales@patheinternational.com
www.patheinternational.com