Montreal: Luc Déry has dreams of Cannes. The producer and principal at micro_scope is overseeing the finishing touches on Congorama, his second collaboration with local director Philippe Falardeau, and hopes the $5-million feature will find a place at the famed festival in 2007.

‘We are tremendously excited about this,’ he says.

The picture wrapped in Belgium in November. Since then, Falardeau has been busy in the editing suite, putting together a rough cut.

Congrorama is a copro with Belgium and France and is the second feature from Falardeau, whose first, the faux-doc-within-a-film black comedy La Moitié gauche du frigo (The Left-hand Side of the Fridge), proved a hit with international festival audiences and critics alike in 2000.

It tells the story of the unusual friendship that evolves between a Quebecois (Paul Ahmarani, the lead from La Moitié) and a Belgian (Olivier Gourmet). It is ‘both complex and intricate, artsy but accessible, and serious but playful,’ says Déry, much like the Genie-winning La Moitié. And that, he hopes, makes it a perfect fit for Cannes.

Congorama shot over eight weeks in Quebec last summer, and another four in Belgium in October and November.

The picture has cross-continental appeal. Falardeau’s follow-up to La Moitié is eagerly anticipated at home, while Gourmet, the star of many of the films of the renowned filmmaking team of the Dardenne Brothers (L’Enfant, Rosetta), has considerable box-office clout in Europe.

‘This has proven an amazing collaboration,’ says Déry. ‘We had done La Moitié together, so doing a second feature together seemed natural for Philippe and I. He really is a tremendous talent and that is reflected in Congorama.’