Director/writer Denis Côté has started production on Vic and Flo Saw a Bear, a $3.6 million thriller.

The film is shooting in St-Antoine-sur Richelieu through Sept. 16.

The Montreal director had earlier sought a French co-producer for the project, which already received seed financing from Telefilm Canada and SODEC.

But the film will now shoot without an international co-production partner, and Romane Bohringer has replaced Valerie Donzelli in a co-starring role, alongside Pierrette Robitaille and and Marc-André Grondin.

The thriller features Robitaille as Victoria, a women on prison leave and reuniting on the outside with a woman (Bohringer) she knew behind bars.

Their lives are observed by a parole officer (Grondin), who gradually sees the two women pulled in opposite directions by their ambitions and personalities.

Vic and Flo Saw a Bear, produced by Sylvain Corbeil and Stéphanie Morissette of La Maison De Productions, is Côté’s sixth feature.

Ian Lagarde is the director of cinematography, while Colombe Raby is artistic director.

Côté’s last picture, Curling, earned two awards at the 2010 Locarno International Film Festival.