The Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelle (SODEC) has chosen 11 French-language feature-length fiction films for production assistance, with nine of the selected projects receiving a second round of financing.

The projects range from social, fantasy and psychological dramas to comedy, and animation, according to a news release. Five of the 11 films have a total budget of $3.5 million or more.

Among the higher-budget films receiving additional funding is Canadian-Swiss director Léa Pool’s Quebec majority coproduction L’habit du héros. The drama is produced by Quebec-based Lyla Films and Luxembourg’s Iris Productions. Michel Marc Bouchard is the screenwriter of the Montreal-set film, which explores the subject of the immigration of LGBTQ+ refugees through the story of a young Moroccan illegal immigrant and his Iranian lover. Les Films Opale is attached as distributor.

Director Chloé Robichaud’s comedy Deux femmes en or is a modern take on the 1970 film, which was written by Claude Fournier and Marie-Josée Raymond. Catherine Léger is the writer on the modern reinterpretation of the film, produced by VieilleAmérique. Maison 4:3 is the distributor.

Maison 4:3 is also the distributor for Bachir Bensaddek’s drama Kabul, Montreal. Caramel Films is producing the film, centred on a 15-year-old Afghan girl who escapes the country to avoid forced marriage. Marie Vien is the screenwriter.

Microclimat Films is producing writer-director Marie Brassard’s Le train. The film is set in Quebec of the 1960s and ’70s and is about a child whose meeting with a young writer opens up her world to new possibilities. The film is described as a poetic drama, and has Axia Films attached as distributor.

Rounding out the group of films is director Raymond St-Jean’s fantasy drama Nervures. The film is written by St-Jean and Martin Girard, and centres on a young woman who investigates the sudden death of her father and the mysterious incidents taking place in her village. 1976 Productions is producing, with Axia attached as the distributor.

Of the six films with a budget less than $3.5 million, four are receiving an additional funding boost.

They include writer-director Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ Quebec majority coproduction Fleur bleue, director Frédérick Pelletier’s Un homme libre, writer-director Brigitte Poupart’s Où vont les âmes?, and writer-director Alexandre Franchi’s L’autre.

Fleur bleue is produced by Quebec’s Colonelle Films, Belgium-based Goodbye Charlotte and Bulgaria-based Premier Studio. The film focuses on the story of a Bulgarian-born Canadian art curator who returns to Bulgaria to learn more about a prodigy painter and is confronted by the past that he left behind. Entract Films is the distributor.

The psychological drama Un homme libre is written by Pelletier and Simon Lavoie. It follows the story of a Quebec man whose aspirations to make more money in Alberta go awry. ACPAV is producing, with Maison 4:3 as distributor.

Poupart’s drama Où vont les âmes? centres on an 18-year-old girl whose last wish before her medically-assisted death is to see her half-sisters. Bravo Charlie is producing, and Axia Films is the distributor.

Franchi’s fantasy drama L’autre centres on a cancer patient whose battle with the illness in a hospital spirals after the arrival of his roommate, a criminal victim of a shooting. Les Films de la Mancha is producing the film, with Maison 4:3 as distributor.

Rounding out the projects are the animation Le projet Shiatsung and the drama Montréal, ma belle. Both projects are receiving preliminary funding.

Le projet Shiatsung is directed by Brigitte Archambault and Eva Cvijanovic. Archambault is adapting the screenplay from her graphic novel of the same name. It is centred on a woman whose only source of information is a screen hanging in her living room and has no idea what exists beyond the walls of her house. The film is copro between Embuscade Films and the National Film Board of Canada, which is also distributing.

Writer-director Xiaodan He’s Montréal, ma belle looks at the mid-life crisis of a Chinese immigrant couple and a secret the woman has long hidden from her husband. Camera Oscura is producing and Filmoption International is the distributor.

Image: Unsplash