M ontreal-based Bunbury Films, known largely for acclaimed documentaries such as the Oscar-winning short The Lady in Number 6, is now producing a French-language feature drama.

Production began Sunday (Oct. 23) on L’Ouragan F.Y.T. (Hurricane F.Y.T.) from director Ara Ball and will continue until Dec. 1 in Montreal, according to a news release. Ball (pictured) also wrote the film, with Tania Duguay Castilloux.

Bunbury founder Frederic Bohbot and Kacim Steets Azouz are producing the project, with the financial participation of SODEC, Telefilm Canada, Quebec and federal tax credits, Radio-Canada and Bunbury Films. The executive producer is Laurent Allaire.

L’Ouragan F.Y.T. is scheduled for a 2023 release with Montreal-based Funfilm as the distributor. It’s Ball’s second feature film after When Love Digs a Hole and is inspired by his 2013 Prix Iris-nominated short film of the same name. The budget was not disclosed.

Justin Labelle stars in the story of an adolescent boy who assumes an alter ego of The Hurricane as he flees his disadvantaged neighbourhood and unstable family environment.

The cast also includes Nico Racicot, Larissa Corriveau, Joanie Guérin, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Gabrielle B. Thuot, David Giguère, Margot Blondin, Émile Schneider and Patrice Dubois.

The Malcolm Clarke-directed The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life won an Academy Award for best documentary short in 2014. Bunbury Films’ other fiction titles include Boost.

Photo credit: Don Robitaille