Atlas Film Showcase
HAPPY LOVERS
Synopsis
Serge, a broke novelist, is facing financial pressure due to his wife’s delicate pregnancy, so he takes a job as a night receptionist at a luxurious hotel. Here, he encounters Rahman, a controversial author with a fatwa on his head. Desperate and struggling with humiliation, Serge hatches a risky plan to claim the reward by carrying out the fatwa. As he delves deeper into this madness, Serge abandons his morals and his humanity. He tries to convert to Islam, teams up with his recently released brother-in-law, and falls for a charming server. This downward spiral forces him to let go of everything he holds dear, and leads to tragic loss.
Eric Devin
Stéphane Myczkowski
Thomas Scimeca, Nadia Kounda, Aboubakr Bensaihi, Alyzée Costes, Julie Gayet, Henri Liebman, Hassan Badida, Salah Ben Salleh, Hicham Ayouch, Mohcine Besri
La Prod (Morocco)
Lamia Chraibi
lamia@laprod.ma
Moon a Deal Films (France)
Lamia Chraibi
production@moonadealfilms.fr
Manny Films (France)
Philippe Gompel
p.gompel@mannyfilms.fr
Director’s statement
Presented through the prism of black comedy, this story is about a character crushed by a social structure he cannot master. Serge is an anti-hero, weighted down by the responsibility of being a new father. He cannot get over his commercial failure as a writer. He thought of finding a simple plan but, like all simple plans, the one he constructs fails gloriously. Happy Lovers is a linear film, entertaining and comical, but it is also in the vein of subjects close to my heart that I have always tried to exorcise through my cinema. It delivers a creative and empathetic story that deconstructs a tormented human who compromises himself and loses his humanity.
Biographies
Hicham Lasri is a filmmaker of the new generation of Moroccan cinema. He turned to directing feature films in 2012 with The End, which was presented in the Acid programme at the Festival de Cannes. His other films are They Are the Dogs (2013), which had its premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival; Starve Your Dog (2015), which premiered in the Panorama section at the Berlin International Film Festival; and The Sea is Behind (2014), Headbang Lullaby (2017), and Jahilya (2018), all of which were selected for the Forum section at the Berlin International Film Festival. His critically acclaimed body of work is noted for its poetry, insolence, and extravagance.
Lamia Chraibi est productrice à La Prod à Casablanca et à Moon a Deal Films à Paris. Elle oeuvre pour un cinéma engagé, libre et indépendant. Elle accompagne les réalisateurs tout au long du processus créatif et a travaillé avec des cinéastes tels que Hicham Lasri (Acid, Cannes 2012), Narjiss Nejjar (Quinzaine des Cinéastes, Cannes 2004), Ismaïl Ferroukhi (Festival du film francophone d’Angoulême, 2020), Mohcine Besri (Festival International du Film de Busan, 2018), et coproduit des œuvres d’Oliver Laxe (Grand Prix, Semaine de la Critique, Cannes 2016) et de Balint Kenyeres (Festival du Film de Locarno, 2017).
€920 116
€659 665
CCM (Centre Cinématographique Marocain), National TV, - Fonds Image de la Francophonie, Institut Français du Maroc, Goethe Institut Maroc, El Gouna Film Festival, Al Akhawayn University, Michlifen Resort, Hyatt Regency, Volkswagen
May—June 2023, Casablanca, Ifran (Morocco)
2024
Picture locked
