SYNOPSIS

Clara, a twenty-two year-old young woman, gets ready for the night.

Ling, a twelve year-old chinese girl, walks alone in the street.

What do they have in common? Nothing, at first sight. Although a same drama binds them.

DIRECTORS

François Pragnère 000009

François Pragnère was first inspired by the work of American directors Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man, Ghost Dog) and Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Paranoid Park).

After moving to Paris at 20, he worked as set boy for different film productions.

In April 2010, he flew to Australia where he directed Troubled Waters, his first short film, shot on the Pacific Ocean in a couple of days.

In April 2011, François Pragnère returned to Paris, where he developed a scenario imagined after meeting a refugee from Sierra Leone.

After Hell, his latest achievement featuring an African child soldier, came out in June 2012. This short film is now supported by Amnesty International.

Troubled Waters

Après l'Enfer

Thibault Prevost

Thibault_prevost

Thibault Prevost takes his influences as much in the feature films of Robert Aldrich, David Cronenberg or Gus Van Sant as in Cioran’s or Burrough’s novels.

Born in Normandy, he started studying music at « Conservatoire de Rouen ».

He plays and writes for several bands while offering his music for different short-films.

While in Paris, he completed a bachelor’s degree in Cinema & Audiovisual Media at La Sorbonne.

Alongside, he works as a screenwriter and as an assistant director for some short-films, to play his scales.

He is currently preparing a master’s degree at Paris VIII University (« Realisation & Creation »)

LING (directed with François Pragnère) and SOMNOLENTE will be his first works as a director.

PROJECT NOTE - LOUISE G. ASHER

When I was asked to write a short story about China, I didn’t know much about it. I took it as a challenge, and it made me want to do my best to write something interesting and new. The memory of a newspaper article about human trafficking and prostitution in China came to my mind. It was the perfect occasion to try to make other people feel what I felt when I read this article. But you can never really talk about some reality you don’t know personally. At least I feel that way.

So I chose to compose a double short story, or rather two short stories mirroring. The first one about Ling, a little girl born and raised in the Yunnan Mountains, in a very poor family, who falls in the hands of some human traffickers. The other about a young woman, living in a rich district of a great city, who is victim of another kind of trauma, but of the same kind of violence : she is raped by a stranger she met in a discotheque and took home.

A year after the publication of my short story in the magazine Bordel Made in China, I have my friend Thibault, who studies cinema, read it. He immediately tells me he wants to realize a movie from it, and contacts François, a friend of his who already has a great experience in the world of movie making. He accepts to help us, I meet the two guys to talk a little bit about the movie’s atmosphere, and here begins our adventure.

CHARACTERS

LING (Kunzang Emo)

CLARA (Clara Fosset)

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© François Pragnère

Y (Antoine Berry-Roger)

Abr

© Lucie Sassiat

EXTRACT FROM THE SHORT-STORY

Ce soir-là, la lune était rouge et nimbait les montagnes du Yunnan d’une aura mystique et terrible. Ce soir-là, un enfant était né. Et puis le temps passa, et jamais plus la lune ainsi n’enfanta.

Ling était née clandestine.

Elle mourrait sûrement clandestine.

Elle vivait clandestine.

...

REFERENCES

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Ling

SOUND TEASER

The whole soundtrack and the sound-design will be composed by Thibault Prevost.