Sentinelle Sud

South Sentinel

by Mathieu Gérault

After an ambush that decimated his unit, the soldier Christian Lafayette is back in France from Afghanistan.
While he trying to resume a normal life, Mounir, his comrade in arms who was injured in the ambush, involves him in an opium trafficking. The mission from which they are the only ones survived was perhaps not the one they believed. Lafayette, a foster child  and
tormented war hero, therefore seems to choose the vicious circle of violence and crime. To escape from it, the former soldier will have to make peace with his past and learn to love…

Direction's statements

«As a child I was separated from my younger siblings. With this first film I wanted to talk about fraternity and what a family is. The return of the soldier, with all its mythology, was ideal for exploring these topics. […] South Sentinel works across multiple film genres. It is a noir: there are robberies, debts, criminal temptation …But it is also a social and political chronicle, it tells of a return from the war with its difficulties. I was inspired by figures that allowed me to express the emotional research of Christian and its tragic dimension. I drew part of my inspiration from a certain American classicism, in particular Sidney Lumet, from films that follow the inner drift of a charismatic anti-hero».

 

About the director(s)

After the bachelor in Economics at the University of Rennes 1, he starts directing and writing films. His short Hautes Herbes was premiered at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and it was selected and rewarded in numerous film festivals. South Sentinel is his first feature film.
Country: France
Year: 2021
Running time: 97'
Format: DCP
Language: French
Subtitles: Italian
Genre: fiction
Screenplay: Mathieu Gérault con la collaborazione di Noé Debré e Nicolas Silhol
Cinematography: Laurent Brunet
Editing: Guerric Catala
Music: Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
With: Niels Schneider, India Hair, Denis Lavant, Sofian Khammes, Thomas Daloz, David Ayala
Produced by: Agat Films, David Coujard Coprodotto da: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma
Distribution: Lab 80 film con la partecipazione di FIC - Federazione Italiana Cineforum

Festival: Bergamo Film Meeting 40 - Competition Exhibition, First Prize
Festival international du film de Saint-Jean-de-Luz 2021 - Best male interpretation Niels Schneider & Sofian Khammes

Press materials

     

       




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