fantastic french movie of this year is "made in france"

                                    With France still reeling from two major, tragic terror attacks in 2015, it has also seen the upcoming film "Made In France" come under great scrutiny. Originally slated to be released in the country by SND Films, they dropped the thriller following the Ile-De-France attacks in January 2015. Then, four days away from release, with the now eerie poster (see below) plastered everywhere, Paris suffered another series of horrific attacks on November 13th, prompting distributor Pretty Pictures to push back the release, and eventually go VOD with the film earlier this year.

Now set to hit UK VOD outlets, a new trailer has landed for the movie by director Nicolas Boukhrief, that follows a journalist who becomes embedded in a terror group in Paris made up of seemingly ordinary Parisian youth, who then plot a vicious attack on the Champs-Elysées. 

"People say the film was prophetic but I’d rather have been wrong. I’d rather have prevented than predicted something. That’s the paradox. The events of 13 November mean there is enormous interest in the film because it stopped being fiction and became fact. As I director, I want my film to be a success, but I don’t want to profit from such terrible events," the director told The Guardian earlier this year. "I’m no visionary; the Paris attacks were only new because they happened in Paris. Even before there were attacks on Barcelona, London, Boston, 9/11, Tunis… not to mention places like Yemen, Syria and Iraq."

Watch the trailer for "Made In France" below. It hits VOD in the UK on April 18th.

The decision was made, the company said unsurprisingly, “Due to theatrical programming difficulties related to the film’s subject matter.” Beginning January 29,Made In France will have a six-week exclusive VOD window in partnership with TF1 Video; the E-Cinéma designation is for films that have not been released theatrically.

Pretty Pictures’ James Velaise says some independent cinemas did want to screen it, but not enough.”The exceptional circumstances meant we had to adapt.”

While box office in France has been healthy on fantasy and comedy fare lately, the market is nevertheless slightly depressed, execs say. For a strongly terror-themed film, it’s clearly too soon for exhibitors, and a public that is still reeling from the atrocities of the past year. In light of the events, distributors are also treading carefully. The release of Studiocanal’s Bastille Day, which stars Idris Elba as a former CIA agent trying to thwart a terrorist attack on French soil, is still being worked out in France and abroad.

Among films with sensitive themes which stuck to their dates in the past weeks was Pathé’s Les Cowboys. The Directors’ Fortnight title follows a father in search of his daughter who has converted to Islam to live with a radical. It sold 208K tickets in November. Bac’s Taj Mahal, based on the true story of an 18-year-old French woman who survived the attack on the titular Mumbai hotel during which 164 people were assassinated, sold only 29K.

Made In France helmer Boukhrief, whose credits include 2010 crime dramaGardiens De L’Ordre and 2004 thriller Le Convoyeur with Jean Dujardin, says he understands the exhibitors’ concern over his film. “I might have made the same decision if I ran a movie theater,” he told French magazine Telerama. “When you have a staff, you have to try to protect them. It’s human, especially after the Bataclan,” he said referring to the site of one of the deadly November 13 attacks. He added, “I’m not judging anyone, but this irrational fear that has taken hold is exactly what the terrorists want. It might be too early for reflection. Most people are still traumatized.”

Paris-based WTFilms has sold Made In France to several other territories including Scandinavia, China, Turkey, Israel, Greece, Korea and Brazil. I’m told release dates are pending.