A FAMILY FOR 1640 DAYS
(LA VRAIE FAMILLE)

Thursday, October 13 – Truffaut Theatre – 5:50pm
(Screening ends at 7:30 pm)

FICTION / DRAMA

Presented in Association with:
Le Pacte
Distrib Films U.S.

US Premiere | France | 2022 | Drama | 102 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Fabien Gorgeart
Written by: Fabien Gorgeart
Produced by: Marie Dubas (Deuxième Ligne Films), Jean des Forêts & Amélie Jacquis (Petit Film)
Cinematography: Julien Hirsch
Film Editing: Damien Maestraggi
Original Score: Gabriel des Forêts
Cast: Mélanie Thierry (Anna), Lyès Salem (Driss), Félix Moati (Eddy Carniero), Gabriel Pavie (Simon), Idriss Laurentin-Khelifi (Adrien), Basile Violette (Jules), Florence Muller (Nabila), Dominique Blanc (the judge)
International Sales: Le Pacte
U.S. Distributor: Distrib Films U.S.
U.S. Release Date: TBA

Inspired by his own family history, Fabien Gorgeart‘s heartfelt, heartbreaking second feature focuses on an excruciating period of transition in one family’s life.  Anna, her husband and their two young sons are told they must gradually, definitively, hand 6-year-old Simon — the foster child they’ve raised since he was 18 months old — over to his “real” father.  Powerless before a social services system that seems to take all factors into consideration, yet remains oblivious to the powerful emotional ties that inevitably form between abandoned children and their caregivers, they have no choice but to acquiesce and allow that bond to be unceremoniously torn apart.  Mélanie Thierry, as Anna, is the very heart of the film.  Her rich, complex, finely-calibrated performance expresses all the anguish and conflicted feelings her entire family is silently contending with in this plaintive ode to mother love.

Fabien Gorgeart began his career in the theater, as an actor and assistant director. He wrote and directed five short films between 2007 and 2016, including Un homme à la mer (2009), which won a Special Mention at the Bratislava International Film Festival; and Le Sens de l’orientation (2012), which won a Special Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.  He also wrote and directed “Un Chien de ma chienne,” an episode in the TV mini-series Écrire pour… le jeu des sept familles (2013).  His first feature film, Diane Has the Right Shape, was released in 2017.  A family for 1640 days, his second feature, opened in France this past February.  The film won both the Jury Prize and a Best Actress Award for Mélanie Thierry at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival.  Thierry was also honored with the Best Performance Award at the Namur International Festival of French Film.