COMPETITION

Six pieds sur Terre

Karim Bensalah
2023 - France / Algeria - 1h36

Sofiane, the son of a former Algerian diplomat, has travelled a lot. Having moved to Lyon for his studies, he is the victim of an administrative decision and lives under constant threat of deportation. In the hope of regularising his situation, he agrees to work for a Muslim funeral parlour. Between parties, encounters and his job, Sofiane finds himself on a journey of initiation that will lead him to build his own identity and gradually move towards adulthood.

Born in Algiers to an Algerian father and a Brazilian mother, Karim Bensalah moved to Paris at the age of 18 to study literature, philosophy and social sciences, after growing up in Haiti and Senegal. Questions of the construction of identity are naturally at the core of his work. He then entered the London Film School, where he directed Constant Flow. Back in Paris, he worked as a director, scriptwriter and actor. His short films, Le secret de Fatima, Racine(s) and Les Heures blanches, were screened and won prizes at a number of festivals, including Premiers Plans. For a period he joined the Tribudom Collective, which works with teenagers in working-class neighbourhoods in Paris and its suburbs, where he made several short films, including Chantier(s). At the same time, he was selected by Sundance Screenwriters and Director's Lab to develop his first feature film. A screenwriter and consultant on other projects, Karim Bensalah has also been working in image education for over fifteen years, in France and Brazil. Six pieds sur terre is his first feature film, the script of which was read at the Festival in 2022.

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Hamza Meziani, Kader Affak, Souad Arsane, Mostefa Djadjam, Magdalena Laubish, Abbez Zahmani, Karina Testa
Screenplay : Karim Bensalah, Jamal Belmahi
Cinematography : Pierre-Hubert Martin
Editing : Bénédicte Cazauran
Music : Adrien Casalis

Production : Tact Production

French distributor : Jour2fête