The Foreign Press x Unifrance Award, presented by a jury of international journalists, has been awarded for the third time to a French TV film selected for the 28th Festival de la Fiction de La Rochelle, which took place from September 15 to 20.
It was Au sein des autres, written by Valérie Magis and Johanne Rigoulot, directed by Vania Leturcq, produced by Cinétévé, and distributed by the RTBF, that received an award this year at the awards ceremony for the Festival de la Fiction de La Rochelle, which took place on Saturday, September 19.
Au sein des autres tells the story of Nour, a lawyer in her forties who is a go-getter with a well-ordered life, as well as Fabrice, a man in his thirties who is nonchalant and taciturn and leads a life adrift. Nour and Fabrice had never met until the day they both learned they had breast cancer. In the chemotherapy ward of a hospital in Lille, something unexpected begins to develop between them. A story of friendship, born where they thought they would lose everything.
The cast of Au sein des autres, which will air on France Télévisions, includes actors Sofia Essaidi and Yoann Zimmer.
As a reminder, this year’s jury for the Foreign Press x Unifrance Award consisted of journalists Nerea González (Agencia EFE, Spain), Nicolas Dufour (Le Temps, Switzerland), and Paola Piacenza (RCS Mediagroup, Italy).
During their deliberations, the jury members praised the quality of the TV films competing for the award (“often courageous standalone films, marked by a strong social conscience”), and stated the following about Au sein des autres: “This work struck us with the subtlety of its treatment. It tackles a serious theme with consistent originality. It takes unprecedented directions. It deals with a subject that is, at first glance, a women’s issue without exploiting it strictly from a gender perspective, and boldly succeeds in bringing this theme down to a human level. We were also struck by the actors’ spot-on performances.”
