Urban Sales Boards Cannes ACID Opening Title ‘Born Under A Bad Star’

EXCLUSIVE: Urban Sales has acquired international sales rights to working-titled Born Under A Bad Star (Mauvaise Étoile), which was announced on Tuesday as the opening film of Cannes parallel section ACID.

The debut feature from French directors Lola Cambourieu and Yann Berlier follows 24 hours in the life of a couple, exposing the dysfunction at the heart of their relationship, all of which is witnessed through the eyes of their young daughter.

Directorial duo Cambourieu and Berlier have previously won acclaim for short films The Lost Children (Les Enfants Perdus), which was Oscar-nominated, and Bachelorette Party (Enterrement de vie de jeune fille).

The pair took a distinctly intimate filmmaking approach to their latest project, shooting with a small crew and their daughter (Anouk Berlier-Cambourieu), who appeared in The Lost Children, leading the cast with Noëmie Édé-Decugis and Hugo Carton.

The film is produced by Heure d’Été, whose first foray into feature filmmaking follows a strong track record in short films, with multiple festival runs and César nominations to their name. 

“With their radical on-set writing method and unflinching intimacy, they portray domestic violence as it is truly lived: without moral judgment or easy redemption, in all its everyday banality and persistence,” said the company in a statement on the film.

“Lola Cambourieu and Yann Berlier dissect the anatomy of a toxic relationship with a precision and an exhausting intimacy that leaves no one untouched. This is the arrival of two major authors, and we are proud to stand behind them,” said Garance Targowla, Acquisition Manager at Urban Sales.

Tandem will release the film in France.