Irish co-production 'Just A Sigh' has been picked up for U.S. distribution by Distribfilms, a company designed specifically to introduce the best of independent French-language features to the U.S. market.
'Just A Sigh' marks a collaboration between French production company Rectangle Pictures and Ireland's Element Pictures, reflecting a similar collaboration in the film's lead roles - played by Gabriel Byrne and multiple award-winning French actress Emmanuelle Devos ('Sur mes lèvres', 'The Other Son').
Devos plays a forty-something French thespian who takes advantage of a dead phone battery and temporarily overdrawn credit card to throw caution to the wind and act impulsively for the day, meeting travelling professor Douglas (Byrne) on a Paris-bound train along the way.
The film is directed and penned by Frenchman Jérôme Bonnell (‘The Queen of Clubs’, ‘Waiting For Someone’), and has already screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, with an appearance at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival due this week.
‘Just a Sigh’, originally titled ‘Le temps de l’aventure’ in French, is co-produced by Belgian-based Scope Productions, with European distribution sales handled by Aldy Distribution and Le Pacte - the latter having processed the U.S. distribution deal.
Irish audiences will next see Mr. Byrne on screen as he features heavily in RTÉ’s new autumn line-up, starring in two Irish-produced shows – as Earl Harlesden in History Channel’s ‘Vikings’ and as the titular pathologist in 50’s series ‘Quirke’, an adaptation of the John Banville novels written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black.
A trailer for ‘Just A Sigh’ is available to view below.
