Award-winning film about intimacy and absolute freedom
The French director Camille Vidal-Naquet's feature debut Sauvage was first introduced during the Critics' Week at the 70th Cannes film festival in 2018, and has since been featured in the program of over thirty festivals worldwide. The film's relevance and quality is further proven by its inclusion not only at festivals specializing in LGBTQ+ cinema, but also at events that aim to introduce remarkable films from abroad (e.g. Jerusalem FF). Sauvage has already collected ten awards during its circulation including a Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award in Cannes for Félix Maritaud in the leading role and a Best Film Award at Fusion festival in Norway.
The film demonstrates a remarkable sensitivity to the detailed depiction of the searching protagonist's emotional experience, and elegantly avoids paradigmatic moralizing. It is the complex approach to the characters' psychology in terms of an analysis of the taboo issue of male prostitution that makes Sauvage an exceptional work of art worthy of utmost attention; it is simultaneously a piece which speaks to international audiences and which can compellingly illustrate one of the current forms of life in the gay community.
High potential for distribution
Sauvage was very popular with the jury as well as the audience at the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival in 2018, indicating its potential success in the upcoming distribution. According to a survey among150 visitors 20 % visitors named Sauvage as the best film of the festival and 20 % visitors responded they wanted to see it, but missed it. These reasons among many others lead us to believe that the film has a potential for wider distribution and belongs to your cinema as well!
Annotation of the film Sauvage
Léo views men as just as interchangeable as the days he struggles through. His past is unknown to us, his future uncertain. The only stable point in the twenty-two-year-old man’s life is the present, and it isn’t exactly bright: he sells his body in the streets, he has nowhere to sleep and his only escape is provided by drugs. Moreover, unlike other prostitutes, he doesn’t go with his clients to make money, but to enjoy for a few fleeting moments the intimacy and warmth of the bodies he should satisfy. But it’s as if he didn’t belong in the world of impersonal meetings, violence, and competition. That’s because it is difficult to satisfy the need for love when all inhibitions have vanished.
Camille Vidal-Naquet’s harsh debut examines a world of absolute freedom and tells the story of an individual who approaches life passively, but demands its gentle attention. This provocatively physical drama premiered in Cannes International Critics' Week and offers a blunt insight into nooks that normally remain hidden. Film is suitable for adults (18+) only.
France / 2018
99 min / DCP
French
Subtitles: English
Directors: Camille Vidal-Naquet
Writers: Camille Vidal-Naquet
Cast: Félix Maritaud, Eric Bernard, Nicolas Dibla, Phillipe Ohrel
Awards
In addition to the Special Mention awarded to the film at the 19th edition of Mezipatra, Sauvage has won numerous prestigious awards at the most famous film festivals. Let's name a few:
- Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for Félix Maritaud – Cannes Film Festival 2018 – Critics' Week
- International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award for Best International Debut Film – Jerusalem Film Festival 2018
- Best Feature Film – Oslo/Fusion Int'l Film Festival 2018
- Best Actor Award for Félix Maritaud - Iris Prize Festival, UK 2018
- Best First Film – Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur 2018
- Ocana Award For Best Lgbt Title – Seville Film Festival 2018
