Les interdits (Friends From France)
Written and directed by Philippe Kotlarski and Anne Weil.
Soko's character: Carol Brickerman
Released: 27 Nov. 2013 (France)
Length: 101 minutes
Genre: Historical drama
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
LES INTERDITS (which translates as "the prohibited") is set in 1982 when two cousins, Jerome Berkowicz (Jérémie Lippmann) and Carol Brikerman (Soko), travel to Leningrad to make clandestine contact with Soviet Jews (the "refuseniks") who face persecution, and have a range of encounters that will mark them for life.
The film was shot at locations in Germany, Russia and Israel, and is a co-production between Les Films du Poisson, Vandertastic and the St. Petersburg-based production house, Rock Films. It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Soko had to learn to smoke for the part. She tweeted on 21 October 2012: "Today's shooting misadventure: As I lit my fake cigarette, the tip caught fire and the flame was so big that it burnt my eyebrow.. #nonsmokerproblem! I now smell like grille chicken mixed with eucalyptus smoke smell.. Yuk"
The Polish version of Les Interdits, called Druzya iz Francii is nine minutes longer than the French version.
Russian-born Israeli actor Ania Bukstein plays Vera in the film. She stars as Natasha in Maayan Rypp's film THE OTHER WIDOW.
TRAILER
Les Interdits is available on DVD (Zone 2).
CAST
- Soko - Carole
- Jérémie Lippmann - Jérôme
- Vladimir Fridman - Viktor
- Ania Bukstein - Vera
- Martin Nissen - Léon
- Alexandre Chacon - David
- Artyom Tkachenko - Anton
- Yekaterina Medvedeva - Anna Brailowski
- Igor Ovadis - M. Dutkin
- Alexander Senderovich - Nathan Brailowski
- Marina Tomé - Mme Cordelier
- Arnaud Duléry - M. Cordelier
- Brigitte Roüan - Jérôme's mother
- Ariel Braunstein - Antoine
- Leo Rupin - Lazar
- Victor Kraslavskiy - L'ami de Viktor
- Waldemar Hooge - Officier des douanes
- Yanina Lisovskaya - Officier des douanes
- Albina Heinrich - Dièjournaia
- Marianna Bocharnikova - Guide (day 1)
- Natalia Borzdun - Guide (day 2)
- Anya Shulkina - Guide (day 3)
TRIO SCHO'S MUSICIANS - Valerij Pysarenko and Velery Khorychman
KGB AGENTS - Valeriy Ostapenko - Nikolay Bych - Dmitry Brauer - Nikolaï Tagner - Sergiy Skumsky - Andreas Manz - Sören Schulz - Samwel Barsegjan - Suchy Kai
THEATRE KAARDAK CLOWNS - Jelena Bolsuna and Stanislav Bogdano
TOURISTS - Marie-Hélène Behr - Nicole Tramm-Monteran - Harina Walter-Paufler - Volker Siegmund - Françoise Jardine - Andree Kosorukow - Mario Martin - Karla Schäfer-Lassus - Rohan Hanet - Marc Le Layec - Isabelle Prévost - Françoise Tempel - Bernard Lassus - Britta Schiller - Monika Schöbel