Les interdits (Friends From France)

Directed by: Philippe Kotlarski and Anne Weil
Screenplay: Anne Weil and Philippe Kotlarski
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 Odessa 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.

Carole Di Tosti wrote about the film for the 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival, where it screened on opening night: "Friends from France is set at the height of the Cold War in 1979 Odessa when Soviet Jews were seeking asylum in Israel and America to escape the repression under the Brezhnev regime. The writers/directors achieve a chilling simulacrum of the oppressive environment the Jewish “refuseniks” and political asylum seekers confronted. With dark shadowy shots, washed out, grainy film, and hues of grey and bleeded out color, the predominantly nighttime action and cinematography reflects the impoverished settings, indicative of the lifestyle of the refuseniks who wanted to immigrate to Israel and were treated as enemies of the state. Filmmakers went to abandoned areas of East Germany to recreate the interior apartments and ramshackle dwellings as sets for the poor and rundown areas of Odessa where refuseniks lived."

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.

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