Alexandre Gavras • Producer of Bab El Sahra

“The films we’ve produced are about topics we’re not used to seeing, that are a bit out of the ordinary”

23/10/2024 – Cineuropa met with the producer from KG Productions, who discussed Salim Brahimi’s project and the company’s other current endeavours

Created in 1973 and led by Michèle Ray Gavras, Costa-Gavras and their son Alexandre Gavras, the Paris production company KG Productions is present at the 46th Cinemed – Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival where it is pitching the project Bab El Sahra by Salem Brahimi for the development aid fund of the Cinemed Meetings (read the report).

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Cineuropa: KG Productions had produced Let Them Come [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Salem Brahimi’s debut feature (unveiled at Toronto Contemporary World Cinema in 2015). What appealed to you in his new project Bab El Sahra?
Alexandre Gavras: The topic and its treatment. It’s a contemporary western about globalisation, High Noon in the South of Algeria around a lithium mine which is a joint-venture between what we imagine to be an Elon Musk and the Algerian government. On top of that are Chinese builders. A real melting pot in the desert, with also a lot of migrants passing through since we are close to the Libyan border. It’s the story of a policeman who investigates and is confronted with a strike by Chinese workers as well as sabotage attempts on the factory by an Islamist group for extortion, and whose brother comes back home after having supposedly been in Spain to pick tomatoes. It is therefore at once a western, and a thriller.

For now, Salem Brahimi is working on the first draft of the script with Virginie Wagon as consultant, because there are several levels to balance properly. We’re hoping to shoot in 2026. Belgian outfit Stenola Productions, with whom I work often since together we’ve made The Restless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Joachim Lafosse and The Successor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Legrand
film profile] by Xavier Legrand, and with whom we just started shooting L’île de la demoiselle by Micha Wald (read the news), are already partners on the project. Since we don’t think we can shoot Bab El Sahra in Algeria, even though the Algerian government is currently trying to bring back film shoots, we’re thinking of shooting in Tunisia or Jordan.

How does this project fit into KG Productions’ editorial line?
I don’t know if we have an editorial line. Maybe at the end of my life, I’ll look back on all the films we’ve produced and I’ll discover the thread that links them all together. What I can say is that they are films I like, by people with whom I want to work and about topics that we’re not used to seeing, that are a bit out of the ordinary.

How do you plan co-productions?
Beyond our work with Stenola, we were minority co-producers on Légua [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Filipa Reis, João Miller Gu…
film profile] by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra which was presented in Directors’ Fortnight in 2023, and we are going to work with the outfit Uma Pedra na Sapato (which recently produced Grand Tour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Pa…
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile] by Miguel Gomes) on Filipa’s next film, likely shooting in spring 2026. We also co-produce a little with Greece. But I don’t attend all co-production markets and I really just follow my heart and work with producer friends. KG is a small structure and co-productions require a lot of work. So I prefer to do them with people I like to work with and, most of all, with whom I like to have dinner and a drink at festivals. Co-production isn’t the heart of our work and it is complicated, so there needs to be pleasure and a spirit of trust.

What are KG Productions’ other current projects?
Last Breath [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Costa-Gavras, which was produced by my mother, had its world premiere in competition last month at San Sebastián and will be released in France next 12 February. The debut feature Une famille française by Nadir Dendoune (who had written Un tocard sur le toit du monde on which was based the film The Climb [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) is currently being financed and the shoot should take place next March-April, with Hiam Abbas, Alice Belaïdi, Rachida Brakni, Medi Sadoun and the Count of Bouderbala in the cast. Another debut feature, L’expérience impossible by Carmen Leroi, a love story that is sort of a mix of Back to the Future and Emmanuel Mouret, is in the casting stage, and that’s a co-production with young producer Léa Baggy (Sans Regret Productions) who brought the project to me. And I am once again, after Custody [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Legrand
film profile] and The Successor, working with Xavier Legrand, who is currently writing his next film.

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(Translated from French)

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