Neneh Superstar

Neneh Superstar (2023)

Born to dance, Neneh is a 12-year-old black girl who dreams of entering the Paris Opera Ballet School. Despite her enthusiasm, she will have to redouble her efforts to escape from her condition and be accepted by the director of the school, Marianne Bellage, the guarantor of traditions and the bearer of a secret that links her to the little ballerina.

Date of release
2023-01-25
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (28)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Drama, Comedy
Director
Ramzi Ben Sliman

Casting

Interesting facts

Neneh Superstar is a 2022 French comedy drama film written and directed by Ramzi Ben Sliman, starring Oumy Bruni Garrel and Maïwenn. The film made its world premiere in the main competition at the Festival du Film de Demain on 3 June 2022, and was released theatrically in France by Gaumont on 25 January 2023.

Production

Neneh Superstar was co-produced by Gaumont and France 2 Cinéma, and pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+ when the film was still in post-production. Gaumont handles both the film's distribution in France and international sales.

While preparing this film, director Ramzi Ben Sliman watched many documentaries, in particular Graines d'étoiles by Françoise Marie, which follows students of the Paris Opera Ballet over the years.

Director Ramzi Ben Sliman wrote the film for Maïwenn, who portrays the inflexible headmistress Marianne Belage, who refuses to accept Neneh into her ballet school. "I did not consider any other actress, and her film DNA confirmed my choice", Sliman said. Mehdi Kerkouche was the film's choreographer.

To find an actress to portray the role of Neneh, Sliman searched in France and in particular in the DOM-TOMs, in all the French-speaking countries, in Mali, Senegal, etc. He found girls with acting potential, but who did not dance well enough. Sliman said in the film's press kit: And then I became aware of this other glass ceiling: little black girls give up ballet very early, because they see no future for them.

Sliman and his team were not able to shoot in Nanterre, where the Paris Opera Ballet School is located, so they had to shoot the film at the École Centrale in Saclay, which has the same aesthetic. "Hence this (almost) optical illusion, for those who know Nanterre", the director explained. Filming began on 7 June 2021 and wrapped on 4 August 2021.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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