The Hauts-de-France have been full of filming for a few years. A region acclaimed by the directors of films or series welcomed with open arms and sure to find here an environment and ideal shooting conditions. Regularly awarded films that contribute to the influence of the region, as was the case this week at the 75th Cannes Film Festival with the “Un Certain Regard” prize, awarded to the film The worst by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, shot in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
For his first feature film entitled Lumière Noire, Karim Bensalah chose Roubaix. A France 3 team was able to slip onto the set.
Black light tells the true story of an Algerian student threatened with expulsion who decides to work in the funeral home in the hope of being regularized. For the director, born to a Brazilian mother and an Algerian father, the multicultural identity of Roubaix has become obvious: “I lived in Algeria, Brazil, Haiti, Senegal; I am French, naturalized French, and I carry all these identities within me. And it’s not because I wear one that it necessarily rejects the others. Like this young man“.
The Roubaisians are a mix of people from different waves of immigration, of different origins, and this mix of different communities who live and cohabit together, it’s perfect.
Karim BensalahDirector of “Black Light”
The regional incentive policy (and cities) to attract film shoots also allows producers to find a good number of technicians on site. On this shoot, more than half of the team is from the North. In a few weeks, filming will continue on the Lens side, for a theatrical release scheduled for 2023.
It turns in Roubaix
Black light
By Karim Bensalah #prodinRoubaix @lesfilmsdubilboquet @tact @Pictanovo @roubaix pic.twitter.com/L4wvQ780OT— Marie Dumoulin (@DumoulinMarie) May 17, 2022
Summary: son of an ex-Algerian diplomat, Sofiane has lived his life abroad. Now a student in Lyon, he is the victim of an administrative decision and lives under the threat of expulsion. In the hope of regularizing his situation, he resolves to work temporarily for Muslim funeral directors. Lost in his identity, ill at ease, rubbing shoulders with the dead will turn out to be a bright path for him.