French director Jean-Paul Salomé’s film LA DARONNE will be released in cinemas on March 5. Starring Isabelle Huppert (Elle, Amour) in a role that allows us to see the comic side of the actress, a side up until now little explored on screen, the film was one of the popular ones of the Cinemania Festival last fall during its presentation in its North America premiere.
Patience Portefeux is a French-Arabic judicial interpreter, specializing in wiretaps of the Stups organization. During an investigation, she discovers that one of the traffickers is none other than the son of the devoted nurse who cares for her mother. She then decides to cover it and finds herself in the middle of a huge mess; this newcomer in the middle of the deal is nicknamed by her police colleagues “La Daronne”.
LA DARONNE is the adaptation of Hannelore Cayre’s novel of the same name, which caught the attention of director Jean-Paul Salomé for its mix of comedy and thriller. The director explains that the novelist and co-writer of the film “invented the police story from what she observed as a criminal lawyer, having defended a lot of drug dealers”. It was also a favourite for the film’s lead performer, Isabelle Huppert, who immediately agreed to play this fun and atypical role and worked for several months to prepare her Arabic-language lines in particular.
