Urban Sales Joins Ricardo Alves Jr’s Thriller ‘The French Teacher’

Paris-based sales agent Urban Sales has boarded Ricardo Alves Jr.’s “The French Teacher” ahead of its world premiere at the Horizontes Latinos section of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The deal is part of a co-representation partnership with Les Valseurs Distribution, with the two companies handling a joint international sales mandate for the film.

“The French Teacher” stars Grace Passô as the titular teacher, Graça. She lives in the sprawling Minas Gerais capital of Belo Horizonte, and gives private French lessons alongside her French girlfriend. When her ageing father has a health scare, Graça returns to her childhood home in the suburbs, where a neighboring family leads a growing local religious congregation with cult-like undertones. As Graça grapples with her father’s decay, the group entraps her in a world of intolerance, with the director building a psychological thriller deeply embedded in the world of religious fanaticism.

The film is produced by Alves Jr.’s EntreFilmes alongside Les Valseurs and Karõ Filmes across Brazil, France, and Portugal. Passô stars alongside “Anatomy of a Fall” star Jehnny Beth, Bárbara Colen (“Aquarius”), Rodger Rogério (“Bacurau”) and lauded veteran Elisa Lucinda (“Por Que Você Não Chora?”). Newcomer Pedro Goifman (“Teenage Kiss: The Future is Dead”) rounds up the cast as a dangerously charismatic religious leader, Tomás. Germano Melo signs the script from an original story by the director, marking a reunion for the “All That You Could Be” creative duo.

The Urban Sales team praised the film’s “narrative strength and artistic voice.” “It is an uncompromising genre film with a conscience: heartbreaking, beautifully crafted, and impossible to forget. We are thrilled to co-represent it alongside Les Valseurs.”

Les Valseurs’s Justin Pechberty said it is “rare to see such a fluid three-way co-production, bringing together equal talent from Brazil, France, and Portugal.” “We are thrilled to see Ricardo Alves Jr. bring his cinematic vision to life, with an auteur sensibility that is not afraid to flirt with genre cinema to deliver an incredible story about the violence inflicted by conservatism.”

Speaking with Variety ahead of heading to the Basque festival, Alves Jr. says the idea for the film has been brewing for over a decade now, with the first inkling for the story arriving in 2016, as Brazil faced a strong rise in conservatism. “It was a time when people lost their shame in being openly reactionary,” he recalls.

“People were no longer afraid to say they were not interested in understanding anyone different,” continues the director. “With ‘The French Teacher,’ I create a cult as a way of broaching these issues of intolerance; it becomes an allegory rooted in genre. We are trying to talk about something concrete through more abstract form.”

Alves Jr. notes how he hoped the film would sound closer to fiction when he first started working on it, but he has been shocked and dismayed at how it has only become more relevant in the decade since, with Brazil electing Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 and ushering in a right-wing movement. It is poignant serendipity that the film begins its festival journey only two weeks before Brazil faces major presidential elections that see current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pitted against Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio, a candidate who has aligned himself with names like Argentina’s controversial president Javier Milei and whose campaign is rooted in right-wing sentiment.

“Just a few weeks ago I read news that the U.S. was discussing whether or not women should be allowed to vote or whether their husbands should be in charge of their vote, so this is where we are at when it comes to reactionary rhetoric in the world,” he says. “‘The French Teacher’ could not be told in any other way than through genre, through horror. I really like horror tied to social issues, because it brings forward this idea that the terror is close to us; it looms close instead of being something supernatural.”

The director and writing partner Melo wrote the main role for Passô, who is having a standout year after premiering her directorial effort “Our Secret” at the Berlinale and starring in Gabriel Martins’s Toronto breakout “On Behalf of Our Son.” “The project also stems from a desire to work with Grace. The French comes from there, because she can speak it fluently, but Grace’s character is a rational woman, whose thinking is deeply intertwined with Illuminist ideas, so French fits this idea like a glove.”

Passô’s successful year mimics that of her state of Minas Gerais, which has been featured at major festivals not only through “Our Secret” and Martins’s Netflix drama, but now through “The French Teacher” and Fernanda Salgado’s animated feature “Ana, en passant,” which begins its journey in Vancouver. “It is such a great year for cinema from Minas Gerais, and also a testament to work that has been going on for quite a few years now,” says Alves Jr.

“We are finally bearing the fruits of that work, from believing in the talent we have in the region and starting strong, competent production companies focused on producing here,” he continues. I believe this momentum will spill into the next year, because it feels like a very exciting time to be working in Minas Gerais.”

The director reiterates how important it is that Brazil continues its regionalization-focused public policies. “We are now seeing films coming from states other than Rio and São Paulo and even Recife, which has grown exponentially,” he says. “We have to continue to strengthen the regionalization policies because Brazil is a continental country with hundreds of production companies that have been established over the last 15 years alone. It’s been great to see major films come out from outside the Rio-São Paulo bridge; it only showcases to the world how plural our cinema is.”

“The French Teacher” received support from the CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) through the Aides aux Cinémas du Monde scheme. Additionally, future international distributors can access P&A (prints and advertising) funding through Projeto Paradiso’s Screen Brasil program, as well as distribution support funds from the ICA (Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual).