‘Night Of The Kings’: First Footage From Venice Film Festival Drama Set In An Ivory Coast Prison, Memento Handles Sales

Ivorian director Philippe Lacôte’s film, which will also play the New York Film Festival, takes place over the course of one night in the Ivory Coast’s largest prison which is run by its own inmates who have their own rituals and laws.

The film is drawn from Lacôte’s own observations growing up in the Ivory Coast during years of civil conflict and the account of a friend who spent time in notorious local prison MACA. It is the director’s second fiction feature after Run, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2014.

Big screen debutant Koné Bakary plays the protagonist with the cast also featuring French actors Steve Tientcheu, seen recently in Les Misérables, and Denis Lavant (Beau Travail) as well as Rasmané Ouédraogo, Issaka Sawadogo, Digbeu Jean Cyrille, Anzian Marcel, Laetitia Ky and Abdoul Karim Konaté, who was the star of Run.

Producers are Paris-based Banshee Films (Delphine Jaquet) in coproduction with Abidjan-based Wassakara Productions (Ernest Konan), Canadian company Peripheria (Yanick Létourneau) and Yennenga Production (Yoro Mbaye) in Senegal.

Deadline.com