French Film Director Xavier Giannoli Talks First Foray Into Series With Canal Plus-Backed ‘Of Money And Blood’ – Venice
31.08.2023 - 09:31
/ deadline.com
Xavier Giannoli is one of those rare French directors who has a stronger relationship with the Venice Film Festival than Cannes back home.
He has competed for Venice’s Golden Lion three times in the last decade with Superstar (2012), Marguerite (2015) and the sumptuous Honoré de Balzac adaptation Lost Illusions (2021).
The filmmaker is back for a fourth time this year playing Out of Competition with his first-ever drama series, the international thriller Of Money And Blood. All 12 episodes will world premiere in a marathon screening on Thursday, with further seances at the back end of the festival.
Liberally adapted from the eponymous book by investigative journalist Fabrice Arfi, the series delves into a real-life, carbon credit tax scam, which swindled the French state of at least $1.7 billion, in an operation that came to be known as the “fraud of the century” when it came to trial in 2018.
Vincent Lindon plays Simon Weynachter, the customs inspector on a mission to track down and nail the unlikely masterminds behind the scam: small-time crook Alain Fitoussi (Ramzy Bedia) and high-class trader Jérôme Attias (Niels Schneider). Other cast members include Judith Chemla, David Ayala and Olga Kurylenko.
While the story’s origins are in France, the investigation travels to Asia and the Middle East and back to Europe and Brussels, where the idea of creating a pan-European market based on the carbon credit mechanism as a means to tackle climate change was first hatched.
The production reunites Giannoli with long-time producer Olivier Delbosc at Curiosa Films, who in turn partnered with French pay-TV giant Canal+ to bring the ambitious project together.
Deadline caught up with Giannoli ahead of the screening.
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