RIVALS (Les Liens du sang) US Premiere Film Noir/Drama France, 2008 In French with English subtitles 35mm/Scope 2.35/Color/Dolby Digital DTS/106 minutes Directed by: Jacques Maillot Written by: Jacques Maillot, Eric Véniard, Pierre Chosson Based on the original work of: Michel Papet, Bruno Papet Cinematography: Luc Pagès Produced by: Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Cyril Colbeau-Justin Production Company: LGM Productions Co-production: StudioCanal, France 3 Cinéma With: Guillaume Canet (François), François Cluzet (Gabriel), Clotilde Hesme (Corinne), Marie Denarnaud (Nathalie), Eric Bonicatto (Paulo), Marc Bodnard (Gérard), Cyril Couton (Fernand Lazeau), Nadia Fossier (Jacqueline), Helene Foubert (Colette), Carole Franck (Monique), Marie Gili-Pierre (Maryvonne), Thierry Levaret (Martial), Mehdi Nebbou (José), Pierre Pellet (Charles), Olivier Perrier (Henri), Luc Thuillier (Inspector Blanqui), Fred Ulysse (Louison) Rivals is a social film noir set in the 1970s Lyon, centered on the relationship between two brothers, police detective François (Guillaume Canet, Tell No One (COLCOA 2007), The Beach, Love Me If You Dare) and petty criminal Gabriel (François Cluzet, Paris (COLCOA 2008), Jealousy, the Horseman on the Roof)). When Gabriel is released from jail after 10 years, he is determined to straighten out his life and not fall back into the criminal world. François does his best to help him, but old demons catch up with Gabriel and the two brothers find themselves caught up in a spiral, where their opposite social status seems to lead to the same dead-end. JACQUES MAILLOT Jacques Maillot started writing and directing short films while working at the Cinemathèque in Paris. Presented at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 1994, his short A Bottle of Wishes won the Special Jury Award, as well as the Jean Vigo prize for Short Film the same year. His first feature Our Happy Lives, starring young talented actors such as Samy Bouajila (Days of Glory, The Witnesses) and Camille Japy (Taken, The Cost of Living (COLCOA 2005)), was nominated for a Golden Palm at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. He has also written and directed fiction for television, including Cold As Summer, a fiction that won the Italia prize for TV drama. Rivals is his second feature film. PRESS “...The raw realism of this sharp film noir, where bullets, punches and bouts of bloody anger all ring true, is overwhelming...“ (Première) “As the forgotten melodies of the Rubettes fade away, hope collapses and Les Liens du sang imposes itself as a film noir. Set in the 1970s in Lyon, meticulously reproduced, this fiction based on a true story has the energy of a luminous and tragic epic.” (Elle)