– Tahar Rahim, Bastien Bouillon, Valérie Donzelli, Vimala Pons and Vincent Elbaz star in a Partizan Films production distributed by Kinology
Actors Tahar Rahim (© 2025 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it) and Bastien Bouillon (© 2025 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it) and actresses Valérie Donzelli (© 2025 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it) and Vimala Pons (© 2026 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it)
Since yesterday, Monday 15 June, Michel Gondry has started filming Les petites peurs, his 15th feature film following, among others, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2005), The Science of Sleep (in competition at the 2006 Berlinale), The We and the I (Directors’ Fortnight 2012), Mood Indigo and the more recent The Book of Solutions (Directors’ Fortnight 2023) and the animated films Maya, Give Me a Title (Crystal Bear at the Berlinale Generation 2024) and Maya, donne-moi un autre titre (Annecy Special Screenings in 2025).
The cast features Tahar Rahim (winner of the César Award for Best Actor for A Prophet and nominated in 2025 for Monsieur Aznavour, twice nominated for a Golden Globe, and soon to appear in Les Misérables and L’incident), Bastien Bouillon (César Award for Most Promising Actor for The Night of the 12th, nominated in 2026 for Best Actor for Leave One Day and in 2025 for Best Supporting Actor for The Count of Monte-Cristo, who will soon be seen in Une autre histoire), Valérie Donzelli (nominated for a César for Best Actress for her directorial debut Declaration of War, and awarded at Venice last year for the screenplay of her latest film At Work), Vimala Pons (winner of this year’s César for Best Supporting Actress for The Ties that Bind Us, and recently acclaimed in The Electric Kiss) and Vincent Elbaz (nominated for the 1998 César Award for Most Promising Actor and reuniting with Michel Gondry following The Book of Solutions).
Written by the director, the screenplay is set in a small village in the Cévennes where an au pair has gone missing. Damien (Tahar Rahim), the village deputy, leads the investigation. He suspects a doctor (Bastien Bouillon) who has recently moved there with his family, but cannot prove anything. Ever since, this failure has haunted him… Five years pass. The doctor’s two daughters are playing in the garden of their house when they stumble upon a skull. Whose is it and how did it end up under their lawn? The children decide to solve the mystery. This marks the start of a dual investigation led by the local gendarmes and the little girls. No one will come out unscathed…
Produced by Georges Bermann (the filmmaker’s long-standing collaborator) for Partizan Films, Les petites peurs has been pre-purchased by HBO, Ciné+ OCS and France Télévisions. The feature film also benefits from the support of the Occitanie region, where the entire six-week shoot will take place (in the Cévennes and Montpellier) until 30 July, with Laurent Tangy (nominated for a César in his category for Sink or Swim and Beating Hearts, and for a Lumière de l’image for Happening) as director of photography. International sales will be handled by Kinology, and theatrical distribution in France will be managed by Diaphana.
(Translated from French)
