A few years back, Claire Denis mentioned that she believed “Both Sides of the Blade” and “Stars at Noone” would be her final films amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The filmmaker ended up releasing the two films in 2022, both winning prizes at Berlin and Cannes. Would these really be the final films for the 78-year-old auteur? Apparently not.
Last year, in a chat with The Guardian, Denis revealed she had just finished writing a new feature and that she was going to start location scouting it in Cameroon. Then in March, speaking with Screen Daily, Denis said the film was titled '“The Fence”, and noted that it centered on “four main characters, three men and a woman.”
Per Cineuropa, Denis’s film has been retitled “The Cry of the Guards,” and will star Matt Dillon, Riley Keough, and Isaach de Bankolé. Production is expected to begin in January in Senegal. Here’s the synopsis:
As project supervisor Horn is welcoming his young partner Léone into the hut he shares with young and impetuous engineer Cal, a black man called Alboury appears outside the railings surrounding their quarters. Inflexible, hovering like a ghost in the darkness, he is determined to stay there until they return the body of his brother to him, who was killed on the site.
Suzanne Lindon (“Spring Blossom”) and Andrew Litvack (“Stars at Noon”) co-wrote the film. Since the film will only be shooting next year, I gather the film might have to settle with a Venice Film Festival premiere.
Denis is, arguably, France's most globally acclaimed living female director. He notable works include “Chocolat,” “35 Shots of Rum,” “Beau Travail,” “The Intruder,” and “White Material.”