‘Baron Noir’ Helmer Ziad Doueiri to Partner With Screenwriter Eric Benzekri, Canal+ on ‘Fievre’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy
·2 min read
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Ziad Doueiri, the French-Lebanese filmmaker of the Oscar-nominated movie “The Insult” who made his TV debut with the hit series “Baron Noir,” will next direct “Fièvre” (“Fever”).

“Fièvre” was penned by “Baron Noir” screenwriter Eric Benzekri and has been co-developed by French pay TV group Canal+’s Creation Originale label.

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The show is being produced by Quad, the Paris-based company behind Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s “Intouchables” and the series “The Bonfire of Destiny.”

“Fievre” is headlined by two female characters played by Nina Meurisse, who notably starred in Celine Sciamma’s Berlinale competition film “Petite Maman,” and Julia Piaton, from Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affair(s)” which was part of Cannes 2020’s official selection.

Doueiri told Variety that the series will follow a woman who leads a crisis management firm and comes across a massive scandal involving a Black soccer player who beat the team’s coach, who is white. The scandal becomes viral and gets swiftly exploited by a far-right politician in France, where tensions of all kinds are already broiling. “As with ‘Baron Noir,’ Eric Benzekri wrote a gripping script exploring the social and political layers of the French society,” said Doueiri. He said the female protagonist of the series is a woman who has ethical principles and integrity and is caught in a moral dilemma.

Doueiri recently wrapped “Coeurs Noirs” (“Black Hearts”) an epic war drama series which Newen Connect is handling internationally. The series, produced by Mandarin Televisions, was boarded by Amazon Prime Video in France, who has first window-rights, and French public broadcaster France Televisions, which will air it nine months later. “Black Hearts” revolves around French Special Forces fighting ISIS and was created by Duong Dang-Thaï and Corinne Garfin (“The Bureau”). Newen Connect teased the series with a trailer unveiled during its presentation at Mipcom.

The helmer previously directed The Insult,” a courtroom thriller which competed at Venice where it won a prize before becoming Lebanon’s first Oscar-nominated film. He also directed “The Attack,” which centered on a renowned Arab surgeon living in Israel who discovers that his wife is the perpetrator of a suicide bombing.

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