Montreal’s Laurent TV Returns to Canneseries Short-Form Competition with ‘Home Turf’
For the second year in a row, Montreal-based production company St Laurent Web (St Laurent TV) has a series in the official selection at Canneseries.
“La Maison des Folles,” (“Home Turf”) world premieres at this year’s digital series competition as one of the most buzzed-up titles. Last year the company’s digital short-form series “Dominos” was chosen as the best at the festival, and set a high bar for the Canadian company.
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“Home Turf” was written and directed by the multi-disciplined Mara Joly, and produced in collaboration with the Independent Production Fund, Bell Fund, Créateurs en série TV5 and Télé-Québec.
The series’ eight twelve-minute episodes takes place in the autumn of 2000, in a foster home where a group of “troubled” teenage girls live together. The house is run by the chain-smoking Boss, who rules from her seat at the head of the dining room table. Sahara, the newest addition to the family, has just arrived after getting out of an abusive situation in Africa, where her mother is still presumably in danger.
Upon her arrival, Sahara must deal with four reluctant girls who are skeptical of their new roommate and seek to get her removed as soon as possible, making her life a living hell in the meantime. Set against the backdrop of a house in turmoil filled with girls of various ages, the series follows the everyday challenges facing them as they approach the verge of womanhood. Inside the house they may be enemies, but facing a world that has given them nothing, can they look to each other to find family?
The Canneseries short-format competition was created to showcase new, promising and innovative formats, which reflect current and new ways of watching series. Emmy winning writer-producer Greg Garcia (“My Name is Earl”) heads the Short-Form Competition jury, which also includes French actress-director Fanny Sidney (“Mesrine”) and Norwegian actress Josefine Frida Petersen (“Skam”). The Best Short Form Series award will be handed out during the festival’s closing ceremony which will be broadcasted live on Canal Plus.
The “Home Turf” world premiere will be on Wednesday, April 10 in the Espace Miramar.
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