13 Les Célestes Gabriel LE BOMIN France / China Action / Drama / Romance / HD / English / Mandarin / 100 mins This is a multi-layered movie as it is both historical and contemporary. Director: Gabriel LE BOMIN Producers: WANG Fanghui, Didier DENISE HAF Goals: Funds, Co-producers Budget: US$7,000,000 Secured Budget: US$1,000,000 Director’s Filmography: 2010 Beyond Suspicion 2006 Les Fragments d’Antonin Out of the 140,000 Chinese volunteers (Les Célestes) who joined the war effort in France during WWI, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 of them died there. Inside more than 15 cemeteries in the North of France, like the one of the tiny French commune of Noyelles-sur-Mer, we find wartime graves marked with Chinese names, birthplaces and death-dates. Nevertheless, their contribution remains largely forgotten today, in the West and even in China. During World War I, 140,000 Chinese voluntaries (also called Les Célestes), braved the oceans to join the Allied forces in the devastated French countryside and help them win the war. Synopsis Shanghai 1917: French soldiers are processing a large group of Chinese labourers on the Huangpu River’s banks. Their traditional queues are chopped off; they are washed, fingerprinted, and given an iron bracelet with a number, not even a name, before embarking on a French ship. Not far from there, Li Fei is dining in a local tea house. Chinese policemen burst in, guns blazing Without hesitation, Li Fei pulls out his gun, opens fire and flees. After pursuit in the crowded market alleys, he stows away on the French vessel. Yet, Li Fei has no intention of mixing with his countrymen. This is not his fight. Alongside Doctor Sun Yat-sen, he has been defending the young Chinese Republic against the Warlords of the North, running his country. Thus, he is a high-profile, hunted fugitive. The majority of these volunteers are farmers and migrants from rural villages, almost entirely illiterate. Travel conditions are very difficult. Space and food are limited. Most of the men have never step foot on a boat and become seasick. The air stinks and diseases spread across the crammed hold. Moreover, the stress of being attacked by the invisible sea dragons (German’s U boat submarines) drives every one mad. Yet, for more than 70 days Li Fei, unable to escape, shares these stiffing conditions and gets closer to his fellow countrymen Lu Yi, Shi, Feng, Zhao and the others. Arriving in France and now called “Les Célestes”, due to their brand new blue uniforms, they start marching through a devastated France towards Boulogne. Li Fei takes the lead and helps his group to cope with war, xenophobia and resentment by the general populace. Exhausted, they finally reach their assigned camp and settle down. There, they will share the destiny of the captain Lecomte, the sergeant Devaucout, the beautiful Gabrielle Le Vasseur, the young Marie, Mr. Bresaan and many others. Yet, these men, crossing oceans without any knowledge of the country where they would land or its inhabitants, carried a vital message to today’s world: the universal value of understanding and acceptance, other, regardless of differences. Strangers are too often considered enemies or scapegoats. As soon as they reached France, “Les Célestes” faced xenophobia and resentment. Out of ignorance, skin color tones and different cultural behaviours, fear spread across each population that could not understand the other. Only a greater purpose and danger made them all realise that they shared common human emotions and values. Aesthetically it is important for me that this movie achieves a real artistic fusion by mixing the French art of storytelling and the Chinese art of photography and lights. By its nature, this romantic war movie will appeal to large audiences both in the East and the West. In this 101st commemoration year of the War, let us remind our youngest generations that China sends her bravest children to help free the world and that we share a common heritage and suffering. This movie is dedicated to “Les Célestes” and their descendants in China and in France, as more than 3,000 of these volunteers stayed there, got married and raised children. Director Gabriel LE BOMIN Gabriel LE BOMIN is a French director and a writer, known for his short films, features films and war documentaries. His works screened at international festivals include Le puits (2001) and Les Fragments d’Antonin (2006). His latest thriller Beyond Suspicion (2010) and his latest TV series documentaries Guerre d’Algerie, la déchirure (2012) were both critically acclaimed. Producers WANG Fanghui Born in Nanjing, he has been living in France and Asia for the last 27 years. He has studied film and television in both China and France and has scripted and directed numerous documentary films and TV series and books. Didier DENISE Didier DENISE has spent the last 20 years based in the Far East between Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and China. He has expressed his business skills in ventures all related to creative industries: fashion, publishing, music production and more recently in motion pictures. Production Company Bayoo Productions SAS Bayoo Productions is a French company dedicated to film productions. The company is managed by a Chinese and French team based in Paris and in Shanghai. Bayoo Productions operates both in Chinese and European markets, and consults with Asian productions in France. For ten years, Bayoo has been engaged in the production of more than 250 hours of TV series and feature films in Asia, such as CZ12, Dreams Link, The French Years and many more. Bayoo’s VFX department is guided by Christian RAJAUD, who recently handled the visual effects for Wolf Totem (2014). Contact Didier DENISE, WANG Fang-Hui Bayoo Productions SAS 6, rue Nicolas Appert 75011 Paris, France Tel: +86-2162948038, +33-615011328 Email: [email protected], [email protected] HONG KONG - ASIA FILM FINANCING FORUM 2015 HONG KONG - ASIA FILM FINANCING FORUM 2015 76 Director’s Statement 77