‘Stillwater’ Writer Noé Debré Talks Feature Debut ‘A Good Jewish Boy,’ Reveals New Projects With Tom McCarthy, Alexander Payne (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comBen Croll Noé Debré, the co-writer of “Dheepan” and “Stillwater” and creator of the European Parliament sendup series “Parlement,” marks his feature directorial debut with the bittersweet comedy “A Good Jewish Boy.” Produced by Moonshaker, sold by Charades and making its world market premiere at this year’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, the freewheeling film follows a 27-year-old man-child Bellisha (Michael Zindel) and his ailing mother, Giselle (Agnès Jaoui), who together make up the last remaining Jews living in a working class neighborhood that all of their friends and family have long since fled.
At first that’s just as well for the easy-going Bellisha, but health concerns, prejudice and most of all an acute sense of alienation soon begin to creep in.
Below, Variety catches up with Debré at this year’s Rendez-Vous. How did this feature idea come about? I saw a short film called “Masel Tov Cocktail,” about a Russian-Jewish teenager living in Germany.
The character lived in this high-rise, housing projects neighborhood, and that image struck me. I thought, how crazy, cinema has really never depicted the stories of Jews from working-class neighborhoods in France.
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