Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #96. La femme de mon frère (My Brother’s Wife) – Monia Chokri

La femme de mon frère

French-Canadian actress Monia Chokri makes her directorial debut with My Brother’s Wife (La femme de mon frère). Produced by Nancy Grant and Sylvain Corbeil (Dolan’s Mommy, Felix & Meira, Vic+Flo Saw a Bear) of Metafilms, the title was lensed by Bertrand Bonello’s favored DP Josée Deshaies (Saint Laurent, The Pornographer, House of Tolerance, as well as Anne Emond’s 2016 title Nelly). The film stars a nice brochette of Quebecois thesps in Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Patrick Hivon, Évelyne Brochu, Micheline Bernard, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Mani Soleymanlou and another Dolan staple, Anne Dorval. Chokri is best known for her appearance in several of Xavier Dolan’s films, including Heartbeats (2009) and Laurence Anyways (2012) as well as Katell Quillévéré’s Heal the Living (2016), but its Chokri’s 2013 short Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire (with several players found in her feature here) selected for Locarno and TIFF and then rewarded handsomely as the Grand Jury prize winner at 2014’s SXSW that floored us. You can watch that short on the Vimeo channel.

Gist: Sophia (Anne-Elisabeth Bossé), a brilliant doctoral student who has always maintained a symbiotic relationship with her brother Karim (Patrick Hivon). The arrival of a new lover (Évelyne Brochu) in Karim’s significantly alters their dynamic.

Release Date/Prediction: Chokri completed filming in June 2018. We’re expecting her to premiere in Locarno with an assured slot somewhere in Toronto.