Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #26. La Daronne – Jean-Paul Salomé

Published on January 3, 2020

La Daronne

Director Jean-Paul Salomé’s international reputation should expand significantly with his eighth feature, La Daronne aka Mama Weed, adapted from a celebrated novel by Hannelore Cayre and starring the inimitable Isabelle Huppert. The crime comedy, produced by Jean-Baptiste Dupont (Me, Myself and Mum, 2013) and Kristina Larsen (Farewell, My Queen, 2012) is scored by Bruno Calais (Oscar nominated for 2004’s The Chorus) and features a noted supporting cast, including Hippolyte Girardot, Liliane Rovere (of Blier’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, 1978), Iris Bry (a recent Cesar nominee for The Guardians), Jade Nadja Nguyen, Youssef Sahraoui, Kamel Guenfoud and Farida Ouchani (recently of The World is Yours, 2018).

Gist: Patience Portefeux (Huppert) is a Franco-Arab judicial interpreter who specializes in telephone tapping. But Patience discovers an opportunity to infiltrate a drug network and thus becomes ‘la Daronne’ of Belleville.

Release Date/Prediction: Salome completed production at the end of 2018 and a theatrical release in France has been announced for March of 2020. With Huppert headlining, we’re thinking Mama Weed has a good shot at showing up in Berlin.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.