Strand Stays on Track with Techine’s ‘The Girl on the Train’

You have to respect a smallish distributor who builds long-term relationships with filmmakers from world cinema scene. Strand Releasing have got their ticket punched once again for a Andre Techine film – this time, 2009’s The Girl on the Train. Strand released Techine’s Wild Reeds and The Witnesses. Look for a 2010 release for the drama that features a fairly solid cast.

This is based on a true story of a mythomaniac young woman (Émilie Dequenne) who told the French media in 2004 that she had been the victim of an anti-semitic attack on one of the Paris-area urban trains. Deneuve will play Alice’s overbearing mother Louise, Michel Blanc, will play Samuel Blumenstein, a successful lawyer who used to know Louise and who is currently looking for someone to help him out at work. Louise becomes obsessed with the idea that Alice should have that position, which leads to an awkward get-together in the countryside and a radical act from Alice, whose idea of her future is completely different from that of her mother’s.