Tempête (The Storm) is a stunning new character-driven film, filled with emotion, suspense, and humor. It also offers an immersion into a brand new world  for most of us—the challenge of surviving as a European commercial fisherman in the 21st century. I first saw Tempête (also known as Land Legs) at last year’s Venice International Film Festival, where the jury I was serving on presented our “Best Performance” award to Dominique Leborne—a first time actor portraying…himself!

Let me explain:  drawn to the Normandy coast in search of a story he could set against a background of the endangered French fishing industry, director Samuel Collardey  (who also did the film’s gorgeous cinematography and co-wrote the screenplay with Catherine Paillé) encountered Dominique Leborne and was so gripped by Dominque’s personal saga, that he chose to tell his real-life story. Collardey went on to not only cast Dominique in the lead role, but managed somehow to enrich the cast with the rest of Leborne’s family playing themselves, including his recently divorced wife in the role of, um, herself! So you could almost classify Tempête as a new kind of documentary, except it succeeds so exquisitely as a “fictional” drama.

When premiering at Venice Film Festival, these mind-boggling casting tidbits were unknown to viewers, who just gobbled the film up as a fabulously-original cinema-vérité gem. I adore this movie. Though billed as a JBFC Rarely Seen Cinema installment, this is actually another tremendous scoop for the Burns. It is an “as yet unseen in the US”  presentation, making our screening on Sunday the United States premiere of this deeply-entertaining, one-of-a-kind motion picture.

We will be joined after the screening by Catherine Paillé, the delightful co-author of the screenplay, as well as producer Grégoire Debailly, both of whom will take the stage with yours truly to engage in a great JBFC audience discussion.  Please join us!