Le Faux Soir Brings Wartime Newspaper Hoax to TIFF Before Closing San Sebastian
Le Faux Soir is having its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam telling the story of a daring wartime newspaper hoax, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film centres on events in Brussels in November 1943. Belgian journalists and printers intercepted the Nazi-controlled daily Le Soir, which translates as The Evening, and replaced it with a satirical counterfeit titled Le Faux Soir, or The Fake Evening, that mocked the occupiers.
Roskam has described the project as “Ocean’s Eleven, but with a newspaper”. His earlier directing credits include Bullhead, The Drop, and Racer and the Jailbird, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
He co-wrote the screenplay with Bernard Falaise. Falaise previously helped Roskam with casting on Bullhead. For Le Faux Soir, Roskam also reunited with actor Matthias Schoenaerts and with the team behind Bullhead and Racer and the Jailbird, according to Screen Daily.
TIFF lists the film in its official programme as a thriller and historical drama inspired by a fact-based act of subversive irreverence in Nazi-occupied Brussels, as noted on TIFF. The festival synopsis says it follows a group of resistance fighters who organised the operation in November 1943.
The Toronto screening was scheduled for 10 September at 11am at Scotiabank 2, according to a post by Frakas Productions. After Toronto, the film will close the San Sebastián Film Festival, according to Variety. That festival is set to run from 18 to 26 September, according to Deadline.
Worldwide sales, the business of selling distribution rights country by country, are handled by Goodfellas, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
What makes this stand out is the method. No guns. No battle. A printing press, a distribution network and a joke at the expense of a controlled press.
