They are taking good care of me (Working title)

a feature fiction film project by Guillaume Protsenko

THE STORY is inspired by the true story of the French hos-tages in Lebanon during the end of the 1980’s

Jean is a French historian, passionate about Islam. He has been con-ducting his researches in Lebanon for several years and married a Lebanese woman.

The civil war that tears Beirut apart, for a decade already, has left his enthusiasm for Lebanon and for his work intact. But his reseaches have become riskier and riskier as the inter-community conflict gets stronger and more violent.

Disregarding his own safety, he continues his work, in some sort of ro-mantic impulse. He is more than sure that his connections with the dif-

ferent community leaders will keep him away from dangerous threats.

His wife has a hard time understanding his stubborness, but she re-solved to supporting her husband no matter what. Jean’s mistress, a beautifull Russian working with the embassy, lives her passion with the French scientist on a day to day basis.

The thrilling life those three are living will take a tragical turn when Jean is taken hostage. He will remain prisonner for two years.

« They are taking good care of me » is the sentence every hostage pronounces when recording the video of demand for the abductors.

MVMT Films3Bis rue de Varize

28000 ChartresFrance

+33237357031info@mvmt-films.com

Beirut,1986.

. Genre: Psychological, political and historical thriller on a love triangle background.

. Running time: 2 Hours

. Target audience: 12+.

. Shooting locations: Middle East, France.

. Language spoken: French (main language), arabic, english.

. Tackled issues: Terrorism, hostage taking, diplomacy, confinement, love and betrayal.

. Provisional budget: 2 M €

Script and directing: Guillaume ProtsenkoProduction: MVMT-Films (France) & ALYBUSE Film Society (Tunisia)

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

The story develops on three levels:

- The life of Jean, prisonner of the islamist militia. This part is inspired by the testi-mony of Auque in “a Hostage in Beirut”. We discover his strug-gle to survive on both a physical and mental level, in very harsh living conditions: a very con-fined space where time stre-ches to infinity. Between fanta-sies of escapes and attempts at bounding relations with the abductors, Jean discovers the reality of the Lebanese conflict: the reign of absurd and of small “war chiefs” with personnal am-bitions. Being unable to trust the re-peated and permanent lies of the kidnappers concerning a potentialy fast release, Jean, in order to escape from the gloomy ideas of a life in brackets, finds shelter in the memories of the happy life he was spending be-fore his abduction

- Life before the abduction.Jean remembers the moments of happiness he had with his wife in Beirut and in France. He takes once again the road of the events which led him to end up, locked up in a base-ment: the beginning of the war,

the bombings, his decision to stay in Beirut, his affair with the Russian girl when his relation-ship with his wife got difficult... Without nostalgy, he considers the mistakes he made in the past and which, now, make the people he loves suffer.

- The life outside. Jean, in his cell, is far away from imagining the diplomatic mess his abduction has launched at the surface. We discover the journey of his wife and mis-tress: how they try to contact the abductors through Jean’s connections, the contempt of the embassy officials who deal with the matter in a very ob-scure way. We hope with them as their hope to see Jean free rises, and are disapointed as they face the frustration of de-ceived hopes., We live with them the media storm around a case that outweights and con-sumes them...

Will those women be able to get their strenght together in order to break down the wall of cyn-ism erected by the diplomats and help with the release of their loved one? What kind of man will be Jean after such a long and hard detention? Will he ever go free? Will he even remain alive?

Provisional production planning:. Winter / Spring 2011: research and writing. Summer / Autumn 2011: preproduction. Winter / Spring 2012: production. Summer / Autumn 2012: post production. Release date: 01/01/2013

MVMT Films3Bis rue de Varize

28000 Chartres+79263701773+33237357031

info@mvmt-films.com