Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the Oscar-nominated director of “Amelie,” will direct Leïla Bekhti in the bigscreen adaptation of Changer l’eau des fleurs, a bestselling novel by Valérie Perrin which has sold more than two million copies in France and Italy.
The movie will start shooting in May and is produced by Italy’s Palomar and France’s 24 25 Films, both Mediawan Group companies.
Bekhti, whose notable credits include the Cesar-nominated “All Your Faces” and Damien Chazelle’s “The Eddy,” will play the lead role, Violette Toussaint, a beloved cemetery caretaker.
“Passers-by and regulars come to warm themselves in her home, where laughter and tears mingle between cups of coffee. Her daily routine is punctuated by their confidences. One day, a man knocks on her door. His name is Julien Seul and he is a police commissioner who has questions about a couple resting in the cemetery. His investigation begins and the links between the living and the dead come to light, and some souls thought to be dark turn out to be bright,” reads the synopsis provided by Palomar.
The critically laureled novel has been translated into 28 languages and won the Prix Maison de la Presse and the Prix des Lecteurs du Livre de Poche.
The film film is co-produced and distributed by Studiocanal, with support from Canal+ and Netflix.
