Category: Screening
Under a baobab tree, an old man tells a story to the children around him: the story of the unbreakable friendship between ten-year-old Maki and Zarafa, an orphaned giraffe given by the Pasha of Egypt to King Charles X of France as a gift. Hassan, a desert prince, is tasked by the Pasha to bring Zarafa to France, but Maki is determined to do everything he can to thwart this mission and return the giraffe to her homeland. He follows them, risking his life. On their long journey, which takes them from Sudan through Alexandria, Marseille, and the snowy Alps to Paris, they experience a thousand adventures and meet the aeronaut Malaterre, the strange cows Mounh and Sounh, and the pirate Bouboulina.
Rémi Bezançon grew up in Paris. He studied at the Ecole Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle (ESRA) in Paris and at the Ecole du Louvre. His first feature film, “Ma vie en l’air,” was released in 2005, but he celebrated success with critics and audiences in 2008 with “Le Premier Jour du reste de ta vie.” The film received 9 César nominations. In 2011, he directed “Un heureux événement,” based on the novel by Éliette Abécassis. The following year, their first attempt at animation was released: the children’s animal tale “Zarafa,” which he co-directed with Jean-Christophe Lie. In late summer 2015, “Nos futurs” was released, followed by “Le Mystère Henri Pick” in 2019. His film “Un coup de maître,” starring Vincent Macaigne and Bouli Lanners, was released on August 9, 2023. For this film, Bouli Lanners was nominated for Best Actor at the Magritte Awards 2024.
Jean-Christophe Lie has had an impressive career in animation and has worked on several notable projects for various studios. He began at Disney, initially working in clean-up on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” He then became an assistant animation supervisor for the main characters in “Hercules” and “Tarzan” at the Montreuil studio. In 2003, he participated in the production of the French animated film “The Triplets of Belleville” as a supervising animator for the Triplets, particularly Rose. This required a two-year stay in Montreal. He later worked at DreamWorks Animation on “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” in London as animation director at Stardust Pictures. Back in France, he worked as a layout artist for “Kirikou and the Wild Beasts” (2005) and as a supervising animator at Ricochet Productions for “Nocturna” (2007). In 2009, he made his first short film, “L’Homme à la Gordini,” for which he also wrote the screenplay and did the animation. This film was nominated for a César Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2011. He then co-directed the animated film “Zarafa” with Rémi Bezançon, which was released in January 2012. Additionally, he illustrated the serialized novel “Les Furieuses” for Siné Hebdo, written by Serge Quadruppani.
