Annecy Work in Progress: "Sirocco and the kingdom of the winds"

Among the many films attracting attention at this week's Annecy Online festival is director Benoît Chieux (Aunt Hilda!) next 2D function Scirocco and the kingdom of winds. The colorful and imaginative feature is written by Oscar nominee Alain Gagnol (A cat in Paris, Phantom Boy) and produced by Ron Dyens of Sacrebleu Productions, the studio behind The fantastic story of Marona. During a presentation of Work in Progress, the filmmakers presented their film and its main characters and shared images and a preview (which you can see at the end of this article) for their long-awaited family film.

SiroccoThe story centers on the adventures of two sisters, Juliette and Carmen, who discover a passage in the universe from their favorite book, The kingdom of winds. "The first step for me was to draw the images that inspired me and wanted to animate," says Chieux. "The

flying crocodiles, organic houses and strange clouds: a colorful world that had few characters with human shapes. So our screenwriter Alain Gagnol wrote the film inspired by those images. The story is basically based on two female duos: two young sisters, Juliette and Carmen, who meet two older sisters, Agnes and Selma. The personality of one duo is reflected in the other, just like a multi-faceted mirror game ".

According to the director, the film has a very surreal and colorful visual style. Animation fans can definitely see the influence of Hayao Miyazaki and other anime favorites on both the theme and the sweeping, curvy designs. "The graphic style conveys a colorful and positive imaginary world," says Chieux. “The wind has been a great source of inspiration from the start. I always thought it would be a perfect theme for animation: wind is movement - close the door, caress our skin and unleash storms. It is this fluid force with all these different aspects that we must animate and bring to life. The wind is invisible, which presents one of the great cinematic challenges: how can we portray what we can't see? I was very interested in this question. The wind is also the kiss of life; allowing Selma to sing and Agnes to write stories. The wind allowed us to create very original and dramatic conflicts and situations between the real world of Carmen and Juliette and the imaginary of Agnes and Selma ".

Producer Ron Dyens (The fantastic story of Marona, friend of a friend) claimed that the soundtrack was written by Pablo Pico (The fantastic story of Marona) The 75-minute film, which has a budget of around € 6 million ($ 6,8 million), will begin production next year and is slated for a 2022 release date. The producer said the film will be a perfect combination of a conventional film and an artistic title. A project of related books and possible television series are also part of the plans for this fascinating title.

For more information, visit sacrebleuprod.com.