Bernard Werber’s OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS to open the 30th edition of the MWFF

Bernard Werber’s OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS will open the 30th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival on August 24, it was announced. Werber is the celebrated French author of the “Ants” trilogy and most recently of the novel Le Souffle des Dieux (The Breath of the Gods), the sequel to Nous les Dieux (We Gods). A "documentary" on Earth-dwellers made by extra-terrestrials, OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS was directed by Werber and produced by Les Films 13, and is presented in the Festival's Out of Competition section.



”It has often been said that films have a two-fold goal, to entertain moviegoers while also enabling them to reflect on the great mysteries of life. Bernard Werber’s film, presented in world premiere, fits this description perfectly, offering festivalgoers the opportunity to look afresh at this world of ours through the lens of a highly talented French filmmaker”, said Serge Losique, president of the Montreal World Film Festival.



“What would aliens think if they could see us? OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS is an alien "‘documentary" on Earth and its curious inhabitants. Through observation of our cities and our behaviour, an extra-terrestrial commentator tries to understand us... as if it were a documentary on one of our own species of animal. Two test couples are examined closely: Ursuline and Donatien, a female and a male of the earthling race, will meet and couple in their normal habitat. At the same time, we will follow Agathe and Bertrand, two other earthlings, who have been captured in order to be studied ‘in vitro’. In the observing the terrestrials ‘in vivo’, in their natural environment in other words, since ‘in vitro’ would be in captivity, the extra-terrestrials, via their subjective camera and their commentator, will try to make sense of this curious animal species that reigns on Earth. They will dare to pose questions that we no longer do: Are we respectable animals? Are we intelligent? Are we capable of evolving? Are we good... to eat? Are we ready to meet them? OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS is fiction, but it is also an invitation to reflect on what we truly are beyond our conventions.” -- Bernard Werber



Director’s biography



Born in Toulouse, France in 1961, Bernard Werber's "Ants" trilogy made him one of France's most popular science fiction novelists in the 1990s. Werber began studying journalism in 1982 in Paris, where he discovered the work of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick. From 1983-90 he worked as a journalist for the Nouvel Observateur magazine while continuing to write fiction on the side. In 1991 he published the novel Empire of the Ants, a complex fantasy novel in which ants were the heroes and humans the pesky antagonists. The novel became a cult hit across Europe, and Werber followed it with two other books in the same vein: Day of the Ants (1992) and Revolution of the Ants (1995). His other books include L'Empire des Anges (2000) and L'Arbre des possibles (2002). He previously directed two short films, La Reine de nacre (2000) and Nos amis les humains (2003).



OUR EARTHMEN FRIENDS (World Premiere) - Out of Competition 2006 / 35 mm / Colour / 85 min

France


Director: Bernard Werber.
Script: Bernard Werber.
Photography: Jérôme Peyrebrune, Stéphane Krausz.
Editor: Stéphane Mazalaigue.
Music: Alex Jaffray, Loïc Étienne.
Cast: Annelise Hesme, Audrey Dana, Thomas Le Douarec, Boris Ventura, Wioletta Michalczuk, Tonio Descanvelles.
Producer: Les Films 13

30th anniversary of the MWFF

The Montréal World Film Festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year from August 24 to September 4. This historic edition of the Festival coincides with a remarkable world-wide renaissance of national cinemas and is dedicated to the film-loving public which has faithfully supported the MWFF for the past 30 years. The only competitive film festival in North America to be recognized by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), the Festival has been promoting cultural diversity since its founding in 1977.