Director Yann Samuell is currently filming in Hauts-de-France the adaptation of the comic book series “La guerre des Lulus”. This bookstore success which traces the life of orphans during the First World War is the work of Amiens Régis Hautière and Hardoc.
Teenagers in suspenders play rugby with a retro leather ball, before stopping abruptly at the “cut!“from the director.
Among the young people, François Damiens plays a priest, protector of these orphans, whose fate will soon be turned upside down by the First World War. The Belgian actor does not shy away from his pleasure: “It’s always interesting to shoot with children, because they have a spontaneity that we no longer have. And then it makes a holiday movie in a beautiful setting“.
This magnificent setting is the abbey of Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache near Hirson in the Aisne, where director Yann Samuell’s team of 90 people have taken up residence for a few days. An abbey which becomes for the occasion an orphanage.
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A 100% Hauts-de-France shoot
The producers of this adaptation of the comic book series War of the Lulus are from La Fère in the Aisne. The idea of relocating to Eastern Europe, as it often happens, did not occur to them for a second: “We wanted it to really happen in the places, where the war took place and in these places of battlefields, villages destroyed, massacred or in any case evacuated in 1914, when the war broke out in the north. of France and in Thiérache more particularly. (…) We chose sets that were quite close to comics, without being those of comics, since they don’t actually exist“, explains Eric Boquého, artistic producer at the initiative of the project.
Indeed, the village of Valencourt where the Lulus live is fictitious. But it is inspired by the municipalities of northern France. Different sets from the region are also used in the film, from Arras, Pas-de-Calais prefecture, to Ors in the North via Tertry, Trefcon, Sissonne or even the Familistère de Guise in the Aisne.
An aesthetic close to comics
Director accustomed to dealing with the point of view of childhood in his previous films (Child games, The War of the Buttons), Yann Samuell is also passionate about comics and intends to stick to the spirit and the aesthetic of the original work: “We have a very special color chart which is very elaborate for this film. Very studied angles and compositions of images.“
Particular care was also taken in the casting. If the adults are played by well-known and recognized actors (Isabelle Carré, Alex Lutz, Ahmed Sylla, François Damiens), the main characters are played by five children, some of whom take their first steps on a movie set.
Creators impressed by young actors
Lulus larger than life, as the creators of the series happily discovered, Régis Hautière (screenwriter) and Hardoc (designer): “It is quite disturbing. And when I got home, I was like, but actually it’s really them. I felt like I had met Lulus that I could have drawn afterwards“, says Hardoc.
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War of the Lulus tells the odyssey of Lucas, Lucien, Luigi and Ludwig, four of the residents of the orphanage (later joined by Luce) throughout the years of the Great War. After failing to evacuate their village in 1914, they found themselves left to their own devices for four years at the rear of the German lines.
With nine volumes published (a tenth will be released in April 2022) and 356,000 albums sold, it has been a success for children’s comics since 2013. And soon, perhaps, at the box office. Release scheduled for early 2023.
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