After a whirlwind 2025, actor-director Hafsia Herzi will step before the camera in “La Foudre” (“Lightning”), the latest feature from Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, while continuing to develop the literary adaptation “Adèle” as a potential directorial outing.
Adapted from Pierric Bailly’s 2023 novel, “La Foudre” unfolds as a love triangle within the shepherding community of the Haut-Jura mountains, set in motion when a young man is accused of murder. The film marks the Larrieu brothers’ second consecutive adaptation of Bailly’s work, following “Jim’s Story,” which premiered at Cannes and earned Karim Leklou the César for best actor in 2025 — an evening that also saw Herzi take home the best actress prize for her performance in “Borgo.”
Herzi also has Léa Mysius’ “The Birthday Party” and Rudi Rosenberg’s “Quelques Mots d’Amour” set for release this year. Looking further ahead, she will return to writing with her long-gestating adaptation of Leïla Slimani’s “Adèle” (original title “Dans le jardin de l’ogre”), a project she has been attached to since 2021. She plans, however, to take her time before stepping back behind the camera, telling Variety that she needs to recharge after an “exhausting,” “roller-coaster” year.
Indeed, the past 12 months have been exceptional by any standard. Herzi won a César for best actress before breaking into the Cannes competition with her third feature, “The Little Sister,” which follows a young woman juggling her devout Muslim faith with her desire to live freely as a lesbian. The film left the Croisette with the Queer Palm and the festival’s best actress prize for newcomer Nadia Melliti, before launching the French awards season by winning the Louis-Delluc Prize, widely regarded as France’s most prestigious film honor.
The multi-hyphenate also starred in two productions back-to-back during the brief summer window between Cannes and her film’s French release — shooting “The Birthday Party” alongside Monica Bellucci and Benoît Magimel, and “Quelques Mots d’Amour” before embarking on a rather challenging promotional tour for “The Little Sister.”
“I didn’t want to talk about it too much when the film came out, so as not to draw attention, but we received several threats,” Herzi reveals. “Nadia herself was really harassed, and we had to have extra security at every premiere. That negative reaction was a small percentage, and there was ultimately far more goodwill than hostility — but still, it wasn’t easy.”
The filmmaker was alarmed, but hardly shocked.
“I knew it would be complicated,” she says. “If a character like this hadn’t existed on screen before, it’s because she unsettles people. I felt that very clearly when we began looking for financing—I was even told that this kind of story wasn’t realistic. That only made me fight harder.”
variety.com
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