Medical thriller La Fille de Brest (150 Milligrams), directed by France’s Emmanuelle Bercot, will open this year’s edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival held next month in northern Spain, organizers said Wednesday.
Based on a true story, the film recounts the discovery by lung specialist Dr. Irene Franchon of the fatal relationship between a state-approved drug and a string of suspicious deaths among patients under treatment at a Brest hospital and her crusade to expose the truth.
It will be the European premiere of the fifth film helmed by Bercot, who is also an actress and screenwriter. Her film La Tete Haute (Standing Tall) opened last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where she won the best actress award for her hole in Mon Roi (My King).
La Fille de Brest/150 Milligrams stars Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen as the doctor. Last year, she won France’s Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema’s Cesar Award for best supporting actress in L’Hermine (Courted).
Produced by Haut et Court, the film’s worldwide distribution is being handled by Germany’s Wild Bunch AG.
The San Sebastian Film Festival runs Sept.16-Sept. 24 in the Basque seaside resort.
