The Other Laurens, directed by Claude Schmitz from a script he co-wrote with Kostia Testut, had the World Premiere at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2023 and the North American Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2023. The cast includes Olivier Rabourdin, Louise Leroy, Kate Moran, Marc Barbé, Tibo Vandenborre, and Edwin Gaffney.
Gabriel Laurens (Olivier Rabourdin) is a shaggy dog private investigator eking out an existence one seedy adultery case at a time. When his niece, Jade (Louise Leroy), shows up at his doorstep to notify him of his estranged twin brother François’ recent death, he decides to take a hiatus and drive her back to her father’s massive estate on the Franco-Spanish border.
Upon arrival, they’re met with a cold reception from Jade’s calculating stepmother, Shelby (Kate Moran), and her gang of crusty back-country bikers intent on tracking the young girl’s every move. Short on cash, Gabriel vows to stick around just long enough to get things smoothed over with his bank. The more he sees, however, the more he realizes things are more complex than they seem.
To unearth the true cause of his brother’s death, Gabriel dons the identity of “the other Laurens” and is slowly drawn into François’ shady underworld. Along the way, he’ll cross paths with a bizarro cast of characters, including a pair of bumbling cops, an American mercenary, and a ruthless family of drug traffickers.
Narrative Feature | Neo-Noir, Comedy | 117 min | Belgium/France | 2023 | In French and English
The film won the following awards at the Brussels International Film Festival 2023: the Grand Prix and the Best Actor Prize (Olivier Rabourdin). Now Out on VOD iTunes, Google, Vudu & Amazon
About the writer & director: Claude Schmitz (born 1979) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He graduated from the National Superior Institute of Performing Arts (INSAS) in the directing section. Schmitz is an associate artist at the Liège Theater, and his shows have been presented at multiple venues, such as the National Theater, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, the Halles de Schaerbeek, the Théâtre la Balsamine, the Filature Liège, the Salzburger Festspiele, the Art Center, and more. He has made three medium-length films and one hybrid TV film. The Other Laurens is Schmitz’s first feature.
About the Distributor: Yellow Veil Pictures is a New York City and Los Angeles-based worldwide film sales and distribution company founded by Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms, and Joe Yanick in 2018. Focusing exclusively on boundary-pushing genre cinema, Yellow Veil seeks to highlight emerging filmmakers who exist on the cusp of commercial, arthouse cinema, while maintaining a unique focus on festival strategy and production and packaging.
Source: Yellow Veil Pictures