“Intense, gory and virtuoso”: French John Wick, that’s him!

What is it about? Sam is an exemplary prisoner. In the months before his release from prison, he diligently prepares for reintegration. While on vacation, his past catches up with him and an accident leaves him with only one choice: escape. Five years later, he rebuilt his life in Thailand, where he started the family he had always dreamed of.

But Narong, the local godfather, forces him to plunge back into crime. When Sam wants to end it all, Narong attacks his family… Sam plans to cross Thailand to get revenge on the executioner.

“Big hit French action movie”

Xavier Gens wanted to create with Farang “A true, hugely popular French action film”. The filmmaker explains: “A simple, respectful film that shouldn’t be embarrassed by foreign production. And tell a beautiful story of redemption through a character of Algerian origin, the subject of a film without his origin. A true hero who will do anything to save his family.”

It was his experience in London gangs that allowed him to start this project: “I was working at the same time papichaMy wife Munya Meddur’s film, which I produced, and Gangs of London. With Papicha I experienced very artistic auteur cinema, and Gangs of London, action cinema with a specific methodology of Gareth Evans (The Raid 1 and 2).

“I have done a reboot of my cinema. If Farang is a story of second chances, it is also my story, because with this film I reinvent myself. I started in cinema quite young, around 29, and I thought at 45 it was time to explore other territories, I had children, I’m really not the same anymore”Credits to whom we owe Hitman, Frontier(s) or Budapest.

Credible actor action star

Nassim Lyes connected with Xavier Gens via Instagram. Then the director met him and gave him the role a week later: “I wanted an intense actor of Algerian origin, but that is not the subject of the film. when you see Denzel Washington, there is no question about its color, it does not matter that it is black. That’s what I wanted for Farang.”

“We need actors who can represent French diversity, which is one of our greatest treasures. For the film, Naseem worked hard, he sculpted his body. He stretched the farang, he was “cut, slightly injured. But he never hesitated to shoot. He was voiced only once. Americans already miss him because he’s a super-credible action star.”

Nasim Lies was the French kickboxing champion in 2010. “I waited 13 years to get a script as strong as Farang. But I never stopped training with my brother, who did MMA. I was physically fit, but I had to diet for the character – I went from 73 to 67 kg – and I trained intensely twice a day, Even during filming.”

Who for the villain?

For the villain, Xavier Gens wanted to choose a figure from auteur cinema. He offered the role to Olivier Gurmet: “I really like his simplicity, his ambiguity, his authority. He’s like the French thugs over there.”

For an anecdote, the actor previously played a particularly gruesome serial killer in the lesser-known thriller Le Guetteur, alongside Mathieu Kasowitz and Daniel Auteuil.

Real boxers!

For Muay Thai fights, Nasim Lies opponents are real boxers who really hit. Xavier Gens specifies: “It shows in sequence. In the credits we also have stunts from Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Thais… they all have crazy filmographies! They’re so easy to work with, especially with the pre-vis. And not a single stuntman was hurt!”

Filming locations and method

Farang was shot in February-April 2022, with one week in Paris, mostly in Fresne Prison, and 35 days in Thailand (Bangkok and the village of Bang Chan), half of it for action scenes.

Xavier Gens chose a shooting method called pre-vis (or pre-visualization): “It’s just pre-shooting with a simple phone, what the sequence is going to be, and editing it into the nearest image. So we’re shooting in proportions, with stuntmen and actors, and realizing the sequence before shooting. .”

“We anticipate absolutely everything and we have the angles, the focal length, we completely plan the scene. In addition, it is great for the accuracy, efficiency, safety of the stuntmen. The result is that we get on the set what was thought, designed, not 100% , but 1000%. With Farang, we worked like that for three months before filming.”He confides.