Tarak Ben Ammar’s filmography: Profession: producer
The South "comes up" to the North

Brian de Palma wanted to film a European capital. The filming in Paris lasted ten weeks (certain scenes also take place in Cannes during the Festival) for a budget of $ 35 million.

"We wanted to make Vertigo 2001, a great homage to Hitchcock. The rushes and the first rough cut that I saw went in this direction: we are in a true thriller, with a sublime femme fatale, that is so beautiful and radiant that the public will identify with her and will be in a state of shock when she double-crosses everyone. I had the same feeling when reading this script as for that of Sixth Sense. It is a very hard-hitting de Palma, a film that is much more stylized than his previous productions."

This film tries to explain the origins of Hannibal Lecter’s character, the terrifying killer of The Silence of the Lambs. Dino de Laurentiis, co-producer: "Above all, we wanted a mysterious physiology that we were unable to find. We wanted a charming young man that was credible as a murderer."

Tarak Ben Ammar, co-producer, proposed the project to Gaspard Ulliel, who had just finished filming for A Very Long Engagement, at an evening event: "I immediately understood that we had found our Hannibal when I saw him! We met Gaspard in Paris, then the director filmed a test with him at my home, and the result on the screen was incredible. Everything was there, under our eyes: this intensity, eye contact. I remember having then said to Gaspard that he was born to embody Hannibal Lecter."

"This film tells the story of forty years of the life of a village in Sicily. It was encountering difficulties to get started as it was necessary to build the biggest film set ever made. Bigger than that built in Cinecittà for Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese. I explained to Giuseppe Tornatore – who directed Cinema Paradiso – that it was feasible for a reasonable cost in Tunisia. That was enough to convince him. Baaria is the name of the director’s mother."