I’ve done many projects including Desordres, and this summer I’ll be in Michigan shooting a movie called “Radio Days” where I play a French Senegalese woman, then I’ll appear in French filmmaker Tavernier’s movie Quai D’Orsay.
From French/Rwandan actress, Sonia Rolland, in an interview with EuroMight.com, talking about her upcoming projects.
We’ve covered Désordres (Chaos) extensively; it opened in France last week, but no word on whether it’ll travel west.
The other 2 projects she mentions are news to me. Of most interest is Radio Days, in which she plays a French Senegalese woman; it’s of most interest because I can’t find a single thing about it online.
The other, Quai D’Orsay, comes from renowned French film director Bertrand Tavernier, and is described as a dark comedy inspired by the famous French comic book of the same name, which chronicles the story of the French Foreign Ministry’s inner workings at a moment of international crisis – that being the beginning of the war in Iraq.
Rolland’s role in that film appears to be peripheral, based on my research.
When I learn more about Radio Days I’ll pass on the info.
But Ms Rolland seems to be busy on both sides of the Atlantic, recently playing Josephine Baker in Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris (although she wasn’t on screen for very long); Those familiar with Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s last film, Moloch Tropical, will recognize Ms Rolland, as she figures prominently in it, as wife of President Jean de Dieu Théogène, played in the film by Zinedine Soualem; she also plays a supporting role in director Philippe Niang’s Toussaint L’Ouverture.
The 32-year old Rolland, who lives in Paris, France, was born in Kigali, Rwanda, to a Rwandese Tutsi mother and a French father. The family escaped to France preceding the Tutsi genocide, when the actress was in her teens.
Crowned Miss France a few years later, in the year 2000, she would go on to represent the country in the Miss Universe pageant, placing 9th overall in the final standings.
Since 2002, Rolland has been afforded a number of onscreen opportunities, both in TV and film, so her acting career has been a relatively short one, with her most prominent role coming in the French TV series Lea Parker, in which she starred as the titular character, which ran for 2 seasons, from 2004 to 2006.
Apparently, Ms Rolland is quite famous in France, though she’s making her mark in the African continent, where she founded an association to help post-genocide orphans in Rwanda.
This spring, she will step behind the camera for the first time to direct a short film titled An Ordinary Life.
Details are limited, but I can tell you that it’s in development, and its synopsis reads:
Nadia and her little brother Gaël live alone with their mother in a council estate. Nadia has been taking care of Gaël for some time in the absence of their mother who is receiving an education, 300 miles away from home. Nadia calls her mother every night to tell her about her day. After a fight at school, Nadia is expelled, and doesn’t dare tell her mum the truth. But her mother comes back home earlier than expected…
And as you can probably imagine, drama ensues.
Up next, catch her in the French thriller, Désordres (Chaos), alongside Isaach de Bankole, which I hope travels, because I’d really love to check it out, based on the trailers and clips we’ve posted… like the one below:
