When the Night Falls

When the Night Falls
FrenchLa Troisième Nuit
LiterallyThe Third Night
Directed byDaniel Auteuil
Written by
  • Daniel Auteuil
  • Camille Lugan
Produced byFrédéric Jouve
Starring
CinematographyJean-François Hensgens
Edited byValérie Deseine
Music byOlivier Goinard
Production
companies
  • Les Films Velvet
  • Zack Films
Distributed bySND (France)
Release date
  • 17 May 2026 (2026-05-17) (Cannes)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

When the Night Falls (French: La Troisième Nuit, lit. 'The Third Night') is a 2026 French historical drama film co-written, directed and starring Daniel Auteuil. It follows the true story of a mission to rescue of more than one hundred Jewish children from an internment camp near Lyon in August 1942, during the Holocaust.[1]

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Premiere section at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2026.[2]

Synopsis

In August 1942, the Vichy government organizes a large-scale roundup of foreign Jews. Gilbert Lesage, a young civil servant who leads the regime's Service social des étrangers (SSE), is tasked with determining the fate of the arrested Jews, and attempts to save the Jewish children at the internment camp in Vénissieux from deportation with the aid of Catholic priest Alexandre Glasberg

Cast

Production

Development

In April 2025, on the occasion of his film An Ordinary Case winning the Jacques Deray Prize at the Institut Lumière in Lyon, Daniel Auteuil revaled his next film project would be about Lyon and Vénissieux.[3] Auteuil co-wrote the screenplay with filmmaker Camille Lugan.[4] In June 2025, it was announced that the film would be titled La Nuit and would begin filming in October 2025, with Antoine Reinartz and Grégory Gadebois starring.[5] In a December 2025 interview, Auteuil commented: "It's a story that deeply moved me. When it was proposed to me, I felt the urge to immerse myself in it and tell it. Human suffering is still, unfortunately, relevant."[6]

In September 2025, a casting call was held in Le Mans for children to portray Jewish children held prisoner in a camp.[7] In October 2025, a second casting call was held in Le Mans seeking one hundred extras aged 18 to 65 to portray police officers, gendarmes, doctors, nurses, nuns, prisoners, patients, bus drivers and more.[8]

Filming

Principal photography, under the new working title Une Nuit, began on 27 October 2025 in Lyon, continuing there for fifteen days.[9][10] Filming locations in Lyon included the Palais de la Bourse, the Musée des Tissus, the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière and the streets of Vieux Lyon.[1] On 10 November 2025, shooting began in the south of the Sarthe department, around La Flèche[11] at the Église Sainte-Colombe, among other sites,[12] as well as at the Thorée-les-Pins military camp.[13] Filming wrapped in Sarthe on 6 December 2025. Jean-François Hensgens served as the director of photography.[14]

The film was produced by Frédéric Jouve for Les Films Velvet and by Auteuil's Zack Films, in co-production with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma.[14]

Release

When the Night Falls was selected to be screened in the Cannes Premiere section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival,[15][16] where it had its world premiere on 17 May 2026.[17]

International sales are handled by SND,[18] which is also scheduled to theatrically release the film in France in 2026.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Hernandez, Luc (13 November 2025). "Daniel Auteuil tourne à Lyon son nouveau film sur la rafle des enfants de Vénissieux". Tribune de Lyon. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  2. ↑ "LA TROISIÈME NUIT". Festival de Cannes (in French). Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  3. ↑ Zanolo, J. P. (2 April 2025). "Le projet de film de Daniel Auteuil sur Lyon dans les années 40 : « Je vais essayer d'être à la hauteur »". Le Progrès (in French). Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  4. ↑ Croll, Ben (15 January 2025). "Daniel Auteuil and 'Emilia Perez' Collaborator Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux Set Up Next Features With Les Films Velvet". Variety. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  5. ↑ F. B. (15 June 2025). "Daniel Auteuil de retour en Luberon, quarante ans après "Jean de Florette", le film qui a tout changé". La Provence (in French). Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  6. ↑ Gohin, Louis (2 December 2025). "ENTRETIEN. En tournage dans le Sud Sarthe, Daniel Auteuil se confie au Maine Libre : « Une histoire qui m'a bouleversé »". Le Maine libre. Ouest-France. Retrieved 10 April 2025.
  7. ↑ Le Duff, Julie (12 September 2025). "Un casting d'enfants au Mans pour le film de Daniel Auteuil qui racontera le sauvetage des enfants juifs de Vénissieux". Ici. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  8. ↑ "Médecins, prisonniers… Une centaine de figurants recherchés au Mans pour un film avec Daniel Auteuil". Ouest-France (in French). 13 October 2025. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  9. ↑ "Daniel Auteuil en tournage à Lyon pour son nouveau film UNE NUIT". Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma (in French). 7 November 2025. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  10. ↑ "Mais que fait cette camionnette Laffly dans les Pentes de la Croix-Rousse ?". Le Progrès (in French). 30 October 2025. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  11. ↑ Gohin, Louis (14 November 2025). "« Une nuit » : Daniel Auteuil tourne actuellement un film en Sarthe". Le Maine libre. Ouest-France. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  12. ↑ Gohin, Louis (2 December 2025). "EN IMAGES. Dans les coulisses du film de Daniel Auteuil tourné en Sarthe". Le Maine libre. Ouest-France. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  13. ↑ Danilo, Serge (9 April 2026). "Tourné en Sarthe, le film de Daniel Auteuil projeté au festival de Cannes". Le Maine libre. Ouest-France. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  14. 1 2 Lemercier, Fabien (25 November 2025). "Dernière ligne droite pour le tournage de Une nuit de Daniel Auteuil". Cineuropa. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  15. ↑ "The films of the Official Selection 2026". Festival de Cannes. 9 April 2026. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  16. ↑ Ntim, Zac; Wiseman, Andreas (9 April 2026). "Cannes Film Festival: Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda & Ira Sachs Among Filmmakers Set For Competition As Full Lineup Revealed". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  17. ↑ "The Screenings Guide of the 79th Festival de Cannes". Festival de Cannes. 7 May 2026. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  18. ↑ Leffler, Rebecca (8 January 2026). "Daniel Auteuil-directed WW2 drama 'When The Night Falls' heads SND's 2026 sales slate". Screen Daily. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  19. ↑ "Cannes 2026 : les films tournés et fabriqués en région en sélection". Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma (in French). 9 April 2026. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.