EXCLUSIVE : Veteran French filmmaker Catherine Breillat , whose latest film Last Summer (2023) played in Cannes Competition and scored multiple César and Lumiere nominations, is next writing and directing The German Cousin , an adaptation of Georges Simenon novel The Krull House .

Breillat is re-teaming on the project with her Last Summer producer Saïd Ben Saïd of SBS Productions, producer of Elle and Cannes 2026 Competition entry The Man I Love .

Filming is being lined up for late 2027 on the project about small-town groupthink in 1930s Europe; Simenon’s 1939 novel is considered a prophetic study of race hatred and mass hysteria. Pyramide International is handling sales and is at Cannes discussing the project with potential partners.

The synopsis reads: “At the very edge of the city, on the border between the industrial outskirts and the countryside, directly facing a lock — the central character of the story — stands a modest grocery café: Chez Krull.…