Jacques Toulemonde
Jacques Toulemonde was born to a French-Colombian family in Bogota where he grew up before leaving to France in 2001. In Paris, he studied literature at La Sorbonne. He served for nearly ten years as first assistant director in several feature films such as The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerra, The Stoplight Society by Rubén Mendoza, among others. In 2010, he directed the short film Un juego de niños, selected in more than thirty film festivals and received more than ten international awards. In 2014, he directed ANNA, a road movie between France and Colombia. Toulemonde is currently developing Cariño, a feature that describes the struggle of a rapper caught in a spiral of violence while he tries to provide for his family in Bogota. Jacques also works as a screenwriter. He is the writer of his own projects and he co-wrote the script of Ciro Guerra’s The Embrace of the Serpent, winner of the Art Cinema Award during Cannes’ Directors Fortnight 2015.

Director's statement
“Anna is a film about motherhood and identity; a film that explores subjects influenced by the seventies American cinema. Anna describes the journey of misfit characters seeking redemption in a society that doesn’t understand them, that alienates them. They pursue delusional dreams that are far from their reach. Anna is a film about the obsession of being like everyone else, about the anxiety of not achieving it. It’s a very personal story. Anna is unstable, of course, but she’s also a mother. A marvellous mother who can be dangerous for herself and others. The question that goes through the film is: what can we do with people like Anna? Must we stoically put up with them? Shall we put them in asylums out of sight and out of mind? I don’t know if this film answers the question in a concrete and clear way, but at least it raises the issue. Anna also describes a journey between France and Colombia. The road movie motif in this film allows me to depict different places where I have lived through the perspective of the stranger, seeing France through Anna’s eyes and Colombia through Bruno’s point of view. To me, the truthfulness and the strength of the actors’ performances is the first priority. I wanted to get a realistic, truthful and intense acting, even a just bit excessive because of the extreme and changing nature of the characters”.