Paris-based sales agent Luxbox has backed Erige Sehiri's next feature film, “Marie & Jolie.”

Written by Sehiri, Anna Ciennik and Malika Cécile Louati, and produced by Henia Production and Didar Domehri of Maneki Films, the drama explores the quiet Christian communities in the predominantly Muslim metropolis of Tunis. Pathé Afrique and Jour2Fête have come on board as Tunisian and French distributors respectively, with production now underway.

The project, which is present at the Venice Gap Financing Market, has already received development support from the Doha Film Institute, the Tunisian Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Fonds Image de la Francophonie, with the participation of TV5MONDE, as well as financial support from the Hubert Bals Fund in Rotterdam.

Actors Aïssa Maïga (“Bamako”) and Laetitia Ky (“Night of the Kings,” “Disco Boy”) join newcomer Deborah Naney as women who share a home that hides an evangelical church. When they take in a child migrant who survived a shipwreck, each member of this makeshift family must rethink their place in the home and in society.