Ariane Labed joins witch-hunt drama ‘The Possessed’

french actress Ariane LabedThe actress, who won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival for Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Attenberg,” has joined the Bosnian-Dutch writer-director’s third feature, “The Possessions.” Ena Sendiyarevic. The film will mark Sendijarević’s English-language debut and the international cast is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Since his debut in “Attenberg,” Labed has built a reputation as one of Europe’s most recognizable screen presences. Her works include collaborations with Yorgos Lanthimos in “Alps” and “The Lobster”, Philippe Grandrieux in “Malgré la nuit”, Justin Kurzel in “Assassin’s Creed” and Lucie Borleteau in “Fidelio l’odyssée d’Alice”. For this work, she won the Best Actress award at the Locarno Film Festival and was nominated for a future César Award. Other films include Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight,” Garth Davis’ “Mary Magdalene,” and “The Souvenir” and “The Souvenir Part II,” both directed by Joanna Hogg.

‘The Possessed’ is set in 17th-century Europe and tells the story of two women who run away from a witch hunt and create a refuge on the outskirts of the world, and a man becomes their unwilling prisoner, triggering a dangerous love triangle.

Sendijarević gained international attention with his unique feature debut ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’ (2019), which was selected for ACID Cannes and won the Special Jury Prize at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. She previously garnered attention for her short film ‘Import’ (2016), which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and earned the Dutchman a spot at the Oscars.

Her second feature film, ‘Sweet Dreams’ (2023), premiered in the main competition at Locarno and won the Pardo Award for Best Picture, once again being the Netherlands’ official submission to the Oscars. In 2024, she was named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch and one of IndieWire’s 17 Female Directors to Watch.

“I have followed and been inspired by Ariane Labed’s work for over 10 years and consider her one of the boldest and most outstanding actresses in Europe. It is an honor and great excitement to have Ariane participate in ‘The Possessed’ because this project has a bold concept that demands fearless acting,” said Sendijarević.

The film was produced by Layla Meijman and Maarten van der Ven (Studio Ruba) and co-produced by Sendijarević (Eklips), Miriam Porté (Distinto Film) and Martien Vlietman (VPRO). Amra Bakšić Çamo (SCCA/pro.ba) serves as associate producer. Financing comes from the Netherlands Film Fund, COBO, ICEC, Creative Europe MEDIA and Uniqa.

The project was previously presented at Les Arcs and CineMart.

Labed is represented by United Agents and Agence Adequat.