My Friend Victoria
My Friend Victoria is a French/Belgian film, directed by Jean-Paul Civeyrac, released in December 2014. It stars Guslagie Malanda, Nadia Moussa, Catherine Mouchet, Pascal Greggory and Pierre Andrau.
Civeyrac adapted the film from Victoria and the Staveneys, a story by Doris Lessing.
Plot
Victoria, a black girl from a modest background, has never forgotten the night she spent at the house of a bourgeois family in Paris, at the home of Thomas, a school-friend who had once brought her back with him. Years later, their paths re-cross. From a brief liaison, a daughter, Marie, is born. But Victoria leaves it another seven years before revealing the child's existence to Thomas and his family. They suggest she bring the child regularly to their home. Bit by bit, Victoria measures the consequences of this.Development
Doris Lessing's Victoria and the Staveneys was first published in her collection The Grandmothers. Writer and director Jean-Paul Civeyrac changed the setting of Lessing's story from London to Paris.Guslagie Malanda had no film experience before she was cast in the title role; she went to an audition after a friend working on the project told her that she "might be a good fit".