Starring Daniel Auteuil, Nastassja Kinski, Katrin Cartlidge and Marianne Denicourt and directed by Chris Menges, THE LOST SON is based on an original story by Eric and Margaret Leclere, with the screenplay by Eric and Margaret Leclere and Mark Mills. A Scala/Ima Films production, THE LOST SON is produced by Finola Dwyer, with Nik Powell and Stephen Woolley of Scala and Georges Benayoun of Ima as executive producers, Marina Gefter of Ima co-producing and Judy Menges as associate producer. The Film Consortium, Le Studio Canal +, Scala and Ima Films present, in association with the Arts Council of England, Film Four, France 2 Cinema, France 3 Cinema and Canal+.

THE LOST SON was filmed over 55 days in '98 on locations in London, Felixstowe in Suffolk and Arizona (standing in for Mexico) with two days at Elstree Studios.

Daniel Auteuil, one of France's leading actors, had long wanted to make a film in English: "I'd had a lot of offers to do English or American films, but this was the first one that interested me. When I read the screenplay I felt that it was not only a good action film, with a story, but that it had meaning as well. It is treated like a thriller, but there is a lot going on behind the action that you see. It's an emotional film that makes you think".

THE LOST SON is a rare excursion in British cinema into film noir. "I see it as a dark, noir thriller," says director Chris Menges. "Lombard (Daniel Auteuil's character) is a foreigner exiled in London who is trying to find himself, and, in doing so, takes a journey into a very murky world, where he makes some shocking discoveries."

The film noir elements emerge not only in the basic story-telling, but also through the use of the neon-lit streets and alleyways of London's Soho at night, where much of the film takes place.

"We also wanted to show London in a way that wasn't cliched," says producer Finola Dwyer. "We wanted to avoid too much of the very self-consciously London, the usual tourist landmarks."

Portraying London primarily through the streets of Soho at night, also offered a greater contrast with the other two key locations used in the story - the isolated house on the grey Suffolk coast used as a hideout by Emily (Katrin Cartlidge) and the ranch in the dazzling Mexican sunshine from where Friedman (Bruce Greenwood) runs his sinister business.

Mexico and the US/Mexican border territory have also played a significant role in American film noir, emphasising the dislocation and isolation of the central character. In THE LOST SON this is taken a stage further as the central character, Lombard, is from the outset, dislocated and isolated in London.

"He is in the tradition of the great private detectives," says Auteuil. "He is an isolated man with financial problems, who takes on what appears to be another routine enquiry, which ends up taking him to hell. It is in this sense that it takes on the mythology of film noir." The hell to which the enquiry takes Lombard is far more shocking than anything that classic film noir would have been permitted to come up with.

"His journey takes us into the very dark world of child abuse," says Menges, " and as the story of his investigation unravels you learn more about his past, what happened to him in Paris, why he had to leave, and, most importantly, what drives him and motivates him. He becomes a man obsessed. The script is full of very rich texture and blackness."

"It is first and foremost a thriller," says Finola Dwyer. "I don't see it as an issue film, even though it touches on the very sensitive subjects of child abuse and child pornography. That is what Lombard uncovers in his investigation and what he gets involved in, and there's no shying away from that.

But Chris is a director of huge integrity, and we were very determined to present this in a way that was not exploitative but was shocking. "

The "villains" in THE LOST SON are not the abusers themselves, but the people who supply them. The audience never sees a child trafficker as such, except on the video that Lombard finds in Leon's apartment, which he makes Nathalie watch.

"This is the only point at which the film is graphic, and even then it's more by suggestion, " says Dwyer. "I discussed this with Chris - you can convey so much in a way that people feel that they have seen much more than they actually have. We wanted to be tough and to disturb people, it's an ugly and brutal part of our lives, but you can do that in ways that are not exploitative. For example, the way in which Chris shot the scene where Lombard poses as a child trafficker and is taken blindfolded to the hotel in north London. It's a typical dingy hotel on a typical dingy London street, and when Lombard gets inside it's all very business-like, but then when you get into the room, and you see the child and the sexual 'toys' around him.....you don't need to show any more to make a very powerful point."

Chris Menges feels that the casting of Daniel Auteuil offset some of the darkness of the story. "There's a real human element to Daniel as a person, which helped this very dark story to have a human centre, to have some hope. He has been personally hurt in the past, makes a terrible discovery in the present which changes him, and gives him and the audience some hope for the future, so, in that respect it's very positive."

For his first role in English, Auteuil prepared by studying the language for six months prior to the start of shooting, living in London and attending classes every day. "It must have been quite difficult for him, learning a language and then having to shoot a whole film speaking it, but he was a joy to work with, " says Finola Dwyer. "He got to the point where he didn't really have to think about the language and so his performance just shone through, which is just what he wanted - to be so at ease he could just get on and do the role."

"I acted as I always do," says Auteuil. "Every country has its gestures and ways of expressing things, but in the end it's what you see in the eyes that is important - it's just a question of human rapport."

Auteuil was excited not only about shooting a film in English, but also about working in London. "Over the last few years British cinema has become very exciting, and that's why I wanted to do a film here. It's a cinema where things are changing. Previously in the UK, directors often had to stay in television for financial reasons, which is maybe why the UK has some of the best television in the world. But when funding was eased by such things as the lottery franchises, it allowed film-makers young and old to tell their stories. And London itself has changed - it's very lively, very cosmopolitan, and that comes across in the film."

Around Auteuil Menges cast three very different actresses all of whom reinforce the central idea of dislocation.

Like Daniel Auteuil, Marianne Denicourt appears for the first time in an English-language film, although finds herself in the strange position of having only French dialogue, in her role of Nathalie, Lombard's prostitute friend. As both she and Auteuil play French characters in London, and she appears only in scenes with him, it is natural that they should speak to each other in French. "She's superb... completely priceless," says Menges.

Nastassja Kinski brings to her role of Deborah a European mystique, most famously captured on screen in the late '70s and early '80s in Polanski's "Tess", Schrader's "Cat People" and Wenders' "Paris, Texas". The sister of Leon, the man whose disappearance triggers the plot, Deborah is the daughter of a rich European Jewish family and the wife of Carlos, the South American friend of Lombard's, who brings him on to the case.

In spite of the English setting of the film, only one of the central characters - Emily - is English. In this role Menges cast Katrin Cartlidge, best-known for her cutting-edge work with such directors as Mike Leigh ("Naked", "Career Girls"), Lars Von Trier ("Breaking the Waves") and Lodge Kerrigan ("Claire Dolan"), and who has worked more outside of the UK than she has in it.

Even though the film is not episodic, each of these women has her very own distinctive territory within the action. Denicourt's scenes are all against the seedy backdrop of Soho, where she works as a prostitute. Kinski is seen primarily against elegant interiors - the hotel where she first meets Lombard and the Hampstead house where she and Carlos live. Apart from one scene towards the end of the film, Cartlidge appears only in and outside the house in Felixstowe, where she hides the abused and rescued children.

Due to Nastassja Kinski's schedule, all of her scenes were compressed into just over a week of shooting, but otherwise the film was shot in almost chronological order. "Each of these women bring something different into Lombard's life," says Auteuil.

Many of the scenes featuring Denicourt with Auteuil were shot in Soho, at times when the area was at its busiest.

For the scene in which Lombard and Nathalie meet her pimp to get a lead on the child trafficking ring, the production used the famous transvestite club Madame Jo Jo's on Brewer Street, right in the heart of Soho. To shoot Lombard and Nathalie emerging from the club, Menges and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd positioned themselves inside a specially constructed hide opposite the club, at the end of Rupert Street market, which was just closing down for the day. This enabled them to shoot at a particulary busy time of the day, without being disturbed by on-lookers.

"What I was trying to do was to catch reality and moments on the streets, using long lenses and hiding cameras" says Menges.

What also added to the complexity of the shoot was filming in three very different and distinct locations. "It does make it more difficult than if you were doing a 12-week shoot in London," says Finola Dwyer.

Thirteen of the UK crew travelled to the US for the Arizona shoot. "Chris likes continuity and finds it very reassuring to have people around him that he knows, " she adds.