Eye Haïdara, Mélanie Laurent Star in Spy Thriller ‘Mata,’ Boarded by Indie Sales, Warner Bros. France Ahead of EFM (EXCLUSIVE)

Eye Haïdara (“C’est la vie!”) and Mélanie Laurent (“Inglorious Basterds”) are starring in “Mata,” a high voltage spy thriller directed by Rachel Lang, whose previous film “Our Men” played at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.

“Mata” has been boarded by Paris-based Indie Sales which will introduce the project to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin. Warner Bros. will distribute the movie in French theaters while Netflix has picked up local streaming rights.

Now filming, “Mata” also stars Joséphine Japy (“Tapie”) and Raphaël Personnaz (“Boléro”). The movie marks Lang’s third feature, following “Our Men” which was the closing film of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2021, and “Baden Baden” which played at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016.

Haïdara stars as Mata, a French secret agent who gets wounded while on a clandestine operation in Niger and loses track of her colleague Antoine, captured on the spot. “Upon her return, she volunteers for a counter-espionage mission in the Alps, sensing that this new assignment might somehow be connected to her traumatic mission in Africa. Haunted by Antoine’s captivity and convinced that her managers are hiding information from her, Mata embarks on a race against time, outside any official framework, at the risk of losing everything,” the synopsis reads.

Indie Sales’s CEO, Nicolas Eschbach, said “‘Mata’ promises to be a unique film in the French cinematic landscape.”

“Few projects combine such ambitious entertainment value and psychological depth. Rachel’s experience and talent will bring a rare female twist on the often male-centric spy genre, and we trust that worldwide audiences will love it as much as we do,” Eschbach said.

A French-Belgian production, “Mata” is produced by Chevaldeuxtrois, Nolita Cinema, Wrong Men and Marvelous.

Indie Sales’s slate include such Jean-Pierre Améris’ “It Takes Two to Tango,” Leonora Carrington biopic “Leonora in the Morning Light,” Jan & Raf Roosens’ debut feature “Comeback” and Berlinale Generation Michel Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title.”