In a performance that The Hollywood Reporter calls “riveting,” New Caledonian actor Toki Pilioko plays Sloane, a rugby player from the destitute town of Nouméa, who is recruited to come to France to play rugby. Arriving shy of the 140 kilos he needs to weigh to be approved for the team that brought him to Europe, Soane is brought to a new team, pumped full of steroids, and abused as he fights for a remaining spot on one of the smaller, professional rugby teams.
Far from a mere sports movie, Mercenary reveals not only the dark side of professional sports, but the hard times of a special kind of immigrant—a man who is, by law, a French citizen (New Caledonia is a French territory), but certainly not treated as such by the locals, who revere him for his on-field exploits and then despise him for being an immigrant.
Director’s Biography
Sacha Wolff: Born in Strasbourg, France in 1981, Sacha Wolff graduated from film school in Nantes, and has also studied directing at La Fémis the French state film and television school. He has directed two short films, Does It Make a Sound ('06) and Retour ('07). Mercenary is his debut feature and was screened at the 2016 Director’s Fortnight in Cannes.
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