The Stone Council (Le Concile de pierre)

Guillaume Nicloux directed The Stone Council (French title Le Concile de pierre), a thriller from 2006. A French-Italian-German co-production with action and fantasy elements, it is adapted from Jean-Christophe Grangé's novel of the same name; Grangé also wrote Les Rivières pourpres. It reached cinemas on 1 December 2006, runs 100 minutes and is Nicloux's sixth feature.

The story centres on Diane Siprien, a single scientist in France, and Liu-San, the boy she has adopted from Mongolia. Years later a strange mark appears on the child's chest and both begin to have terrifying nightmares. When Diane takes a three-day job in Germany and leaves Liu with her friend Sybille, she finds him hidden on the back seat of her car; an eagle hits the windscreen, she crashes and Liu falls into a coma. A recorder has caught the boy speaking an unknown language. As Diane tries to trace it, she is surrounded by mysterious murders and follows the trail to a mystical Mongolian tribe.

Monica Bellucci and Catherine Deneuve (Sybille) lead the cast, with Moritz Bleibtreu (Serguei), Sami Bouajila (Lucas) and Elsa Zylberstein. Nicloux wrote the script with Stéphane Cabel. Filming took place in Mongolia, at the Gandantegchinlen Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, and in Paris.