Wil Aime On His Self-Funded Thriller ‘Who’
Wil Aime is one of the largest digital creators in the Francophone world, with over one million followers on Instagram alone. But in 2019, he stopped posting online regularly. In that time, he traveled widely and developed his own full-service production company. He also wrote, directed, and self-funded Who, a high-action, globe-trotting feature-length thriller currently on theatrical release across France, Belgium, and other select international territories via Pathé.
Described as a “high-tension psychological thriller,” the film has been launched with the enigmatic tagline: “In a world of monsters, who is the real monster?”
The official synopsis reads: “In a world where time is running out, and decisions have far-reaching consequences, a series of characters navigate a relentless machine where every mistake can be fatal. Between psychological tension, moral dilemmas, and the quest for truth, Who explores the limits of humanity in the face of extreme situations.”
Aime also stars in the film. He told us that the story was inspired by Hajime Isayama’s popular Manga series Attack on Titan during a sit-down at this year’s AfroCannes symposium, a four-day event focused on global Black cinema held annually in parallel to the official Cannes Film Festival. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Attack on Titan tells the story of the last few humans on Earth who have retreated to marooned cities hidden behind large concrete walls to avoid a monstrous species that has invaded Earth.
“It blew my mind,” he says of Isayama’s series. “So I wanted to try and write my own story about monsters and a monstrous world. An original story that I’ve never seen in the cinema before.”
Aime explains that he began to travel to find stories he could integrate into a feature film. He visited French Guiana, an overseas French territory on the northeast coast of South America, which, in recent decades, has become a major transit hub for cocaine trafficking between South America and Europe.
“I met some gangsters, some monsters,” Aime says of his journey through the country. “They told me their stories, and it inspired me, so I began to write.”
Over the next few years, Aime and his production team shot Who across Paris, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, and Jamaica. The project was entirely self-funded by Aime. But like the American creator Markiplier, who made a killing at the box office with his self-funded horror flick Iron Lung, Aime says he originally tried to secure traditional production funding for the project.
“I applied for soft money from the government, but I didn’t get it,” he says. “But I was fine with that because my team and I had a vision.”
Aime adds that self-funding the project also afforded him a level of independence that was not only expedient creatively but politically.
“In the cinema industry in France, especially when you are Black, you always owe people things. And in turn, you’re also owned,” he says.
“There are many examples of big Black personalities who, one day, may try to produce a political idea or just an idea that is free-minded, and that’s when the system stops them and reminds them, ‘I made you, what are you doing?’
“I never want to create an opportunity for them to say that to me,” Aime says.
Aime screened the completed film for French distributors and locked a deal with Pathé. The company agreed to a bespoke theatrical rollout that will see the film hit cinemas in France, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, and Belgium on May 28 and 29. Theatrical releases will follow, in June, in Canada and French-speaking Africa. Directly after the theatrical release, Who will drop exclusively on Disney+ in France.
Kevin Deysson, Vice President of Original Productions at Disney+ in France, described the Who rollout as an “innovative theatrical release” that best illustrates Disney’s “ambition to evolve the models for distributing and supporting creators” in his statement following the announcement of the deal.
The deal is indeed part of a new and evolving trend in France. Traditionally, films released in the country are bound by strict and lengthy theatrical windows, which can only be shortened, like in the case of Aime’s Who, with a special “exceptional visa” exemption authorized by France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC). To qualify, a film must not exceed 500 screenings over a maximum of two days in a single week. In recent years, companies like mk2 have increasingly experimented with shorter releases, placing creator content like the feature documentary Kaizen by the popular YouTuber Inoxtag in cinemas before releasing for free online. But Aime’s Who will be one of the first to go straight from the cinema to a streaming service.
“This is a brand new model in France. They’re gonna hate us,” Aime jokes when asked about the reaction he believes his film’s release may garner in France. “But we’re ready for that. In every revolution, there are gangsters. And I like that.”
Aime says that he is particularly proud that the film will be released theatrically on the African continent, and he had originally planned for the African and French releases to run simultaneously.
“It wasn’t possible, but still we are really happy,” he says. “We don’t think just about France. We think about the whole world. Borders make us less human. We want to travel and speak to all people, particularly all Black people, because we share a story and a lineage.”
The cinema release in Francophone Africa begins on June 10th.
The Numbers
Aime declined to say how much of his own money he invested in the project, and Pathé has yet to report admissions figures, so there is currently no real barometer for the film’s potential success. For comparison, Inoxtag sold an estimated 350,000 tickets in one day for the release of Kaizen in 2024. So far, Who has sold out multiple venues across France, including the Grand Rex in Paris, where the film had its premiere on May 26.
For Aime, however, the fact that the film exists is the only relevant achievement.
“Cinema is the biggest stage in storytelling, and in France it can often feel impossible to make films,” Aime says.
“So I want this journey to show the kids, particularly those of African descent in France, that you can do it yourself. You can be a director and make your movie. We can dream big.”
Who will be available to watch on Disney+ in France on May 30.
Wil Aime is one of the largest
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