Mathieu Kassovitz
Encyclopedia
Mathieu Kassovitz is a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

 and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, best known for his Cannes
1995 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Jeanne Moreau *Gianni Amelio *Jean-Claude Brialy *Nadine Gordimer *Gaston Kabore *Michele-Ray Gavras *Emilio Garcia Riera *Philippe Rousselot *John Waters...

-winning drama La Haine
La Haine
La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

. Kassovitz is also the founder of MNP Entreprise
MNP Entreprise
Founded in 2000 by Mathieu Kassovitz, MNP is a french film production company headed by Mathieu Kassovitz and Guillaume Colboc.Kassovitz established the company in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor."...

, a film production company.
Kassovitz was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, the son of Chantal Rémy, a film editor, and Peter Kassovitz
Peter Kassovitz
Peter Kassovitz is a French film director and scriptwriter.He was born in Budapest, Hungary. He left the country at the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He is the father of film director Mathieu Kassovitz....

, a director and writer. Kassovitz's mother is French and Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 and his father is a Hungarian Jew who left Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Kassovitz was married to French ex-actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside with in his 1993 film Métisse (Café au lait, English title) and who made a brief appearance in La Haine
La Haine
La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

(during the scene in the Parisian art gallery). They have a daughter, Carmen. Mauduech is now a costume designer for films.

Filmmaker

As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has made several artistic and commercial successes. He wrote and directed La Haine
La Haine
La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

(Hate, 1995), a hugely controversial film in France dealing with themes around class, race, violence, and police brutality. The film won the César Award for Best Film
César Award for Best Film
The winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Film .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...

 and netted Kassovitz the Best Director
Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)
The Best Director Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946....

 prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival
1995 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Jeanne Moreau *Gianni Amelio *Jean-Claude Brialy *Nadine Gordimer *Gaston Kabore *Michele-Ray Gavras *Emilio Garcia Riera *Philippe Rousselot *John Waters...

. When he was compared to Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....

 because the film was being compared to Lee's Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing is a 1989 American dramedy produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee, who is also a featured actor in the film. Other members of the cast include Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro. It is also notably the...

, he noted the irony:

I don't know if it's really important, or intelligent even, when people say to me I'm a white Spike Lee, because they said to Spike Lee you're a black Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...

.

He later directed Les Rivières Pourpres (2000), a police detective thriller starring Jean Reno
Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...

 and Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel
Vincent Cassel is a Cesar award winning French actor probably best known to English-speaking audiences through his performances in the Ocean's Trilogy of films and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.-Personal life:...

, another massive commercial success in France, and Gothika
Gothika
-Box office:Gothika was released on November 21, 2003 in North America, grossing $19,288,438 in the opening weekend and ranking at #2, behind The Cat in the Hat. It went on to gross $59,694,580 in the domestic market and $81,896,744 from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $141,591,324...

(2003), a fantasy thriller (considered by some to be a commercial failure, although it grossed over twice its roughly $40 million budget), with Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...

 and Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...

 that he did to earn the money he needed to develop a far more personal project Babylon Babies, the adaptation of one of Maurice Dantec's books. Kassovitz established the film production firm MNP Entreprise in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor." MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006) in which Kassovitz acts and Babylon A.D.
Babylon A.D. (film)
Babylon A.D. is a 2008 science fiction action film based on the novel Babylon Babies by Maurice Georges Dantec. The film was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Vin Diesel, Mélanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh and Lambert Wilson...

which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny Mad Dog by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala
Emmanuel Dongala
Emmanuel Boundzéki Dongala is a Congolese chemist and novelist. He is currently Richard B. Fisher Chair in Natural Sciences at Bard College at Simon's Rock....

. The film was also co-produced by MNP Entreprise, and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. The premiere of the film was made at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 14 to May 25, 2008. In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.The British press...

 where it was screened within the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...

 section.

MNP Entreprise's upcoming titles are Rebellion, MNP and also Dust Motion, that he will co-direct with young director K-Michel Parandi
K-Michel Parandi
K-Michel Parandi, , is a New York based film director, screenwriter and advertising writer known as a concept oriented Creative Director....

. Kassovitz will both star in and direct Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

, the Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...

n territory of France
Overseas departments and territories of France
The French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of the European continent. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all have representation in the Parliament of France , and consequently the...

. The film will start shooting at the end of 2008. The science fiction film
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 MNP is named after Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

 Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company.

Actor

Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
-Life and career:Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in Roanne, Loire, France. He bought his first camera at the age of 17 and made short films while studying animation at Cinémation Studios. He befriended Marc Caro, a designer and comic book artist who became his longtime collaborator and...

's film Amélie
Amélie
Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre...

. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine
La Haine
La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

(which he also directed), Birthday Girl
Birthday Girl
Birthday Girl is a 2001 British-American drama and crime film directed by Jez Butterworth. The plot focuses on English bank clerk John Buckingham who orders a Russian mail-order bride, Nadia. It becomes clear upon her arrival that Nadia cannot speak English, and early into her stay, two mysterious...

,
Café Au Lait and The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element is a 1997 French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich...

. He also played one of the main roles in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras, is a Greek filmmaker, who lives and works in France, best known for films with overt political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller, Z...

. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's controversial 2005 film Munich
Munich (film)
Munich is a 2005 historical fiction film about the Israeli government's secret retaliation attacks after the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Black September terrorist group during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The film stars Eric Bana and was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg...

, alongside Eric Bana
Eric Bana
Eric Bana is an Australian film and television actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biopic Chopper...

 and Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...

. He explained several times he accepted acting parts only for the experience of knowing what it is to act, to be able to be a better director of actors afterward, to meet directors he admires and learn from them by working with them, and to take part in great projects. Kassovitz was a jury member for the 2001 Cannes Film Festival
2001 Cannes Film Festival
The 2001 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian film The Son's Room by Nanni Moretti.-Jury:* Liv Ullmann, President * Mimmo Calopresti * Charlotte Gainsbourg...

.

Views on Sarkozy

In November 2005, riots spread throughout poor immigrant suburbs of Paris following the deaths of two teenagers of North African descent, who were accidentally electrocuted while avoiding police ID checks and questioning that amounted to racial profiling. The question of whether young men were victims of racial discrimination set off a chain reaction of violence in schools, gyms, and police stations, and an aggressive response from then - Home Office Minister Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

. Sarkozy stirred controversy and outrage when he said the rioters were "scum" and should be "cleansed" from the banlieues (neighborhoods) with a "fire hose".

Kassovitz, whose film La haine ten years earlier had first highlighted the tensions between police and immigrant communities, and stirred constructive national dialogue, publicly responded to Sarkozy via his blog. He took the right-wing minister to task, saying that Sarkozy held "ideas that not only reveal his inexperience of politics and human relations, but which also illuminate the purely demagogical and egocentric aspects of a puny, would-be Napoleon."

Feature films

  • Métisse / Café au lait (1993)
  • La Haine / Hate
    La Haine
    La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

    (1995)
  • Assassin(s)
    Assassin(s)
    Assassin is a 1997 French drama film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It was entered into the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Michel Serrault as Mr. Wagner* Mathieu Kassovitz as Max* Mehdi Benoufa as Mehdi* Robert Gendreu as Mr. Vidal...

    (1997)
  • Les rivières pourpres / The Crimson Rivers
    The Crimson Rivers
    The Crimson Rivers is a 2000 French psychological thriller film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and based on the best-selling novel Les rivières pourpres by the film's co-writer Jean-Christophe Grangé....

    (2000)
  • Gothika
    Gothika
    -Box office:Gothika was released on November 21, 2003 in North America, grossing $19,288,438 in the opening weekend and ranking at #2, behind The Cat in the Hat. It went on to gross $59,694,580 in the domestic market and $81,896,744 from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $141,591,324...

    (2003)
  • Babylon A.D.
    Babylon A.D. (film)
    Babylon A.D. is a 2008 science fiction action film based on the novel Babylon Babies by Maurice Georges Dantec. The film was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Vin Diesel, Mélanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh and Lambert Wilson...

    (2008)
  • Rebellion (2009), French title: L'Ordre et la Morale - filming in the islands of ‘Ana‘a
    Anaa
    Anaa, Nganaa-nui is an atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago, in French Polynesia. It is located in the north-west of the archipelago, 350 km to the east of Tahiti. It oval in shape, 29.5 km in length and 6.5 km wide, with a total area 38 km²...

     and Tahiti
    Tahiti
    Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

     since the end of August 2010. Release date (in France): 16 November 2011
  • Dust Motion (2011) announced

Short films

  • Fierrot le pou
    Fierrot le pou
    Fierrot le pou is a 1990 French 8-minute short film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, his debut film. He also plays the lead role in the film as the basketball player.-Synopsis:...

    (1990)
  • Cauchemar Blanc
    Cauchemar Blanc
    Cauchemar Blanc is a 1991 short film by Matthieu Kassovitz, based on the comic written for the screen by Moebius.- Plot :...

    (1991)
  • Assassins (1992)
  • La forêt (1997) (Handicap International)
  • Article premier (1998) (Amnesty International)

As an actor

  • Au bout du bout du banc (1979) - Mathias Oppenheim
  • Next Year If All Goes Well (1981) - Le petit garçon
  • Fierrot le pou
    Fierrot le pou
    Fierrot le pou is a 1990 French 8-minute short film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, his debut film. He also plays the lead role in the film as the basketball player.-Synopsis:...

    (1990)
  • Touch and Die (1991) - Piaz
  • Assassins... (1992)
  • French Summer (1992) - Un auto-stoppeur
  • Café au lait (1993) - Felix
  • Putain de porte (1994)
  • Elle voulait faire quelque chose (1994)
  • See How They Fall (1994) - Johnny
  • Les Fleurs de Maria Papadopylou (1995)
  • The City of Lost Children
    The City of Lost Children
    The City of Lost Children is a dystopian French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A mad scientist,...

    (1995) (uncredited) - Man on the street
  • La Haine
    La Haine
    La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

    (Hate) (1995) - Young Skinhead
  • My Man (1996) (uncredited) - 1st Client: Clement
  • A Self Made Hero
    A Self Made Hero
    A Self Made Hero is a 1996 French film directed by Jacques Audiard. It is based on the novel by Jean-François Deniau.-Synopsis:Albert Dehousse has grown up on heroic novels, unfortunately his life isn't quite so exciting. Albert lives in a village in Northern France with his mother, who lives in...

    (1996) - Albert Dehousse
  • News from the Good Lord (1996)
  • Assassin(s)
    Assassin(s)
    Assassin is a 1997 French drama film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It was entered into the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Michel Serrault as Mr. Wagner* Mathieu Kassovitz as Max* Mehdi Benoufa as Mehdi* Robert Gendreu as Mr. Vidal...

    (1997) - Max
  • The Fifth Element
    The Fifth Element
    The Fifth Element is a 1997 French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich...

    (1997) - Mugger
  • Pleasure (And Its Little Inconveniences) (1998) - Roland
  • Jakob the Liar
    Jakob the Liar
    Jakob the Liar is a 1999 American tragicomedy film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Bob Balaban. The movie is set in 1944 in a ghetto in German-occupied Poland in the times of the Holocaust and is based on the book by...

    (1999) - Herschel
  • Amélie
    Amélie
    Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre...

    (2001) - Nino Quincampoix
  • Birthday Girl
    Birthday Girl
    Birthday Girl is a 2001 British-American drama and crime film directed by Jez Butterworth. The plot focuses on English bank clerk John Buckingham who orders a Russian mail-order bride, Nadia. It becomes clear upon her arrival that Nadia cannot speak English, and early into her stay, two mysterious...

    (2001) - Yuri
  • Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
    Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
    Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, originally titled Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, is a 2002 French-German film based on the comic book Astérix et Cléopatre by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo and a sequel for the 1999 movie Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar. It was the most expensive French...

    (2002) - Physionomiste banquet
  • Amen. (2002) - Riccardo Fontana
  • Munich
    Munich (film)
    Munich is a 2005 historical fiction film about the Israeli government's secret retaliation attacks after the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Black September terrorist group during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The film stars Eric Bana and was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg...

    (2005) - Robert
  • Avida (2006) - Le producteur chanceux

Awards and nominations

  • 1994: Nominated for a César Award
    César Award
    The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

     for Best Newcomer and Best Debut Film
  • 1995: Won Best Director Award
    Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)
    The Best Director Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946....

     at the Cannes Film Festival
    1995 Cannes Film Festival
    -Jury:*Jeanne Moreau *Gianni Amelio *Jean-Claude Brialy *Nadine Gordimer *Gaston Kabore *Michele-Ray Gavras *Emilio Garcia Riera *Philippe Rousselot *John Waters...

     for La Haine
    La Haine
    La Haine is a 1995 French black-and-white film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is commonly released under its French title in the English-speaking world, although its American VHS release was entitled Hate. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in...

    .
  • 1995: Won a César Award
    César Award
    The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

     for Best Newcomer
  • 2001: Nominated for Best Director for Les Rivières pourpres
  • 2001: Won Gold Star for Best Director for Les Rivières pourpres
  • 2003: Nominated for a César Award
    César Award
    The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

     for Best Actor for Amen.

Sport

In 2009, he won with Tesla Roadster
Tesla Roadster
The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle sports car produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors in California. The Roadster was the first highway-capable all-electric vehicle in serial production available in the United States. Since 2008 Tesla has sold 2,024 Roadsters in 30 countries...

 the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (starting event of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup
FIA Alternative Energies Cup
The FIA Alternative Energies Cup is a world championship for vehicles with alternative energy propulsion organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.-Hybrid and other veichles:-See also:*2009 FIA Alternative Energies Cup season...

) in the category reserved to electric vehicles.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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