Screen International critics select some of the best titles from this year’s Cannes Competition, Un Certain Regard, Director’s Fortnight and Critics Week sections.
Competition
Shoplifters
Dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Our critic said: “At first, it seems to be gearing up as a bittersweet fable, a contemporary Japanese update of It’s A Wonderful Life, but as the layers of the story about an alternative family living on its wits are peeled back, we are confronted with a steely critique of society’s (and humanity’s) failings – one not seen in the director’s work, with this level of clarity, since his quietly devastating 2004 work Nobody Knows.”
International sales: Wild Bunch, ediederix@wildbunch.eu
Burning
Dir: Lee Chang-dong
Our critic said: “Once again, Lee has crafted a film of wondrous complexity and inscrutability. The more we see in Burning, the less sure we are of what we are watching.”
International sales: Finecut, cineinfo@finecut.co.kr
Cold War
Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski
Our critic said: “At a focused 82-minutes, Cold War is glorious, sophisticated film-making, shadowed by the spirit of Pawilowski’s Oscar-winning Ida. Lead actress Joanna Kulig is arresting.”
International sales: Protagonist Pictures, mk2
Dogman
Dir: Matteo Garrone
Our critic said: “If narrative cinema is all about the harnessing of character and atmosphere in the service of a strong story, then Matteo Garrone’s follow-up to his 2015 Tale of Tales succeeds on every level.”
International sales: Rai Com, cristina.cavaliere@rai.it
Happy As Lazzaro
Dir: Alice Rohrwacher
Our critic said: “Cult success at the least is guaranteed for a genuine UFO of a film that seems to come from another time and place, and certainly another imagination.”
International sales: Match Factory, info@matchfactory.de
Capernaum
Dir: Nadine Labaki
Our critic said: “Capernaum has the anger, the energy and a galvanising central performance by Syrian migrant child Zain al Rafeea to move audiences the world over. It looks like an early shoe-in for a Best Foreign Film nomination.”
International sales: Wild Bunch, ediederix@wildbunch.eu
Un Certain Regard
Girl
Dir: Lukas Dhont
Our critic said: “It’s an impressive calling card for both Polster and Dhont, neither of who should have any shortage of offers of future projects.”
International sales: The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de
Border
Dir: Ali Abbasi
Our critic said: “Probably not for mainstream tastes, Border should attract adventurous arthouse patrons and curious genre fans drawn by the dexterous narrative and an extraordinary central performance from Eva Melander.”
International sales: Films Boutique valeska@filmsboutique.com
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Dir: Bi Gan
Our critic said: “Those who have the patience to go with its ravishing flow will find ample rewards, as Long Day’s Journey is a beautiful, smoulderingly romantic film.”
International sales: Wild Bunch, ediederix@wildbunch.eu
Critics Week
Sir
Dir: Rohena Gera
Our critic said: “The approach is gently demure and romantic, there is a kinship with worlds-apart spiritual connection which drives Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox. That said, lacking the neat narrative device which provides the marketing hook for Batra’s film, Sir will rely on charm alone in connecting with its audience.”
International sales: mk2 Films ola.byszuk@mk2.com
Woman At War
Dir: Benedikt Erlingsson
Our critic said: “Carried by a magnetic performance from Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir in a dual role (she plays both Halla and her identical twin sister Asa), Benedikt Erlingsson’s enjoyable follow up to Of Horses And Men is elevated by wryly idiosyncratic flourishes in its execution.”
International sales: Beta Cinema beta@betacinema.com
Director’s Fortnight
Birds Of Passage
Dir: Ciro Guerra, Cristina Gallego
Our critic said: “More accessible than Embrace Of The Serpent, but crafted with the same skill and bone-deep sense of cultural authenticity, Birds Of Passage should take wing on the festival circuit after opening Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.”
International sales: Films Boutique, contact@filmsboutique.com
Climax
Dir: Gaspar Noé
Our critic said: “Rest assured that French cinema’s imp of the perverse has got his distinctly nasty mojo working again with Climax, a blazingly original, extremely disturbing film that’s something quite new – a psychotropic street dance movie that turns into an orgiastic horror trip.”
International sales: Wild Bunch bensalah@wildbunch.eu
To The Ends Of The World
Dir: Guillaume Nicloux
Our critic said: “Love, longing, cruelty, revenge, grief, and mercy are exquisitely evoked in To The Ends of the World (Les Confins du monde) a ravishingly-shot depiction of the bottomless insanity of war, set in Indochina in 1945.”
International sales: Orange Studio
Lucia’s Grace
Dir: Gianni Zanasi
Our critic said: “The warm glow of the sun-baked Tuscan locations and the star presence of Alba Rohrwacher and Elio Germano could draw audiences, especially in Italy, to what is a pleasant if mild-mannered affair.”
International sales: The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de
Samouni Road
Dir: Stefano Savona
Our critic said: “‘I don’t know how to tell a story’, says teenage girl Amal Samouni at the beginning of this powerful documentary about a Palestinian family torn apart by war. Luckily, Italian director Stefano Savona is there to help.”
International sales: Doc & Films International, sales@docandfilm.com
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