Screen staff preview each of the titles in the Cannes Film Festival parallel strand Critics’ Week, which this year includes films from Amjad Al Rasheed, Lillah Halla and Paloma Sermon-Daï. The festival runs May 16-27.
Ama Gloria (Fr)
Dir. Marie Amachoukeli
It is nine years since Amachoukeli won the Camera d’Or for a best debut feature — alongside co-directors Claire Burger and Samuel Theis — for Un Certain Regard entry Party Girl. Her second film (showing as a Critics’ Week special screening and formerly titled Rose Hill) is about the last summer shared between six-year-old Cleo and her nanny Gloria before the latter returns to Cape Verde to care for her own children. Producer Bénédicte Couvreur has a strong Cannes history, predominantly through three Céline Sciamma titles she has launched there: 2007’s Water Lilies, 2014’s Girlhood and 2019 hit Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.
Contact Agathe Mauruc, Pyramide Films
The (Ex)perience Of Love (Belg-Fr)
Dirs. Ann Sirot, Raphaël Balboni
Having worked as a team for most of their careers (since 2006 short L’idiot), this marks Sirot and Balboni’s second feature together, following Madly In Life which won seven awards at Belgium’s Magritte Awards in 2022 including best film. Like their first feature, comedy drama The (Ex)perience Of Love (showing as a special screening) focuses on a couple who are unable to have a child — with the pair determining they must sleep with every one of their former partners in order to be cured. Lucie Debay and Lazare Gousseau star, and it is produced by Belgium’s Hélicotronc and France’s Tripode Productions.
Contact: Pamela Leu, Be For Films
Inshallah A Boy (Jor-Fr-Saudi-Qat)
Dir. Amjad Al Rasheed
This feature debut of Jordan’s Al Rasheed — a Screen International Arab Star of Tomorrow in 2016 — has already made its mark on the festival circuit, picking up the La Biennale di Venezia prize at Venice Film Festival’s Final Cut as well as key prizes at Cairo Film Connection and Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops. A dark comedy about a widow at risk of losing her house due to inheritance laws, this is a co-production between Jordan’s The Imaginarium Films and Bayt Al-Shawareb plus France’s Georges Films, with financing from Jordan’s Royal Film Commission, Doha Film Institute and the Red Sea Fund.
Contact: Eric Lagesse, Pyramide Films
It’s Raining In The House (Belg-Fr)
Dir. Paloma Sermon-Daï
This is the Belgian director’s fiction feature debut after her 2020 documentary Petit Samedi, about addiction, premiered in Berlinale Forum and went on to win best documentary at Athens International Film Festival and Belgium’s Magritte Awards. Set over the course of one summer, It’s Raining In The House (Il Pleut Dans La Maison) sees two teenage siblings fend for themselves one hot and stormy summer by a tourist lake. Belgium’s Michigan Films produces with Visualantics and France’s Kidam. Condor distributes in France.
Contact: Heretic
Lost Country (Ser-Fr-Lux-Cro)
Dir. Vladimir Perisic
Student demonstrations against the regime of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic provide the backdrop for Perisic’s second feature, as a teenager in Belgrade in 1996 is torn between his convictions and his love for his mother, a corrupt politician. Quo Vadis, Aida? lead Jasna Djuricic and Boris Isakovic are among the cast. Serbian director Perisic returns to Critics’ Week 14 years after his debut Ordinary People premiered here. He wrote Lost Country with Proxima filmmaker Alice Winocour, who also wrote 2015 hit Mustang.
Contact: Memento International
No Love Lost (Fr)
Dir. Erwan Le Duc
Le Duc’s debut feature The Bare Necessity premiered in Directors’ Fortnight 2019, before screening at festivals including Hamburg and Thessaloniki, and securing a best first film nomination at France’s Lumiere awards. Sophomore effort No Love Lost — which closes Critics’ Week as a special screening — is a tragicomedy about a young father raising his daughter alone, who must deal with the now-teenage youngster beginning to build her own life and the resurfacing of a figure from his past. 120 BPM and Persian Lessons actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart plays the father, with newcomer Céleste Brunnquell as his daughter.
Contact: Playtime
Power Alley (Braz-Uru-Fr)
Dir. Lillah Halla
Brazil’s Halla brings her debut feature Power Alley (Levante) to Critics’ Week three years after her short Menarca was selected by the sidebar for the 2020 pandemic-year Cannes label edition. Ayomi Domenica Dias stars as a Brazilian volleyball player who is close to reaching the top — but her dream is threatened by an unwanted pregnancy in a country where abortion is illegal, except in specific cases for rape or risk to the mother’s life. Brazil’s Arissas and Manjericao Filmes produce, with Cimarron Cine (Uruguay) and In Vivo Films (France) co-producing.
Contact: m-appeal
The Rapture (Fr)
Dir. Iris Kaltenbäck
During a relationship breakup, midwife Lydia agrees to look after her best friend’s baby — and when she comes across Milo, with whom she once had a one-night stand, Lydia starts on a journey of lies. French actress Hafsia Herzi, who won the most promising actress prize at the 2008 Césars, stars alongside Alexis Manenti. The Rapture (Le Ravissement) is the debut feature from French filmmaker Kaltenbäck — whose previous work has also dealt with themes relating to childbirth, including short A Visit From The Stork, which she wrote and directed, and Raphael Jacoulot’s Dreamchild, which she co-wrote.
Contact: Pamela Leu, Be For Films
Sleep (S Kor)
Dir. Jason Yu
A former assistant director to Bong Joon Ho, Yu makes his feature directing debut with this horror comedy starring Jung Yu-mi (Train To Busan) and Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite) as a young couple before and after the birth of their first child. The husband’s sleeping habits become increasingly disturbing, so they consult a sleep clinic and then a shaman. Bong has lauded the film’s unpredictable drama and called it “the most unique horror film” he has seen in the last decade. It is produced by Lewis Pictures (Okja).
Contact: Lotte Entertainment
Tiger Stripes (Malay-Tai-Sing-Fr-Ger-Neth-Indo-Qat)
Dir. Amanda Nell Eu
Eu’s feature debut is a Malay-language fantasy about a girl who discovers a terrifying secret about her body and learns to embrace herself when ostracised by school friends. The rare eight-country co-production is led by Malaysian producer Foo Fei Ling along with her Southeast Asian counterparts Patrick Mao Huang (Taiwan), Fran Borgia (Singapore), Yulia Evina Bhara (Indonesia), as well as Juliette Lepoutre, Pierre Menahem, Jonas Weydemann and Ellen Havenith from Europe. Director Eu’s short film It Is Easier To Raise Cattle premiered in Venice’s Horizons in 2017.
Contact: Films Boutique
Vincent Must Die (Fr-Belg)
Dir. Stéphan Castang
The quiet life of graphic designer Vincent is disturbed when he finds himself under attack by anyone who crosses his path. This contemporary twist on the zombie thriller is the debut feature from actor/filmmaker Castang. His shorts career began with Berlinale 2012 entry French Kids, and continued through to 2020’s Finale. Showing here as a special screening, Vincent Must Die is one of the first features from Wild West, the production company co-founded by French firms Capricci and Goodfellas (formerly Wild Bunch International). Karim Leklou and Elle’s Vimala Pons lead the cast.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Profiles by Nikki Baughan, Ellie Calnan, Dani Clarke, Ben Dalton, Charles Gant, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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