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Cannes Film Festival · 2017

Cannes Film Festival 2017

Critics' Week

Programme

21 films · 6 reviews

Jump to a film

Ava

Ava, 13, is spending the summer on the Atlantic coast when she learns that she will lose her sight sooner than expected. She confronts the problem in her own way.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Léa Mysius; Stars: Laure Calamy, Noée Abita, Juan Cano)

The Best Fireworks Ever

Three friends are forced to change their future plans after facing military conflict.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2017; Director: Aleksandra Terpinska; Stars: Justyna Wasilewska, Malwina Buss, Piotr Polak, Piotr Ablasewicz, Jacek Beler, Adam Bobik, Kinga Ciesielska, Arkadiusz Detmer, Andrzej Konopka, Robert Koszucki, Artur Krajewski, Romuald Krezel, Aleksandar Milicevic, Szymon Myslakowski, Maciej Nawrocki)

Short

Bloody Milk (Petit Paysan)

A man lives for his cattle herd, so when one of them becomes ill he will do anything to save the rest of his animals.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Hubert Charuel; Stars: Swann Arlaud, Isabelle Candelier, Sara Giraudeau, Bouli Lanners, Valentin Lespinasse)

Special screening

Brigsby Bear

Review preview for Brigsby Bear

Saturday Night Live regular Mooney, who has a twinkly mischievousness and comic timing reminiscent of a young Gene Wilder, plays James as naive, but never stupid.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Brigsby Bear Adventures is a children's TV show produced for an audience of one: James. When the show abruptly ends, James's life changes forever, and he sets out to finish the story himself.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Dave McCary; Writer: Kevin Costello, Kevin Costello, Kyle Mooney, Kyle Mooney; Stars: Kyle Mooney, Claire Danes, Mark Hamill, Greg Kinnear, Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins)

Full review

Closing film

Children Leave At Dawn

(Year: 2017; Director: Manon Coubia)

Short

Ela - Sketches On A Departure

Ela wants to escape the tristesse of her daily life and move West, into a better life.

(Year: 2017; Director: Oliver Adam Kusio)

Short

Employee Of The Month (Jodilerks Dela Cruz)

Jodilerks, a petrol station attendant is on her last day of duty. The night is young…

(Year: 2017; Director: Carlo Francisco Manatad)

Short

Exposure (Le Visage)

A video game maker asks an art gallery worker if he can use her face in his next game.

(Year: 2017; Director: Salvatore Lista)

Short

La Familia

(Country: Venezuela, Chile, Norway; Year: 2017; Director: Gustavo Rondón Córdova; Writer: Gustavo Rondón Córdova; Stars: Giovanni García, Reggie Reyes)

Gabriel And The Mountain (Gabriel e a montanha)

Review preview for Gabriel And The Mountain

Barbosa's film painstakingly recreates that journey and, in so doing, also gives viewers an oblique insight into the director's feelings about the loss of his friend.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Before entering a prestigious American university, Gabriel Buchmann decides to travel the world for one year... finally reaching Kenya.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2017; Director: Fellipe Barbosa; Writer: Fellipe Barbosa, Lucas Paraizo, Kirill Mikhanovsky; Stars: Caroline Abras, João Pedro Zappa, Alex Alembe, Rashidi Athuman, John Goodluck, Luke Mpata, Rhosinah Sekeleti, Leonard Siampala)

Full review

Los Desheredados

A portrait of the director's father facing the end of his family business.

(Year: 2017; Director: Laura Ferrés Moreno)

Short

Los Perros

Review preview for Los Perros

Zegers and Castro are no strangers to strange chemistry, most notably in Post Mortem, and they bring a dark psychological edge to their interactions.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A woman embarks on an affair with a colonel suspected of human rights abuses.

(Country: France, Chile; Year: 2017; Director: Marcela Said; Writer: Marcela Said; Stars: Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Rafael Spregelburd, Alejandro Sieveking)

Full review

Makala

Review preview for Makala

The way director Emmanuel Gras eases under the skin of his main subject makes for fascinating viewing.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
A young peasant makes a difficult journey in the hope of creating a better life for his loved ones.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Emmanuel Gras; Stars: Kabwita Kasongo, Lydie Kasongo)

Full review

Möbius

A teenage poet relates the mysterious disappearance of her high school lover Sebastian.

(Country: US, Canada; Year: 2016; Director: Sam Kuhn; Writer: Sam Kuhn; Stars: Caley Jones, Cotey Pope)

Short

Oh Lucy!

(Country: US, Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Atsuko Hirayanagi; Writer: Atsuko Hirayanagi, Boris Frumin, Atsuko Hirayanagi; Stars: Shinobu Terajima, Josh Hartnett, Kaho Minami, Kôji Yakusho, Shioli Kutsuna, Reiko Aylesworth, Todd Giebenhain, Eddie Hassell, Nick Gracer, Casey J. Adler, Emmet Flores, Tre Hale, Stefanie Arianne)

Real Gods Require Blood

A babysitter looks after children who claim they are feeding a nightly visitor from hell.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Moin Hussain; Writer: Tom Benn; Stars: Gillian Waugh, Lyndsay Fielding, Sharon Spink, Gary Overton, Mark Lavery, Kirsty Doyle, Anna Berentzen, Lee Gresty, Avidavit Williams, Richard Owusu, Alkali Reid, Ivy Mattingly, Kamari May)

Short

Selva

Selva dances within voices and memories, in a game that prepares her for the inevitable separation.

(Country: Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile; Year: 2017; Director: Sofia Quiros; Writer: Sofia Quiros; Stars: Maikel Gutiérrez, Smashleen Gutiérrez)

Short

Sicilian Ghost Story

Review preview for Sicilian Ghost Story

It avoids every cliche laid down in the history of search-and-rescue movies

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
When a boy disappears, a young girl goes looking for him in the dark world that has swallowed him.

(Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza; Writer: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza, based on a story from the book by Marco Mancassola; Stars: Julia Jedlikowska, Gaetano Fernandez, Corinne Musallari, Andrea Falzone, Frederico Finocchiaro, Lorenzo Amato, Filippo Luna)

Full review

Opening film

Tesla: Lumière Mondiale

Short inspired by Nikolai Tesla's appeal to JP Morgan for last-ditch funds.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Matthew Rankin)

Short

Tehran Taboo

Review preview for Tehran Taboo

The society it depicts is one in which ordinary people – and especially women – are crushed beneath the joint burdens of a medieval moral code, and an unfeeling bureaucratic enforcement process.

Jane Fae · 4 out of 5
An insight into the society of underground Tehran.

(Country: Germany, Austria; Year: 2017; Director: Ali Soozandeh; Writer: Ali Soozandeh; Stars: Voices of, Arash Marandi, Alireza Bayram, Siir Eloglu, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Klaus Ofczarek, Morteza Tavakoli, Gernot Polak, Hasan Ali Mete, Roxana Rahnama, Thomas Nash, Elmira Rafizadeh, Helia Shirtavani, Pouria Zahan, Bilal Yasar, Aida Loos)

Full review

A Violent Life (Une vie violente)

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Thierry de Peretti; Stars: Cédric Appietto, Paul Garatte, Jean-Marc Michelangeli, Jean-Étienne Brat, Marie-Pierre Nouveau, Henri-Noël Tabary, Dominique Colombani, Anaïs Lechiara, Délia Sepulcre-Nativi)

Special screening