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Cannes Film Festival · 2017

Cannes Film Festival 2017

Un Certain Regard

Programme

16 films · 10 reviews

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After The War (Dopo la guerra)

A former Italian left-wing activist, living in France, is forced to flee with his teenage daughter after he is accused of ordering the murder of a judge in his homeland.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Annarita Zambrano; Writer: Annarita Zambrano, Delphine Agut ; Stars: Giuseppe Battiston, Barbora Bobulova, Fabrizio Ferracane, Orfeo Orlando, Charlotte Cétaire)

April's Daughter

After a teenager falls pregnant, her half-sister calls their long-absent mother, sparking trouble.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2017; Director: Michel Franco; Writer: Michel Franco; Stars: Emma Suárez, Hernán Mendoza, Joanna Larequi, Enrique Arrizon, Ivan Cortes)

Barbara

Review preview for Barbara

The best way to get the most out of the film is to succumb completely to the singer’s breathless voice, sultry eyes and her volatile genius.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Filmmaking and real life start to blur for a director making a biopic about female singer Barbara.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Mathieu Amalric; Writer: Mathieu Amalric; Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Jeanne Balibar, Lisa Ray-Jacobs)

Full review See: Mathieu Amalric and Jeanne Balibar in conversation on Barbara and Balibar's Merveilles À Montfermeil , Mathieu Amalric in conversation on Jeanne Balibar, Pierre Léon and the sounds and colours of Barbara , Jeanne Balibar on Barbara , Mathieu Amalric and Jeanne Balibar honour André S. Labarthe

Beauty And The Dogs (Aala Kaf Ifrit)

Review preview for Beauty And The Dogs

A tremendously powerful piece of cinema.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A woman meets a mysterious stranger at a party and leaves with him... it's the beginning of a long night in which she will have to fight for her rights and her dignity.

(Country: Tunisia, France, Sweden; Year: 2017; Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Writer: Kaouther Ben Hania; Stars: Mariam Al Ferjani, Neder Ghouati)

Full review See: Kaouther Ben Hania in conversation on connections to Beauty And The Dogs and her Oscar-nominated The Man Who Sold His Skin

Before We Vanish (Sanpo suru shinryakusha)

Review preview for Before We Vanish

Sometimes absurd, sometimes bone-chilling, strikingly original.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Narumi and her husband Shinji are going through a rocky patch when Shinji suddenly vanishes, returning several days later, utterly transformed. At the same time, a family is brutally murdered, and the town beset by strange phenomena. Journalist Sakurai begins to investigate the mystery…

(Country: Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Writer: Tomohiro Maekawa, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sachiko Tanaka; Stars: Masami Nagasawa, Ryûhei Matsuda, Hiroki Hasegawa, Mahiro Takasugi)

Full review

Closeness (Tesnota)

Review preview for Closeness

It is, presumably, his desire for realism that leads him to cross what will be a bridge too far for many audiences.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A family struggle to raise the ransom after a kidnapping.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2017; Director: Kantemir Balagov; Writer: Kantemir Balagov, Anton Yarush; Stars: Darya Zhovner, Olga Draganova, Veniamin Kats, Artem Tsypin, Nazir Zhukov)

Full review See: Director Kantemir Balagov talks Closeness , Highlights of Russian Film Week

The Desert Bride (La Novia del Desierto)

Review preview for The Desert Bride

Capturing this moment, this opening up, writer/director team Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato demonstrate that there's room on the big screen for small things.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
When a live-in maid's path crosses that of a travelling salesman, her life will change forever.

(Country: Argentina, Chile; Year: 2017; Director: Cecilia Atán, Valeria Pivato; Writer: Cecilia Atán, Valeria Pivato; Stars: Paulina García, Claudio Rissi)

Full review

Directions (Posoki)

Review preview for Directions

A cleverly constructed piece of low-budget filmmaking, Directions punches well above its weight.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A small business owner and part-time cab driver is pushed to the edge by corruption.

(Country: Bulgaria, Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Stephan Komandarev; Writer: Stephan Komandarev, Simeon Ventsislavov; Stars: Assen Blatechki, Ivan Barnev, Vasil Banov, Stefan Denolyubov, Stefka Yanorova-Trenfafilova, Dobrin Dosev, Vassil Vassilev, Nikolai Urumov, Georgi Kadurin, Irini Jambonas, Anna Komandareva, Borisleva Stratieva, Troyan Gogov, Gerasim Georgiev, Julian Vergov)

Full review

Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe)

Broke, Paula is back in Paris and determined to make a new start.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Léonor Séraille; Writer: Clémence Carré, Bastien Daret, Léonor Serraille, Léonor Serraille; Stars: Laetitia Dosch, Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Grégoire Monsaingeon, Jean-Christophe Folly, Nathalie Richard, Arnaud de Cazes, Ahmed Zirek, Philippe Lasry, Marie Rémond, Jean-René Lemoine, Bélinda Saligot, Philippe Vincent, Agathe Desche, Philippe Ferreira Gonçalo, Lou Valentini)

Lucky (Fortunata)

A young mum dreams of opening her own hair salon.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2017; Director: Sergio Castellitto; Writer: Margaret Mazzantini; Stars: Jasmine Trinca, Hanna Schygulla, Stefano Accorsi, Alessandro Borghi, Edoardo Pesce, Rosa Diletta Rossi, Emanuela Aurizi)

A Man Of Integrity (Lerd, Dregs)

A man struggles to maintain his livelihood in the face of local corruption.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2017; Director: Mohammad Rasoulof; Writer: Mohammad Rasoulof)

Out

A fiftysomething family man embarks on an Eastern European odyssey after losing his job.

(Country: France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia; Year: 2017; Director: György Kristóf; Writer: Eszter Horváth, György Kristóf, Gábor Papp; Stars: Judit Bárdos, Attila Bocsárszky, Éva Bandor, Ieva Aleksandrova-Eklone, Sándor Terhes, Ieva Norvele, Guna Zarina, Ivars Brakovskis, Viktor Nemets, Varis Klausitajs)

Until The Birds Return (En attendant les hirondelles)

Review preview for Until The Birds Return

Like so many anthology films, it suffers from the fact that the sections are uneven, with the middle segment soaring high above the two bookend stories.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Algeria today. Past and present collide in the lives of a newly wealthy property developer, a young woman torn between the path of reason and sentiment and a neurologist whose past catches up with him.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Karim Moussaoui; Writer: Maud Ameline, Karim Moussaoui; Stars: Aure Atika, Hania Amar)

Full review

Wind River

Review preview for Wind River

The film is well-served by its genre action sequences but it's the traces of grief that linger longest, like footsteps in the snow.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
An FBI agent teams with the town's veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.

(Country: US, UK, Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Taylor Sheridan; Writer: Taylor Sheridan; Stars: Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Jon Bernthal, Gil Birmingham, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Martin Sensmeier, Ian Bohen, Kelsey Asbille, Matthew Del Negro, Eric Lange, Hugh Dillon, James Jordan, Mason D. Davis, Tara Karsian)

Full review

Western

Review preview for Western

It quite subtly toys with the iconography of the genre - poking at the outlying parts of it, the parts dealing with "foreigness" and "home" rather than the more dependable elements of right and wrong.

Rory Ford · 3.5 out of 5
A group of German construction workers on a job in Bulgaria begin to compete for the approval of the locals.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Valeska Grisebach; Writer: Valeska Grisebach; Stars: Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek, Waldemar Zang, Detlef Schaich)

Full review

The Workshop (L'Atelier)

Review preview for The Workshop

There's a potency to this film, largely thanks to a carefully judged performance by Marina Foïs as novelist and tutor Olivia, and a charismatic one by Matthieu Lucci as her most difficult student, Antoine.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An exploration of group dynamics in a young people’s writing workshop.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Laurent Cantet; Writer: Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet; Stars: Marina Foïs, Matthieu Lucci)

Full review