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Cannes Film Festival · 2021

Cannes Film Festival 2021

Director's Fortnight

Programme

26 films · 15 reviews

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Ali & Ava

Over the course of a lunar month, a deep connection begins to grow between two people, despite the legacy of Ava's past relationship and Ali's emotional turmoil at the breakdown of his marriage.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Clio Barnard; Writer: Clio Barnard; Stars: Adeel Akhtar, Claire Rushbrook, Ellora Torchia)

Between Two Worlds (Ouistreham)

Review preview for Between Two Worlds

Binoche gives her all, stripping away any vestiges of actressy pretence to assimilate herself in the community while at the same time investing her performance with an authentic conviction.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Marianne Winckler, a well-known author, goes to live in northern France to research for her new book on the subject of job insecurity. Without revealing her true identity, she gets hired as a cleaner, working with a group of other women.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Emmanuel Carrère; Writer: Florence Aubenas, Emmanuel Carrère, Hélène Devynck; Stars: Juliette Binoche)

Full review See: Juliette Binoche on Between Two Worlds

The Braves (Entre Les Vagues)

Two best friends are determined to stick together no matter what life throws at them.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Anaïs Volpé; Writer: Anaïs Volpé; Stars: Souheila Yacoub, Déborah Lukumuena, Mathieu Longatte)

A Brighter Tomorrow (De Bas étage)

Review preview for A Brighter Tomorrow

While there's plenty to be said for a subtle approach, Qnia is too laidback for his own good.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A thief tries to reconnect with his estranged girlfriend and child.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Yassine Qnia; Writer: Rosa Attab, Yassine Qnia; Stars: Soufiane Guerrab, Souheila Yacoub, Thibault Cathalifaud)

Full review

A Chiara

Review preview for A Chiara

Full of unspoken pain and resentment, the treasured Chiara carries her father’s sins in his absence as she struggles to decide which course to follow in her own life.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The Guerrasio family and their friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 16-year-old sister Chiara, as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family is in top form. However, everything changes the next day when Claudio disappears...

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2021; Director: Jonas Carpignano; Writer: Jonas Carpignano; Stars: Grecia Rotolo, Swamy Rotolo, Silvana Palumbo, Rosa Caccamo, Claudio Rotolo, Carmelo Rotolo)

Full review

Clara Sola

In a remote village in Costa Rica, a withdrawn 40-year-old woman experiences a sexual and mystical awakening as she begins a journey to free herself from the repressive religious and social conventions which have dominated her life.

(Country: Sweden, Belgium, Costa Rica, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Nathalie Álvarez Mesén; Writer: Maria Camila Arias, Nathalie Álvarez Mesén)

The Employer And The Employee (El Empleado Y El Patron)

The employer is a young man who apparently has everything going on for him, except one pressing concern: his baby’s health. The employee is looking for a job to support his newborn too. He does not hesitate when the first decides to hire him to work in his lands. Both will meet their needs by helping each other. But one day an accident happens. This unexpected event will strain the ties between them, endangering the fate of the two families.

(Country: Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, France; Year: 2021; Director: Manolo Nieto; Stars: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Cristian Borges)

Europa

Review preview for Europa

Europa is unrelenting, claustrophobic in the camera's closeness to Kamal.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Kamal, an Iraqi man trying to enter Europe on foot through the border between Turkey and Bulgaria, is relentlessly pursued through a forest by a group of hunters.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2021; Director: Haider Rashid; Writer: Sonia Giannetto, Haider Rashid; Stars: Adam Ali, Svetlana Yancheva, Mohamed Zouaoui)

Full review

Futura

Review preview for Futura

The reflections and insights are many.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A portrait of Italy observed through the eyes of teenagers who talk about the places they live in and imagine themselves, torn between the opportunities that surround them, the dream of what they want to become, the fear of failing, the trials they hope to overcome.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2021; Director: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)

Full review

The Hill Where Lionesses Roar (Luaneshat E Kodres)

Somewhere in Kosovo, in a small remote village, three young women see their dreams and ambitions stifled. In their quest for independence, nothing can stop them: time to let the lionesses roar.

(Country: France, Kosovo; Year: 2021; Director: Luàna Bajrami; Writer: Luàna Bajrami; Stars: Luàna Bajrami, Andi Bajgora, Era Balaj, Flaka Latifi, Urate Shabani)

Hit The Road

Review preview for Hit The Road

Panahi and his actors shift through emotions so smoothly, you barely notice them until they have immersed you.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Drama based around a road trip in a borrowed car.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2021; Director: Panah Panahi; Writer: Panah Panahi; Stars: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar)

Full review

Magnetic Beats

Brittany, 1980s. A bunch of friends yearning for excitement broadcast a free radio station from their hometown in the countryside. Jerome leads it with unique charisma while Philippe, the technical genius, lives in the shadow of Jerome, his big brother. When called for the military service, Philippe has no choice but to leave for West Berlin. He’s determined to keep on broadcasting, but realizes that he just lived the last glorious moments of a world on the verge of extinction.

(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Vincent Cardona; Stars: Marie Colomb, Joseph Olivennes, Thimotée Robart)

Medusa

Review preview for Medusa

At the genre level, Medusa is failing. Simply put: it's not scary.

Mateusz Tarwacki · 2 out of 5
A woman who is part of a gang who hunt those who transgress their religious ideals, finds her values changing dramatically after she is injured.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2021; Director: Anita Rocha da Silveira; Writer: Anita Rocha da Silveira; Stars: Bruna Linzmeyer, Thiago Fragoso, Felipe Frazão, Joana Medeiros, Lara Tremouroux, Mariana Oliveira)

Full review

Monrovia, Indiana

Documentary look at the small town of the title.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Frederick Wiseman)

Murina

Review preview for Murina

With darker themes filtered through the turmoil of adolescence, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s début feature mingles picture postcard imagery with scenes of fish being hacked to pieces, blood and guts part of the day to day order of life.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Tensions rise between restless teenager Julija and her oppressive father Ante when an old family friend arrives at their Croatian island home.

(Country: Croatia, Brazil, US, Slovenia; Year: 2021; Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic; Writer: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic, Frank Graziano, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic; Stars: Gracija Filipovic, Danica Curcic, Leon Lucev, Cliff Curtis, Jonas Smulders, Klara Mucci)

Full review See: Interview with Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic about Murina

Neptune Frost

Review preview for Neptune Frost

Set in a futuristic Rwanda, the themes are as old as the hills - with colonialism, identity and self-determination chief among them.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The love story between an African intersex runaway and a coltan miner, and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union.

(Country: US, France, Rwanda; Year: 2021; Director: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams; Writer: Saul Williams; Stars: Eliane Umuhire, Eliane Umuhire)

Full review

A Night Of Knowing Nothing

Review preview for A Night Of Knowing Nothing

An oneiric, sensory and imaginative journey documenting being young in contemporary India.

Mateusz Tarwacki · 4 out of 5
A poetic record of the experience of being a young Indian in a land of violence.

(Country: India, France; Year: 2021; Director: Payal Kapadia)

Full review

Întregalde

Review preview for Întregalde

This pleasant, thrilling watch shows Muntean is capable of making great cinema in some of the starkest places.

Georgiana Musat · 4 out of 5
A group of people on a humanitarian mission arrive in a remote area of Transylvania to offer the inhabitants various goods, but when they try to help a disorientated local, things take a turn for the worse.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Muntean; Writer: Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, Razvan Radulescu; Stars: Maria Popistasu, Ilona Brezoianu, Alex Bogdan)

Full review

Our Men

They come from all over the world but they have one thing in common: The Foreign Legion, their new family. This film tells their stories.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2021; Director: Rachel Lang; Writer: Rachel Lang; Stars: Louis Garrel, Camille Cottin, Ina Marija Bartaité, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Naidra Ayadi, Léo Lévy, Jean Michelangeli, Vladimir Ignat, Simona Trocan, Mowei-Jeannine Leroux, Alice Coulibaly-Chateaux, Wilfried Ranaivo, Lukas De Wolf, Edwin Gaffney, Paul De Bronde)

Returning To Reims (Fragments) (Retour A Reims (Fragments))

Review preview for Returning To Reims (Fragments)

Never directly asking the question, but leaving liberté, égalité and fraternité to hang in the air between scenes and lines, Périot’s latest gives a voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised, the forgotten.

Matthew Anderson · 3 out of 5
An intimate and political story of the French working class from the beginning of the 1950s to today.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot; Stars: Narrated by Adèle Haenel)

Full review

Ripples Of Life

A film crew arrives in remote town Yong’an. The fresh air they bring in spreads ripples in the heart of Gu, the owner of a local restaurant. She dreams of another life. Movie star Chen is back in her hometown; she expects to revisit her childhood friends and good old days. An endless debate persists between the director and the writer, revolving from cinema to life. Shooting must start, although consensus is never reached.

(Country: China; Year: 2021; Director: Shujun Wei; Writer: Chunlei Kang, Shujun Wei; Stars: Zishan Yang, Miyi Huang, Jiajia Wang, Kang Luo, Meng Zhou, Nan Cui, Chen Wang, Zishan Yang, Miyi Huang, Jiajia Wang, Kang Luo, Meng Zhou, Nan Cui, Chen Wang)

The Sea Ahead

After a long time gone, Jana, a young woman, suddenly returns to Beirut. She finds herself reconnecting with the familiar yet strange life she once left.

(Country: France, Lebanon, Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Ely Dagher)

The Souvenir

Review preview for The Souvenir

The costumes in The Souvenir speak volumes about female and male desire and the search for identity that garments can encompass.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A quiet film student begins finding her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charismatic but untrustworthy man.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Joanna Hogg; Writer: Joanna Hogg; Stars: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton, Richard Ayoade, Ariane Labed, Jack McMullen)

Full review See: Joanna Hogg, Honor Swinton Byrne and Tilda Swinton ‪in conversation on‬ the costumes for The Souvenir

The Souvenir: Part II

Review preview for The Souvenir: Part II

Hogg has always had an eye for architectural as well as emotional spaces and we see it here, as she floods the large rooms of Julie's parents' home with light, so that she almost seems to be paling out of them, which, coupled with her often silent reactions as others babble around her makes it seem as though she is the one who might be the ghost.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Joanna Hogg; Writer: Joanna Hogg; Stars: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Harris Dickinson, Jack McMullen, Richard Ayoade, Joe Alwyn, Charlie Heaton, Ariane Labed, Alice McMillan, Amber Anderson, Tosin Cole, Frankie Wilson, Jaygann Ayeh, Gala Botero, Grace Hancock)

Full review See: Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne make a splash in Cannes with The Souvenir: Part II

The Tale Of King Crab (Re Granchio, The Legend Of King Crab)

Review preview for The Tale Of King Crab

The use of traditional folk song and the fact that the language shifts from Italian to Spanish also highlights the way that stories are passed from mouth to ear down the generations and across borders.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Italy, today. Some elderly hunters reminisce about the tale of Luciano - a drunk who locks horns with the head of the region over right of passage and is later exiled.

(Country: Italy, France, Argentina; Year: 2021; Director: Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis; Writer: Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis; Stars: Maria Alexandra Lungu, Darío Levy, Jorge Prado, Mariano Arce, Gabriele Silli, Severino Sperandio, Bruno di Giovanni, Daniel Tur, Ercole Colnago)

Full review

The Tsugua Diaries (Diarios De Otsoga)

Details of this film have yet to be released.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2021; Director: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes; Writer: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo; Stars: Crista Alfaiate, Carloto Cotta, João Nunes Monteiro)