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Cannes Film Festival · 2021

Cannes Film Festival 2021

Un Certain Regard

Programme

20 films · 7 reviews

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After Yang

Review preview for After Yang

Kogonada is the directorial equivalent of a careful tea maker himself, he knows how to infuse his films with complex ideas without getting preachy or overtechnical about it.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In a near future, a family reckons with questions of love, connection, and loss after its A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Kogonada; Writer: Kogonada, based on the short story by Alexander Weinstein; Stars: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Haley Lu Richardson, Sarita Choudhury)

Full review See: Kogonada and Justin H Min on construction of identity and catching up to grief in After Yang

Blue Bayou

As a Korean-American man raised in the Louisiana bayou works hard to make a life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past as he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Justin Chon; Writer: Justin Chon; Stars: Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O'Brien, Emory Cohen)

La Civil

Review preview for La Civil

This is a considered film, a triumph, there are few like it and more's the pity.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
The story of a mother whose teenage daughter is kidnapped in Northern Mexico. When the authorities offer no support in the search, she takes matters into her own hands and transforms from housewife into a vengeful militant.

(Country: Belgium, Romania, Mexico; Year: 2021; Director: Teodora Mihai; Writer: Habacuc Antonio De Rosario, Teodora Mihai; Stars: Arcelia Ramírez, Álvaro Guerrero, Jorge A Jimenez, Ayelén Muzo, Daniel Garcia)

Full review

Commitment Hasan (Baglilik Hasan)

A man who makes a living from his father’s orchard tries to prevent an electricity pole from being plated in the middle of it, and makes a pilgrimage to Mecca.

(Country: Turkey; Year: 2021; Director: Semih Kaplanoglu; Writer: Semih Kaplanoglu; Stars: Umut Karadag, Filiz Bozok, Gökhan Azlag, Ayse Gunyuz Demirci)

Freda

A family running a street food shop in Haiti struggles with financial precarity and daily violence, prompting dreams of a better life elsewhere.

(Country: Haiti, Benin, France, Qatar; Year: 2021; Director: Gessica Geneus; Writer: Gessica Geneus)

Good Mother (Bonne Mère)

After her son is arrested in a gas station robbery, housekeeper Nora does everything she can to help him as he remains incarcerated awaiting trial.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Hafsia Herzi; Writer: Hafsia Herzi; Stars: Sabrina Benhamed)

Great Freedom

In postwar Germany, Hans is imprisoned again and again for being homosexual. Due to paragraph 175, his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long time cell mate, Viktor, a convicted murderer. What starts in revulsion grows into something lie love.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2021; Director: Sebastian Meise; Writer: Sebastian Meise, Thomas Reider; Stars: Franz Rogowsk, iGeorg Friedrich, Anton von Lucke, Thomas Prenn)

House Arrest

Follows a Russian professor who takes to social media to criticize his city's administration. He soon finds himself accused of embezzlement and placed under house arrest.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Aleksey German Jr; Stars: Svetlana Khodchenkova, Merab Ninidze, Aleksandra Bortich, Aleksandr Pal, Anna Mikhalkova)

The Innocents

Review preview for The Innocents

The subtlety Vogt employs as a director pays off in spades as he gets as much creepy mileage from the disturbance of soil and water as any amount of CGI could muster.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren't looking.

(Country: US, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland; Year: 2021; Director: Eskil Vogt; Writer: Eskil Vogt; Stars: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Morten Svartveit)

Full review

Lamb

A childless couple, María and Ingvar discover a mysterious newborn on their farm in Iceland. The unexpected prospect of family life brings them much joy, before ultimately destroying them.

(Country: Iceland, Sweden, Poland; Year: 2021; Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson; Writer: Valdimar Jóhannsson, Sjón; Stars: Noomi Rapace, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Hilmir Snær Guðnason)

Let It Be Morning (Et Il Y Eut Un Matin)

Sami lives in Jerusalem with his wife and kid. An invitation to his brother’s wedding forces him to return to the Arabic village where he grew up... only for the town to come under siege.

(Country: Israel, France; Year: 2021; Director: Eran Kolirin; Writer: Sayed Kashua, Eran Kolirin; Stars: Alex Bakri, Juna Suleiman, Salim Dau, Ehab Salami, Khalifa Natour, Samer Bisharat, Yara Jarar, Doraid Liddawi, Izabel Ramadan)

Moneyboys

Fei works illegally as a hustler in order to support his family, yet when he realises they are willing to accept his money but not his way of life, there is a major breakdown in their relations.

(Country: Austria, France, Belgium, Taiwan; Year: 2021; Director: Chen Yilin Bo; Writer: Chen Yilin Bo; Stars: Yufan Bai, Kai Ko, Zhexi Lin, Chloe Maayan)

Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle

Review preview for Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle

Harari and his co-writers Bernard Cendron and Vincent Poymiro, show how the war propaganda becomes internalised in these men, so that even when they are given signs that the conflict may be over, they rationalise that it must be some sort of 'fake news' designed to trick them.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
It's the end of 1944. Japan is losing the war. Hiroo Onoda is sent to an island in the Philippines just before the American landing. The handful of soldiers that he takes with him into the jungle keep fighting, not realising the war is over.

(Country: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Arthur Harari; Writer: Bernard Cendron, Arthur Harari, Vincent Poymiro; Stars: Endô Yûya, Tsuda Kanji, Matsuura Yûya, Chiba Tetsuya, Kato Shinsuke , Inowaki Kai, Issey Ogata, Taiga Nakano, Nobuhiro Suwa, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Tomomitsu Adachi, Kyûsaku Shimada, Angeli Bayani, Jemuel Satumba, Kuu Izima)

Full review

Playground (Un Monde)

Review preview for Playground

This is the playground as a warzone, where the sandpit might, indeed, be as deep as the sea and hold dead bodies and where adult authority might only make things worse.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A little girl faces a moral dilemma after she sees her brother being bullied.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Laura Wandel; Writer: Laura Wandel; Stars: Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret, Lena Girard Voss, Laura Verlinden, Karim Leklou)

Full review See: Playground politics: Laura Wandel on bullying and working with children on her first feature

Prayers For The Stolen (Noche De Fuego)

Review preview for Prayers For The Stolen

By delving into fiction, Huezo is able to focus on the impact of this crisis on individual human lives.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Life in a town at war seen through the eyes of three young girls on the path to adolescence.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2021; Director: Tatiana Huezo; Writer: Tatiana Huezo; Stars: Mayra Batalla, Norma Pablo, Olivia Lagunas)

Full review

Rehana (Rehana Maryam Noor)

The story of a private medical college teacher who becomes the witness to an unexpected incident while leaving the college one day, and is moved to protest against the system.

(Country: Bangladesh, Singapore, Qatar; Year: 2021; Director: Abdullah Mohammad Saad; Stars: Azmeri Haque Badhon, Saberi Alam, Afia Zahin, Kazi Sami Hasan, Afia Tabassum, Yasir Al Haque)

Streetwise (Gaey Wa'r)

Dongzi relies upon Xijun’s debt collections for providing cardiac treatment to the former’s father, the years of a cold father-son relationship and an unbearable life leaving him filled with conflicted emotions. His only reprieve is Jiu’er, a young woman capable of comforting his restless agitation.

(Country: China; Year: 2021; Director: Na Jiazuo)

La Traviata, My Brothers And I (Mes frères, et moi)

A young boy looking after his mother, who is in a coma, develops a love for opera.

(Country: France; Year: 2022; Director: Yohan Manca; Writer: Yohan Manca, Hédi Tillette de Clermont-Tonerre; Stars: Maël Rouin Berrandou, Judith Chemla, Dali Benssalah, Sofian Khammes, Maël Rouin Berrandou, Judith Chemla, Dali Benssalah, Sofian Khammes)

Unclenching The Fists

A young woman struggles to break free from her over-controlling father in a mining town in the mountains.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Kira Kovalenko)

Women Do Cry

Review preview for Women Do Cry

Bakalova, who will be familiar to many English-speaking viewers from her multi-award winning turn in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, shows great depth here in a performance which is equally deserving of notice.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A family full of women in a society where 'gender' is not a familiar word.

(Country: Bulgaria, France; Year: 2021; Director: Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva; Writer: Bilyana Kazakova, Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva; Stars: Maria Bakalova, Vesela Kazakova, Bilyana Kazakova)

Full review