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Cannes Film Festival · 2024

Cannes Film Festival 2024

Critics' Week

Programme

13 films · 8 reviews

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Across The Sea (La mer au loin)

Nour, 27, immigrated illegally to Marseille. With his friends, he makes a living as a small-time dealer, leading an unconventional life… Meeting Serge - an unpredictable, charismatic cop - and his wife Noémie, turns his life upside down.

(Country: France, Qatar, Morocco, Belgium; Year: 2024; Director: Saïd Hamich; Writer: Saïd Hamich; Stars: Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Ayoub Gretaa, Sarah Henochsberg, Omar Boulakirba, Rym Foglia, Ali Mehdi Moulai)

Animale

Review preview for Animale

Emma Benestan’s poetic take on gender, power and corporeality is a deeply animal experience.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Surrounded by men, 22-year-old Nejma trains hard to fulfill her dream of winning the upcoming annual bull race, but news of a rogue and violent bull on the loose terrifies the community. Young men are being murdered everywhere, and the beast is nowhere to be seen.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2024; Director: Emma Benestan; Writer: Emma Benestan; Stars: Oulaya Amamra)

Full review

Baby

Review preview for Baby

It is the things taken for granted, as much as the things that stand out, which shape the tale.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
After being released from a juvenile detention center, Wellington finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo. During a visit to a porn theater, he encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving.

(Country: Brazil, France, Netherlands; Year: 2024; Director: Marcelo Caetano; Writer: Marcelo Caetano, Gabriel Domingues; Stars: João Pedro Mariano, Ricardo Teodoro, Ana Flavia Cavalcanti, Bruna Linzmeyer, Luiz Bertazzo)

Full review

Block Pass (La Pampa)

Review preview for Block Pass

Chevrollier captures the amplified mood of teenagehood.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Willy and Jojo are childhood friends who never leave each other's side. Training at the motocross track is their way to beat boredom. One evening, Willy discovers Jojo's secret.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Antoine Chevrollier; Writer: Bérénice Bocquillon, Antoine Chevrollier, Faïza Guène; Stars: Sayyid El Alami, Amaury Foucher, Damien Bonnard, Florence Janas, Mathieu Demy, Léonie Dahan-Lamort, Artus Solaro, Axelle Fresneau)

Full review See: Antoine Chevrollier on exploring the internal and external violence of the teenage 'bubble'

Blue Sun Palace

A sudden loss catalyses an unlikely bond between two migrants in the Chinese community of Queens. Navigating lives far from home and the painstaking labor that supports them, they journey through grief together in hopes of finding family.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Constance Tsang; Writer: Constance Tsang; Stars: Ke-Xi Wu, Kang-sheng Lee, Haipeng Xu)

The Brink Of Dreams (Rafaat einy ll sama)

In a remote conservative village in the South of Egypt, a group of disenfranchised Coptic girls rebel by forming an all-female street theatre troupe.

(Country: Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia; Year: 2024; Director: Ayman El Amir, Nada Riyadh; Writer: Nada Riyadh; Stars: Majda Masoud, Haidi Sameh, Monika Youssef)

Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes)

Hamid, is part of a secret group pursuing the Syrian regime’s fugitive leaders. His mission takes him to France, on the trail of his former torturer whom he must confront. Based on true events.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Jonathan Millet; Writer: Jonathan Millet; Stars: Adam Bessa, Tawfeek Barhom, Julia Franz Richter)

Julie Keeps Quiet (Julie zwijgt)

Review preview for Julie Keeps Quiet

The director shows how it’s not just Julie’s tennis skills that have been groomed by the coach but large aspects of her life.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
As the star player at an elite tennis academy, Julie’s life revolves around the game she loves. When her coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended, all of the club's players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet…

(Country: Belgium, Sweden; Year: 2024; Director: Leonardo van Dijl; Writer: Ruth Becquart, Leonardo van Dijl; Stars: Tessa Van den Broeck, Grace Biot, Alyssa Lorette, Ruth Becquart, Koen De Bouw, Pierre Gervais, Claire Bodson, Laurent Caron)

Full review See: Leonardo van Dijl on the importance of silence Belgian Oscar nominee Julie Keeps Quiet

Locust

Review preview for Locust

The plotting takes precedence over characterisation, which saps the film of tension, while its melodramatic developments feel out of keeping with the cooler noir vibe.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The two halves of a young man's double-life become set on a collision course.

(Country: Taiwan, France, US; Year: 2024; Director: KEFF; Writer: KEFF; Stars: Wei-Chen Liu, Rimong Ihwar, Devin Pan, An-Shun Yu, Yi-Jung Wu, Ruei-Siou Fan, Nien-Hsien Ma, Yu-Yan Chen)

Full review

Queens Of Drama (Les Reines du drame)

2055. Steevyshady, an overly botoxed Youtuber tells their idol’s mad destiny: we follow pop diva singer Mimi Madamour from the very peak of her career in 2005, all the way down to the pits of hell, a downfall brought about by her love story with punk icon Billie Kohler. For half a century these drama queens have sung their passion and their rage high upon a stage.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2024; Director: Alexis Langlois; Writer: Carlotta Coco, Thomas Colineau, Alexis Langlois; Stars: Asia Argento, Alma Jodorowsky, Thomas Poitevin, Bilal Hassani, Louiza Aura, Raya Martigny, Jean-Biche, Drag Couenne, Nana Benamer, Dustin Muchuvitz, Julia Fiquet, Gio Ventura, Elodie Barthels)

Sauna Day (Sannapäiv)

Review preview for Sauna Day

A film that probes at ideas of masculinity and the fluidity that the smoke sauna environment might bring to that, the emphasis is on the physical expression of feelings rather than them being vocalised.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Secrets in a smoke sauna.

(Country: Estonia; Year: 2024; Director: Anna Hints, Tushar Prakash; Writer: Anna Hints, Tushar Prakash; Stars: Rasmus Kaljujärv, Agur Seim)

Full review See: Anna Hints and Tushar Prakash on code-switching and capturing the unsaid in Sauna Day

Simon Of The Mountain (Simon de la montaña)

Review preview for Simon Of The Mountain

This playfully filmed coming-of-age narrative never loses its empathetic eye.

Sergiu Inizian · 3 out of 5
Simon is 21 years old. He introduces himself as a mover's helper. He claims not to know how to cook or clean the bathroom, but he does know how to make a bed. Recently, he seems to have become a different person…

(Country: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay; Year: 2024; Director: Federico Luis; Writer: Tomas Murphy, Federico Luis, Agustín Toscano; Stars: Lorenzo Ferro, Pehuen Pedre, Kiara Supini)

Full review

Southern Brides (Las novias del sur)

Review preview for Southern Brides

Through it all is a common thread of authenticity and of women opening up about things and feelings they are rarely asked to scrutinise.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Older women talk about their wedding, losing their virginity and sex.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Elena López Riera)

Full review