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Binoche to open Cannes Directors’ Fortnight

New titles from Joanna Hogg and Clio Barnard in the line-up

by Richard Mowe

Juliette Binoche as a writer going undercover in Emmanuel Carrère’s Between Two Worlds premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Photo: Christine Tamalet

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight is back with a bang, screening a programme of 24 features (plus shorts) including a buoyant third of the selection début features.

The section, which is non-competitive and run by the French directors’ guild the Société des Réalisateurs (SRF), was cancelled last year because of Covid.

Scene from Hit The Road, directed by Jafar Panahi’s son, Panah Panahi Photo: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

The opening film on 7 July will be Between Two Worlds, starring Juliette Binoche as a writer who goes undercover in the Northern port town of Ouistreham in the cause of research for a book about growing social unrest. The director, Emmanuel Carrère, is a respected French and TV writer whose The Moustache with Vincent Lindon open the section in 2005.

The original source for the film is a book by a French journalist who claimed to have been inspired by George Orwell’s The Road To Wigan Pier.

Other high profile titles revealed at a press conference in Paris earlier today (8 June) include British writer-director Joanna Hogg’s highly anticipated The Souvenir Part II (with a special screening of the original).

Hogg’s film, a romantic drama, stars Tilda Swinton, who will also be in Cannes for The French Dispatch and Memoria, competing in the festival’s Official Selection.

French-Kosovian director Luana Bajrami in the Directors’ Fortnight with The Hill Where Lionesses Roar Photo: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

The narrative revolves around a student who begins to find her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charming but untrustworthy man.

Also on the agenda are Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava, Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara, Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s Rwanda-set sci-fi tale Neptune Frost, and Alice Rohrwacher, Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi’s Futura about how Italian teenagers view the future.

The 53rd edition of the strand pays tribute to Frederick Wiseman, the American documentary filmmaker and producer of Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, Boxing Gym and Hospital. Wiseman will be awarded the Carrosse d’Or on July 7, during the opening ceremony. Past recipients have included John Carpenter and Martin Scorsese.

The line-up features eight début films, including Hit The Road, by Jafar Panahi’s son, Panah Panahi, and Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina, a coming-of-age story set along the Adriatic Sea. Also of interest looks to be The Hill Where Lionesses Roar by French-Kosovian director Luana Bajrami.

Cannes blockbuster: Fast And Furious 9 with Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel Photo: Universal

The section will also be organising reruns of the selection following the festival, in Paris, Marseille and Brussels.

The 53rd edition of the section continues until 17 July when the closing film will be Rachel Lang’s Our Men, set in the world of the French Foreign Legion.

Meanwhile it has also just been confirmed that a blockbuster presence will be assured on the Croisette with the premiere of Fast And Furious 9, directed by Justin Lin and featuring Vin Diesel, John Cena and Michelle Rodriguez which is schedule for release in French cinemas (and elsewhere) from 14 July.

Director's Fortnight 2021:-

Feature Films