Cannes 2020 Official Selection guide: “The Faithful”

Another Round (Den-Swe-Neth)

Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
Vinterberg reunites with his The Hunt team including scriptwriter Tobias Lindholm and Mads Mikkelsen for his latest Danish-language film. The story follows a group of high-school teachers who embark on an experiment to uphold a constant level of intoxication throughout the working day. The film has already sold widely around the world, including to Haut et Court for France, Mongrel Media for Canada and Studiocanal for the UK; Nordisk will release in cinemas in Denmark on September 24. Contact: TrustNordisk 

DNA (Fr)

Dir. Maïwenn
Drawing on her own complex history, Maïwenn’s fifth feature revolves around a woman with close ties to a beloved Algerian grandfather. When he dies, it triggers a deep identity crisis as tensions between her extended family members escalate. As with her 2011 Cannes Jury Prize winner Poliss, Maïwenn both directs and stars. She was last in Cannes five years ago with Mon Roi which played in Competition and won Emmanuelle Bercot the best actress award. 
Contact: Eva Diederix, Wild Bunch International 

Forgotten We’ll Be (Col)

Dir. Fernando Trueba
Oscar-winning Trueba (Belle Epoque) directs this adaptation of a popular 2006 novel by Colombia’s Héctor Abad Faciolince, which is inspired by true events. Javier Cámara (Talk To Her) plays a doctor-turned-human-rights activist who runs for mayor of the Colombia city of Medellin with tragic consequences. It is produced by Dago García Productions for Caracol TV, which fully funded the feature and is the Colombian broadcast group behind Ciro Guerra’s Embrace Of The Serpent, Directors’ Fortnight hit Birds Of Passage and Alejandro Landes’ Monos. 
Contact: Film Factory Entertainment 

The French Dispatch (UK-Fr-Ger)

Dir. Wes Anderson
One of the worst-kept secrets of the selection has been confirmed, but when and where will The French Dispatch gets its physical premiere? Fox Searchlight has set an October 16 US release date for the all-star homage to journalists, which was shot in Angouleme, centres on a fictitious publication in Paris and stars Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, among many others. 
Contact: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Heaven: To The Land Of Happiness (S Kor)

Dir. Im Sang-Soo
Director Im has received his fourth Cannes invitation with this story of two men who meet by chance and decide to go on a journey, in a search for one last taste of happiness. The deadpan comedy stars Choi Min-sik and Park Hae-il who respectively starred in previous Cannes titles Old Boy and The Host. Director Im previously competed at Cannes with The Housemaid in 2010 and The Taste Of Money in 2012. His 2005 feature The President’s Last Bang played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2005. 
Contact: Finecut 

Home Front (Fr-Bel)

Dir. Lucas Belvaux
A woman’s 60th birthday party in Burgundy in 2003 is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of her estranged brother, setting off a chain of painful decades-old memories linked to the Algerian War of Independence. Catherine Frot and Gérard Depardieu co-star as the siblings in this drama exploring the devastating personal impact of the conflict on both sides. Belgian actor/filmmaker Belvaux was last selected for Cannes with The Right Of The Weakest in 2006. His last feature This Is Our Land premiered at Rotterdam in 2017. 
Contact: The Party Films Sales; Wild Bunch International 

In The Dusk (Lith-Fr-Cze-Port-Serb-Latv)

Dir. Sharunas Bartas
Set in post-war Lithuania, in 1948, the story centres on a 19-year-old member of the partisan movement who encounters violence and betrayal while resisting the Soviet occupation. It marks a return to Official Selection for Cannes regular Bartas. The Lithuanian filmmaker’s Frost (2017), Peace To Us In Our Dreams (2015) and Seven Invisible Men (2005) all played at Directors’ Fortnight while his silent film Few Of Us (1996) and The House (1997) were selected for Un Certain Regard. The film is produced by Lithuania’s Studio Kinema and France’s KinoElektron. 
Contact: Luxbox 

Last Words (It-Fr)

Dir. Jonathan Nossiter
Nossiter was last in Cannes in 2004 with the viticulture documentary Mondovino which played in Competition. The US filmmaker has reunited with Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard (who co-starred together in his 2000 drama Sign & Wonders) alongside Nick Nolte, Alba Rohrwacher and Kalipha Touray. The adaptation of Santiago Amigorena’s novel Mes Derniers Mots by Sternal Entertainment and Rai Cinema takes place in a not-too-distant future ravaged by climate change as a youngster searches for the last surviving human settlement. 
Contact: The Party Films Sales 

Lovers Rock (UK)

Dir. Steve McQueen
After debuting Hunger at Cannes in 2008, winning the Camera d’Or for first-time filmmakers, McQueen is back in the festival’s Official Selection with two features from his anthology series Small Axe. All based around the experiences of London’s West Indian community, Lovers Rock is set in the early 1980s and tells a story of young love and music at a blues party. Stage actress Amarah-Jae St Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite Top Boy star Micheal Ward. The series has been made for the BBC and Amazon. Producers are Turbine Studios, McQueen’s Lammas Park and Emu Films. 
Contact: Justin Thomson, Turbine Studios 

Mangrove (UK)

Dir. Steve McQueen
One of two McQueen features in Official Selection, this is the true story of the Mangrove Nine in which a group of British black activists were accused of inciting a riot and acquitted of the most serious charges following a high-profile trial in 1970. Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes and Malachi Kirby star. It was set to play over two episodes as part of McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series for the BBC and Amazon, but has been edited together with BBC Films to make it eligible for Cannes. Producers are Turbine Studios, McQueen’s Lammas Park and Emu Films. 
Contact: Justin Thomson, Turbine Studios 

Peninsula (S Kor)

Dir. Yeon Sang-Ho
This highly-anticipated follow up to zombie hit Train To Busan sees director Yeon return with a story set four years later. Starring Gang Dong-won (1987: When The Day Comes) with Lee Jung-hyun (The Battleship Island), it follows a former soldier who is given a mission on the devasted Korean peninsula and unexpectedly meets survivors. Train To Busan received its world premiere at Cannes’ Midnight Screenings in 2016 and was a box office hit in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Redpeter Films, which made Train To Busan, has produced the follow-up that is not a continuation of that story but takes place in the same universe. 
Contact: Contents Panda 

The Real Thing (Jap)

Dir. Kôji Fukada
Produced by Japan’s Nagoya TV as a 10-part series that aired last year, Fukada’s The Real Thing has been edited down to a 228-minute film, which will be released theatrically in Japan in October. The story follows a bored office worker who becomes involved with a woman he saves from being killed on a railroad crossing. The cast is headed by Win Morisaki (Ready Player One, Kamen Rider W) and Kaho Tsuchimura (Aircraft Carrier Ibuki). Fukada won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at Cannes in 2016 for Harmonium, while his 2019 feature A Girl Missing played in competition at Locarno. 
Contact: Yu Kato, Nagoya TV 

Summer Of 85 (Fr)

Dir. François Ozon
The trailer for this 1980s coming-of-age tale unfolding in a Normandy beach resort plays out to the jangling beat of The Cure’s 1985 hit ‘In Between Days’, setting the tone for Ozon’s 20th feature film. Félix Lefebvre stars as a 16-year-old on a mission to experience love, life and death opposite emerging actors Benjamin Voisin (Un Vrai Bonhomme) and Belgium’s Philippine Velge. Ozon was last in Cannes with Amant Double in 2017 which premiered in Competition. The film is due to be released directly into French cinemas on July 14.
Contact: Playtime 

True Mothers (Jap)

Dir. Naomi Kawase
Cannes regular Kawase’s adaptation of a novel by Mizuki Tsujimura follows a couple who after a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant decide to adopt a baby boy. Six years later they are contacted by a woman claiming to be the child’s birth mother. Starring Arata Iura (Air Doll) and Hiromi Nagasaku (The Furthest End Awaits), the film is scheduled for Japanese release on October 23 through Kino Films Co, which also produced. Kawase was last in Cannes with Radiance, which screened in Competition in 2017 and won the Ecumenical Jury Prize. Playtime has already sold True Mothers to several territories including France (Haut Et Court). 
Contact: Playtime 

• Read profiles for the other Cannes 2020 label titles here