Screen staff preview each of the titles in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, which this year includes films from Anthony Chen, Molly Manning Walker, Monia Chokri and Zoljargal Purevdash. The festival runs May 16-27.
All To Play For (Fr)
Dir. Delphine Deloget
Cannes regular Virginie Efira stars in this fiction debut from French writer/director Deloget, about a woman fighting to get her children back from enforced foster care. Deloget is noted for her documentaries No London Today (Cannes Acid 2008) and 2015’s Voyage En Barbarie, co-directed by Cécile Allegra. Efira’s co-star is Arieh Worthalter, who appeared in Cannes titles Hold Me Tight by Mathieu Amalric in 2021, and Girl from Lukas Dhont in 2018. Olivier Delbosc produces for Curiosa Films, in co-production with Unité, with Ad Vitam releasing in France as Rien À Perdre.
Contact: France TV Distribution
The Animal Kingdom (Fr)
Dir. Thomas Cailley
Cailley, who made his feature debut with 2014 Directors’ Fortnight entry Love At First Fight, opens Un Certain Regard with his second full-length film. The story is set two years after the first appearance of animal mutations in humans; the ‘creatures’ escape specialised centres when an accident releases them into the wild. Adele Exarchopoulos of Palme d’Or-winning Blue Is The Warmest Colour stars alongside Romain Duris and Paul Kircher, the breakout star of Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy. Nord-Ouest Films (Harkis, The Astronaut) produces, and Studiocanal releases in France in October (with the title Le Règne Animal).
Contact: Marta Monjanel, Studiocanal
The Breaking Ice (China)
Dir. Anthony Chen
A Camera d’Or winner in 2013 for Ilo Ilo, Chen returns to Cannes with his first feature filmed in China, about the blossoming relationship between a trio of twentysomethings (Zhou Dongyu from Better Days, with Liu Haoran and Qu Chuxiao) during a heavy winter snowfall in a remote border city. It is produced by Shanghai-based Canopy Pictures, a new outfit set up by Chen and Rediance CEO Xie Meng, with Huace Pictures as co-financier and mainland Chinese distributor. Since Ilo Ilo, Singapore-born Chen directed Wet Season (2019), a segment of anthology The Year Of The Everlasting Storm (2021) and the English-language Drift, which premiered at Sundance in January.
Contact: Rediance
The Buriti Flower (Port-Braz)
Dirs. Joao Salaviza, Renée Nader Messora
Brazil’s Nader Messora and Portugal’s Salaviza — who collaborated on Un Certain Regard 2018 jury prize winner The Dead And The Others — once again film with the Krahô Indigenous people in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest. Shot on 16mm film over a 15-month period with a micro-crew, the story is told through the eyes of a child, recounting three periods of the history of her people from 1940, and how they invent new forms of resistance in the face of persecution. Salaviza and Nader Messora’s Portugal-based Karõ Filmes produce, with Brazil’s Entre Filmes as co-producer.
Contact: Films Boutique
The Delinquents (Arg-Lux-Braz-Chile)
Dir. Rodrigo Moreno
The latest from Argentinian filmmaker Moreno (A Mysterious World, Berlinale 2011) shot in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, and tells of two bank employees who conspire to steal money and fall for the same woman. The Delinquents is produced by Argentina’s Wanka Cine with co-production partners Les Films Fauves (Luxembourg), Sancho & Punta (Brazil), Jirafa (Chile), Jaque and Rizoma (both Argentina). The production received support from Argentina’s INCAA, Film Fund Luxembourg, Brazil’s Agencia Nacional do Cinema and Chile’s Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes.
Contact: Lorna Lee Torres, Magnolia Pictures International
Goodbye Julia (Sudan)
Dir. Mohamed Kordofani
The first Sudanese film to be chosen for Cannes’ official selection, Kordofani’s debut is set in Khartoum ahead of Sudan’s division into two countries in 2011 and follows two women from the north and south of the country. Producers are Amjad Abu Alala, director of Sudan’s first ever Oscar submission You Will Die At 20 in 2021, and Mohamed Al-Omada, who co-produced Amr Gamal’s The Burdened — the first Yemeni film to play in official selection at the Berlinale earlier this year.
Contact: MAD Solutions
Hopeless (S Kor)
Dir. Kim Chang-hoon
Previously known as Hwa-ran, this debut feature from director Kim has been creating buzz ever since top Korean actor Song Joong-ki (Space Sweepers, TV’s Reborn Rich) agreed to work on it for free on the strength of the script. Hopeless stars rising actor Hong Xa-bin as a teenager who dreams of escaping his violent hometown but is drawn into the world of a local thug (Song) after accepting a favour from him. It is produced by Sanai Pictures, whose credits include Cannes Midnight Screenings titles Hunt (2022) and The Spy Gone North (2018).
Contact: Plus M Entertainment
Hounds (Mor-Fr-Belg-Qat-Saudi)
Dir. Kamal Lazraq
The debut feature from Moroccan writer/director Lazraq, who won Cannes Cinefondation’s second prize in 2011 with his short Drari, Hounds (Les Meutes) is set in working-class Casablanca where a father and son who work for the mob find themselves tasked with kidnap. The project won the inaugural ArteKino International prize at 2019’s Marrakech Atlas Workshop, and is produced by France’s Barney Production (a co-producer on Philippe Falcon’s 2022 Directors’ Fortnight title Harkis) in co-production with Morocco’s Mont Fleuri Production and Belgium’s Beluga Tree.
Contact: Charades
How To Have Sex (UK)
Dir. Molly Manning Walker
Manning Walker is no stranger to the Croisette. Her first short as director, Good Thanks, You?, premiered in Critics’ Week 2020, and she later won the Next Step prize for the How To Have Sex script in 2021. She is back with her now-completed debut feature, which follows a group of teenage girls on a rite-of-passage clubbing holiday, and was shot in Greece with a cast including Mia McKenna-Bruce (Netflix’s Persuasion), Lara Peake (BBC’s Mood) and Samuel Bottomley (Channel 4’s Somewhere Boy). It is produced by Wild Swim Films and co-producer Heretic, with backing by Film4, BFI and mk2 Films; Mubi releases in the UK.
Contact: mk2 Films
If Only I Could Hibernate (Mongolia-Fr)
Dir. Zoljargal Purevdash
Set to be the first Mongolian film to play in Cannes’ official selection, director Purevdash’s debut feature is drawn from her experiences growing up in a yurt settlement. Her film is a survival story of how a 15-year-old boy fends for himself and his younger siblings during a harsh winter in a poor neighbourhood in Ulaanbaatar when their mother departs for a job in the countryside. It is a co-production between Purevdash’s Mongolian outfit Amygdala Films and Paris-based Urban Factory, with Eurozoom taking French distribution rights. Purevdash studied filmmaking in Japan.
Contact: Florencia Gil, Urban Sales
The Mother Of All Lies (Mor-Egy-Saudi-Qat)
Dir. Asmae El Moudir
Moroccan filmmaker El Moudir follows up her 2020 debut The Postcard, which screened at festivals including International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Visions du Réel, with another documentary exploring personal and national history. The Mother Of All Lies reflects on the bread riots that shook her working-class Casablanca neighbourhood in 1981, through the use of a workshop in which participants recall their experiences. The project won the post-production prize at Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops in 2021, and is produced by El Moudir through her own Insight Films with Mark Lotfy of Fig Leaf Studio as co-producer.
Contact: Autlook Filmsales
The Nature Of Love (Can-Fr)
Dir. Monia Chokri
French-Canadian filmmaker/actor Chokri returns to the Riviera after her 2019 feature directing debut A Brother’s Love shared the Un Certain Regard Jury Coup de Coeur prize with Michael Angelo Covino’s The Climb. Romantic comedy The Nature Of Love (Simple Comme Sylvain) centres on a Montreal philosophy professor in a stable relationship who falls for the man renovating her country house. Magalie Lépine-Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal star, and Quebec’s Metafilms serves as producer.
Contact: mk2 Films
The New Boy (Australia)
Dir. Warwick Thornton
Australian Indigenous filmmaker Thornton returns to Cannes with The New Boy after playing Un Certain Regard and winning the Camera d’Or with 2009’s Samson & Delilah. Centring on the Aboriginal community that features in much of his work, including 2017 Venice and Toronto prizewinner Sweet Country, the film is set in 1940s Australia and stars Cate Blanchett (who also serves as a producer) as a nun who takes in a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (newcomer Aswan Reid). Roadshow Films will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.
Contact: UTA Independent Film Group; CAA Media Finance (US); The Veterans (international)
Omen (Belg-Neth-DR Congo-Fr-Ger-South Africa)
Dir. Baloji
Belgian rapper, MC and hip-hop artist Baloji makes his feature directorial debut with a film that follows a thirtysomething man’s return from Belgium to his Congolese birthplace after he has been ostracised by his family. It explores the weight of beliefs on a person’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers. Baloji wrote the script in collaboration with Thomas van Zuylen, while Benoit Roland of Belgium’s Wrong Men lead produces. Omen is co-produced by Belgium’s Serendipity Films, Germany’s RadicalMedia, Democratic Republic of Congo’s Tosala Films, France’s Special Touch Studios, Netherlands’ New Amsterdam and South Africa’s Big World Cinema.
Contact: Memento International
Only The River Flows (China)
Dir. Wei Shujun
The third consecutive film by Wei selected for Cannes — following debut feature Striding Into The Wind (Cannes label 2020) and Ripples Of Life (Directors’ Fortnight 2021) — is adapted from Yu Hua’s short novel Mistake By The River, about a police investigation into a series of murders in a rural riverside town in the 1990s. Zhu Yilong from 2022 box-office hit Lighting Up The Stars and Zeng Meihuizi, best actress winner for Three Husbands at the 2019 Hong Kong Film Awards, lead the cast. Hangzhou Dangdang Film is a major backer, with CEO Tang Xiaohui as delegate producer.
Contact: mk2 Films
Rosalie (Fr)
Dir. Stéphanie Di Giusto
This period drama is inspired by the true story of a 19th-century French bearded woman, and is the second feature by Di Giusto, whose debut feature The Dancer played in Un Certain Regard in 2016. Benoît Magimel — recent César best actor for Pacifiction, also in Cannes with Competition title The Pot Au Feu — co-stars with Nadia Tereszkiewicz, who returns to the Croisette after appearing in last year’s Competition title Forever Young, and fresh from her success in Francois Ozon’s The Crime Is Mine. Alain Attal produces for Trésor Films.
Contact: Gaumont
Salem (Fr)
Dir. Jean-Bernard Marlin
This late addition to the Un Certain Regard line-up is the second feature from French writer/director Marlin, whose debut Shéhérazade premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2018, going on to win best first film at the 2019 Césars, as well as most promising actor and actress for Dylan Robert and Kenza Fortas. Set in the Marseilles housing projects, Salem is billed as a fantasy epic about a former gang member — jailed for a killing that he committed as a teenager — who believes his daughter is the only person capable of saving his community from the curse uttered by his victim’s dying breath.
Contact Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
The Settlers (Chile-Arg-UK-Tai-Fr-Den-Swe-Ger)
Dir. Felipe Galvez
Chile’s Galvez marks his feature directing debut with this English-language western unfolding around a rich landowner in 1901 Chile, starring Camilo Arancibia, Mark Stanley and Benjamin Westfall. Galvez — whose career as editor includes Kiro Russo’s The Great Movement — returns to Cannes after his short Rapaz played in Critics’ Week in 2018. The Settlers is produced by Quijote Films, Rei Cine, Quiddity Films and Volos Films, with several co-production partners, and CNC, Institute Francais and UK Global Screen Fund among the backers.
Contact: mk2 Films
Strangers By Night (Fr-Belg)
Dir. Alex Lutz
Closing Un Certain Regard out of competition, romantic drama Strangers By Night (Une Nuit) stars director Lutz and Karin Viard as two strangers who argue in a crowded subway car before spending the night together. It is Lutz’s third feature behind the camera following 2015’s Le Talent De Mes Amis and Guy — the latter closing Cannes Critics’ Week in 2018. Didar Domehri produces for France’s Maneki Films, with Belgium’s Versus Production co-producing.
Contact: Marta Monjanel, Studiocanal
Terrestrial Verses (Iran)
Dirs. Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami
Having co-written last year’s Asgari-directed Berlin Panorama title Until Tomorrow, the Iranian pair reteam with a joint directing effort, which they co-wrote. This sole Iranian film in official selection offers vignettes of everyday existence, as people from all walks of life navigate cultural, religious and institutional constraints imposed by various authorities. Both filmmakers bowed features at Venice in 2017: Asgari with Disappearance and Khatami with Oblivion Verses.
Contact: Films Boutique
Profiles by Nikki Baughan, Ellie Calnan, Dani Clarke, Ben Dalton, Charles Gant, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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