Screen staff preview each of the titles in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, which this year includes films from Laetitia Dosch, Rungano Nyoni and Runar Runarsson. The festival runs May 14-25.
Armand (Nor-Swe-Neth)
Dir. Halfdan Ullmann Tondel
This debut feature directed by the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann stars Renate Reinsve, last in Cannes as the best actress winner for 2021’s The Worst Person In The World. Tondel wrote the original story about a woman called into a school meeting about an accusation involving her six-year-old son, which spirals out of control. Tondel’s award-winning shorts include Bird Hearts and Fanny. Producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar of Eye Eye Pictures was at Cannes in 2021 with The Worst Person In The World and in 2022 with Sick Of Myself. Joachim Trier is one of the exec producers.
Contact Charades
Black Dog (China)
Dir. Guan Hu
Mr. Six director Guan debuts in Cannes with this drama about a former convict who forms an unlikely connection with the titular animal, as he clears stray dogs in his remote hometown on the edge of the Gobi desert before the 2008 Olympic Games. Eddie Peng, Jia Zhangke, Tong Liya and Zhang Yi lead the cast, with Liang Jing as producer. The Seventh Art Pictures, Huayi Brothers and Momo Pictures are among the backers, while Memento Films Distribution releases in France.
Contact Playtime
The Damned (It-US-Belg-Can)
Dir. Roberto Minervini
In films such as Stop The Pounding Heart and The Other Side, Italian documentarian Minervini has made the dispossessed of the US south his speciality subject. His first fiction feature The Damned charts the mission of a bunch of Union soldiers dispatched to the western frontier during the American Civil War. Minervini’s own Pulpa Film teamed with Okta Film, Rai Cinema and Brussels-based independent cinema incubator Michigan Film, while Les Films du Losange distributes in France and sells elsewhere.
Contact Les Films du Losange
Dog On Trial (Fr-Switz)
Dir. Laetitia Dosch
Known in Cannes for 2017 Camera d’Or winner Montparnasse Bienvenue (aka Jeune Femme) and 2023 Midnight Screenings entry Acid, Dosch co-writes, directs and stars in this tale of an idealistic lawyer who agrees to defend a dog that has bitten three people, leading to the first canine trial in history. The courtroom comedy boasts a starry local cast including Francois Damiens, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Anne Dorval and Pierre Deladonchamps, and aims to raise questions about human-animal relationships and the role of women in society. It is produced by France’s L’Atelier de Production and Switzerland’s Bande à Part Films.
Contact Alya Belgaroui, mk2 Films
Flow (Latvia-Fr-Belg)
Dir. Gints Zilbalodis
Latvia’s Zilbalodis created a number of animated shorts ahead of debut feature Away, which enjoyed a strong festival run in 2019 before theatrical releases in multiple territories including the US, France and UK. Second animated feature Flow, co-written with Matiss Kaza, tells the story of a cat who wakes up in a flooded world and must overcome his fear of water. Kaza’s Riga-based Dream Well Studio produces alongside France’s Sacrebleu Productions and Belgium’s Take Five.
Contact Charades
Holy Cow (Fr)
Dir. Louise Courvoisier
Debut feature director Courvoisier returns to Cannes having won the 2019 Cinéfondation first prize with her circus-themed short Mano A Mano. With a cast of newcomers headed by Clément Favreau, Holy Cow (Vingt Dieux) is about a teenage hellraiser in France’s Jura region who has to mend his ways and decides to do it by creating a prize-winning cheese. Muriel Meynard produces for Agat Films — Ex Nihilo, with Pyramide selling internationally and distributing in France.
Contact Agathe Mauruc, Pyramide International
My Sunshine (Jap-Fr)
Dir. Hiroshi Okuyama
This coming-of-age drama follows two children on a small Japanese island who train together as a figure-skating duo while their feelings for each other grow. It follows Okuyama’s 2018 debut feature Jesus. My Sunshine is produced by Japan’s Tokyo Theaters, which also distributes the film locally, The Asahi Shimbun Company (Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle) and France’s Comme des Cinémas, which has credits including Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Competition title Asako I & II and Naomi Kawase’s Still The Water.
Contact Charades
Niki (Fr)
Dir. Céline Sallette
French actress Sallette makes her feature directing debut with a film about 20th-century artist Niki de Saint Phalle. The film follows Saint Phalle (Charlotte Le Bon) from the age of 23 as she and her family quit the US for France, and art becomes her salvation. Damien Bonnard also stars as Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, with whom Saint Phalle collaborated. Sallette broke out in Bertrand Bonello’s House Of Tolerance (earning a most promising actress César nomination in 2012) and starred in Audrey Diwan’s debut feature Losing It before directing her short L’Arche Des Canopées in 2020.
Contact: Indiana Perrier, Pulsar Content
Norah (Saudi)
Dir. Tawfik Alzaidi
The first feature from Saudi Arabia ever to land in Cannes’ official selection will receive its international premiere on the Croisette after debuting at Red Sea International Film Festival in December. Set in 1990s Saudi Arabia when conservatism was at its peak in the kingdom, the story centres on a young woman in a remote village who embarks on a perilous journey after the arrival of a teacher who is also a painter. Marking the feature directing debut of Alzaidi, who previously made a series of award-winning shorts, Norah stars Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi in the title role.
Contact: Sebastien Chesneau, Cercamon
On Becoming A Guinea Fowl (Zambia-Ire-UK)
Dir. Rungano Nyoni
Zambian-Welsh filmmaker Nyoni has close ties with Cannes: she served on Ruben Östlund’s Competition jury in 2023, and her debut feature I Am Not A Witch played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2017, ahead of winning the outstanding British debut award at the Baftas. In 2014 her short Listen played at Cannes. Nyoni has returned to the festival with her sophomore feature, which follows a middle-class Zambian family as buried secrets unravel. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe produce for Element Pictures, with financing from A24, BBC Film and Fremantle.
Contact A24
Le Royaume (Fr)
Dir. Julien Colonna
Colonna made his mark with 2015 short Confession before establishing himself with TV series Brutal and Gloria. Co-scripted with Jeanne Herry (director of All Your Faces), Colonna’s debut feature is set in the 1990s in his native Corsica. A local cast is headed by newcomer Ghjuvanna Benedetti, playing a teenage girl on the run with her father during a gang war. Producers are Hugo Sélignac and Antoine Lafon for Chi-Fou-Mi, the company also behind the festival’s opening film The Second Act. Ad Vitam releases in France.
Contact Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Santosh (UK-Fr-India-Ger)
Dir. Sandhya Suri
UK-Indian filmmaker Suri’s debut narrative feature is the latest in a run of Croisette trips for producer Mike Goodridge, having co-produced 2022 Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness and produced 2023 Competition title Club Zero. Suri’s neo-noir stars Shahana Goswami as a widow turned police constable in rural northern India. Goodridge and James Bowsher produce through Good Chaos, alongside Balthazar de Ganay and Alan McAlex of Suitable Pictures. The co-producers are Razor Film and Haut et Court, while BFI, BBC Film, ZDF/ARTE and CNC are backers.
Contact Alya Belgaroui, mk2 Films
September Says (Ire-UK-Ger)
Dir. Ariane Labed
Greek-French filmmaker Labed has graced Cannes as an actress in The Souvenir: Part II and The Lobster, and as a director with 2019 short Olla. She returns with her feature directing debut, an adaptation of Daisy Johnson’s gothic novel Sisters. Two sisters and their mother venture to the Irish countryside, where they face a series of surreal encounters. Mia Tharia, Pascale Kann and Rakhee Thakrar star in the film, which is a co-production between Sackville Film and TV Productions, Crybaby Films and The Match Factory Productions, in association with Element Pictures. Backers include Screen Ireland, BBC Film and the UK Global Screen Fund.
Contact The Match Factory
The Shameless (Switz-Fr-Bul-Tai-India)
Dir. Konstantin Bojanov
India-set drama The Shameless marks the third feature from Bulgarian writer/director Bojanov following Avé, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2011, and Light Thereafter, a 2017 world premiere in Rotterdam. The story of forbidden love follows two women who escape their lives as sex workers and embark on a perilous journey to freedom. It is produced by Switzerland’s Akka Films, France’s Urban Factory, Bulgaria’s Klas Films, Taiwan’s House On Fire and India’s TPHQ.
Contact Florencia Gil, Urban Sales
The Story Of Souleymane (Fr)
Dir. Boris Lojkine
Back at the festival 10 years after his 2014 feature Hope won the SACD award in Critics’ Week, the French director brings another story of the African diaspora in Europe. Abou Sangare makes his acting debut as a Guinean food delivery man who has two days to fabricate a story for his asylum application interview in Lyon. Lojkine penned the script with Inshallah A Boy writer Delphine Agut while Bruno Nahon produces on behalf of Unité, with support from CNC, Indéfilms, La Banque Postale Image and SofiTVciné.
Contact: Agathe Mauruc, Pyramide International
Viet And Nam (Phil-Fr-Sing-Neth-It-Ger-Viet-US)
Dir. Truong Minh Quy
This first narrative feature shot on 16mm by Vietnamese director Quy focuses on the relationship of two young miners: one who sets out to board a shipping container for Europe, while the other, his lover, wants him to stay. Bianca Balbuena and Bradley Liew from the Philippines are the lead producers, alongside co-producers Deuxieme Ligne Films, E&W Films, An Original Picture, Volos Films Italia, Scarlet Visions and Lagi, and executive producer Cinema Inutile. Nour Films will distribute in France in September. Quy’s credits include The Men Who Wait from 2021 Berlinale Shorts and 2019 documentary The Tree House at Locarno.
Contact: Agathe Mauruc, Pyramide International
The Village Next To Paradise (Austria-Ger-Fr-Somalia)
Dir. Mo Harawe
The Village Next To Paradise marks the feature debut of Somalia-born, Austria-based filmmaker Harawe, who has travelled the festival circuit with a number of award-winning shorts. Set in a remote village in Somalia, the story centres on a single father struggling with the challenges of daily life while his sister looks for a new home after her divorce. The title has already made waves, picking up the $21,400 (€20,000) post-production Atlas Award at Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops last November. Austria’s Freibeuter Film, Germany’s Niko Film, France’s Kazak Productions and Somalia’s Maanmaal ACC produce.
Contact: Totem Films
When The Light Breaks (Ice-Neth-Cro-Fr)
Dir. Runar Runarsson
Iceland’s Runarsson, whose credits include Volcano (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, 2011), Sparrows (San Sebastian Golden Shell winner, 2015) and vignette title Echo (Locarno 2019) returns with a new feature that he also produces alongside Heather Millard of Compass Films (Band, Of Good Report). The story follows a young art student (Elin Hall) whose life is turned upside down during one long summer’s day in Reykjavik. Runarsson again teams with his longtime director of photography Sophia Olsson, while the co-producers include Mike Downey (Green Border).
Contact Samuel Blanc, The Party Film Sales
Profiles by: Ellie Calnan, Claudia Cox, Tim Dams, Charles Gant, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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