Ali Abbasi’s Border has taken home the top prize in Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard strand. Sofia, Girl, Donbass and The Death And The Others were also winners.
NEON swooped on the US rights to Border during the festival; Metropolitan Filmexport took French rights pre-festival. Films Boutique handles sales.
Border tells the story of a border guard played by Eva Melander who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man with a smell that confounds her detection, she is forced to confront hugely disturbing insights about herself and humankind.
Also winners in Un Certain Regard this year were Meryem Benm’barek’s Sofia, which took home the best screenplay prize and Girl by Lukas Dhont, which took best actress for Victor Polster.
Sergei Loznitsa won best director for Donbass and a special jury prize went to João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora’s The Death And The Others.
A total of 18 films played in competition in this year’s Un Certain Regard programme, six were first features.
“Over the past 10 days, we were extremely impressed by the high quality of the work presented, but in the end we were the most moved by the five films,” commented the jury, which was presided over by Benicio Del Toro. Also jurors were Annemarie Jacir (director and writer), Kantemir Balagov (director), Virginie Ledoyen (actress) and Julie Huntsinger (executive director, Telluride Film Festival).
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