For several years, many of the best films at France's Cannes Film Festival have made their debut in the sidebar sections – Un Certain Regard, Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week. This year's selection features a clutch of movies with ties to the Middle East – starting with Egyptian director Mohamed Diab's Clash, which has among its production credits two companies based in the UAE – EMC Pictures and Fortress Film Clinic.
Opening the Un Certain Regard section, Clash exploring the confrontations between pro- and anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators that took place after the removal of president Mohamed Morsi from power on July 3, 2013. Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux says of Clash: “In an hour and 30 minutes, we understand the entire situation.”
Un Certain Regard has always been reserved for directors who are typically new voices in cinema, with films that didn’t quite make it into the main competition. Often, this omission is only because the director is not an established auteur, and it is here that Cannes puts the directors it believes will be Palme d’Or candidates in the future.
Another key sidebar segment is Critics' Week, which aims to highlight first- and second-time filmmakers from around the world. Debuting this year is Tramontane by Lebanon-based Kuwaiti director Vatche Boulghourjian. The film follows a blind man who learns secrets about his past when he discovers his passport has been forged. Among its producers are the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Enjaaz – a Dubai Film Market Initiative and the Doha Film Institute.
A road movie set in the Atlas Mountains is the premise of Oliver Laxe's Mimosas. It's the second film by the Spanish director set in Morocco and he describes his principle character as a sort of Don Quixote or Nasreddin Hodja.
The Directors' Fortnight has several standouts. Anurag Kashyap, the godfather of the independent film scene in India, will present his new film Raman Raghav 2.0, based on the notorious serial killer who operated in Mumbai in the 1960s.
At 25, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat is the youngest at Cannes. Her debut, Wolf and Sheep, also showing in the Directors' Fortnight, is a fantasy drama about a community in a little village in Afghanistan.
Tour de France by Rachid Djaidani sends a Muslim rapper, played by Sadek, on a road trip with his best friend's right wing father, played by the enigmatic Gerard Depardieu.
On the documentary front, Laura Poitras follows up her film on Edward Snowden with Risk, a look at the controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. One of Africa's leading filmmakers, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun takes a look at Hissène Habré, the Chad president from 1982 to 1990, who was put on trial in 2015.
Among regulars vying for the Palme d'Or are Spain's Pedro Almodóvar with Julieta, an adaptation of three short stories by Canadian writer Alice Munro about a mother's search for her daughter, missing for a decade; the Dardenne brothers with The Unknown Girl, about a young doctor who unwittingly turns a dying girl from her door; Nicolas Winding Refn brings The Neon Demon, a supermodel horror flick; French-Canadian Xavier Dolan brings It's Only the End of the World, with an all-star cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and Lea Seydoux in a drama about a writer who returns home to tell his family he is dying; and British director Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake is a gritty drama about welfare cuts hurting vulnerable families, starring comedian Dave Johns.
A late addition was The Salesman, the new film from A Separation director Asghar Farhadi. It's been three years since his French misfire, The Past, and for his latest, the director returned to his native Iran to tell the tale of a couple whose relationship begins to turn sour during their performance of the Arthur Miller play Death of A Salesman. It sees Farhadi reunite with actress Taraneh Alidoosti, who appeared in his Beautiful City (2004), Fireworks Wednesday (2006) and About Elly (2009). He is hoping to become the first Iranian to win the Palme d'Or since Abbas Kiarostami shared the prize in 1997 for Taste of Cherry.
The festival opens with Woody Allen's Cafe Society – the third time the maligned New York director has been given the honour – and closes with Paul Schrader's Dog Eat Dog.
The 69th Cannes Film Festival runs from Wednesday, May 10 until May 22. For more information, visit www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html
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