The Netflix controversy might have robbed Cannes of some popular titles, but it remains the favoured courting ground for prominent filmmakers. Like every year, we are back at discussing the titles that we’re looking forward to the most at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.
1. Everybody Knows
Iranian master Asghar Farhadi’s eighth feature is all set to open the festival, with three big stars (Penélope Cruz, Ricardo Darín and Javier Bardem). The plot concerns a woman who visits her hometown for a wedding with her family, and how her past indiscretions come back to haunt her, disrupting everyone’s life in the process. With back to back successes at prestigious film festivals and the Oscars, Farhadi has become one of the world’s most renowned filmmakers, and his new film carries a truckload of expectations since we know how wonderfully he injects Hitchcockian suspense into domestic matters.
2. The Wild Pear Tree
Another film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is reason enough to be excited. The Turkish auteur’s eighth feature grapples with an aspiring writer who returns to his native village to realise his dream, except that his father’s debts prove to be an impediment. His previous feature bagged the top prize in 2014, and this year, too, he will be a major contender with his humanist sweep across astounding landscapes.
3. Under the Silver Lake
David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows began with mini fireworks at the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2014 before becoming one of modern horror’s most subversive entries. This time around, he has upped his game, entering the main competition, with a neo-noir in which Andrew Garfield plays an aimless young man who falls in love with his young neighbour who suddenly disappears. His search leads him to unspool a complicated yarn which sounds exactly like the weird odyssey we need.
4. Rafiki
Rafiki is making history this year as the first ever Kenyan feature to debut at Cannes. Dealing with a romance between its two female leads, Wanuri Kahiu’s film is a hot title for attempting to unearth hostile attitudes towards same sex relationships in Kenyan society. It has garnered further heat, ever since it was banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board because it ‘promotes lesbianism in Kenya, contrary to the law’. Kahiu’s film is the star in Un Certain Regard if the buzz is to be believed.
5. Shoplifters
Hirokazu Kore-eda is a staple at Cannes, and his steady stream of dramas with a quiet ache are every film-lover’s delight. The Japanese director’s new film deals with a family of crooks who adopt an abandoned girl. Never underestimate the spiritual descendent of Ozu, he knows how families implode in quiet agony.
6. Burning
Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho or Kim Jee-woon may be the darlings of cinephiles for dishing out hellish thrills, but it is Lee Chang-dong who is South Korean cinema’s discreet ruler. His next is an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami story, about a writer who meets a mysterious figure at a party who has a disconcerting hobby. Touted to be a mystery thriller, this will be a formidable presence at the festival.
7. My Little One
Sergey Dvortsevoy, the Kazakh director wowed audiences a decade ago with Tulpan, a film that erected a majestic portrait of sheep herders with poetic patience. His next comes ten years later, and follows the journey of a Kyrgyz girl searching for the son she abandoned in a maternity ward in Moscow.
8. Mirai Of The Future
If you haven’t heard of Mamoru Hosoda, try leaping through his past credits which include films like Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Wolf Children. His latest feature is about a boy who becomes anxious about the approaching birth of his baby sister, but a magical turn of events see him head on an adventure with the grown-up version of his unborn sister. Sounds like just the dose of happiness that our pessimist times need.
9. Leto
Kirill Serebrennikov is presently under house arrest in Russia for supposed financial embezzlement, but some of Russia’s most famous actors and directors have been rallying around him since most believe that the award-winning film and theatre director is being cornered by the establishment for his outspoken views. His new film Leto is a love triangle which takes place in Leningrad over the summer of 1981, when the underground rock scene sparked a new wind of nonconformity. Expect the sounds of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and strong strains of political dissent.
10. Birds of Passage
Ciro Guerra was a breakout star at Cannes in 2015 which was where Embrace Of The Serpent began its winning journey, ending with a nomination at the Academy Awards. This time, he has co-directed this drama charting the origins of Colombian drug trade, with producer Cristina Gallego. The trailer promises evocative compositions, strangling tension, and a sweep that puts history in perspective.
11. Ash Is Purest White
Jia Zhangke’s new film is a love story. Beginning in 2001 and culminating in 2017, it will construct a tale of violent romance set against the backdrop of China’s underworld. Zhangke is one of the leading figures of Chinese cinema, who has been consistent with artistic weight. It’s about time he receives the Palme d’Or.
12. Manto
Out of the two Indian features that made the cut, it is actor turned director Nandita Das’ biopic on Saadat Hasan Manto that holds maximum interest. Nawazuddin Siddiqui essays the controversial writer, and the film will depict Mumbai in its pre-independence glow. What’s not to love?
13. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Terry Gilliam’s lifelong dream of adapting Spanish literary canon’s most influential work has finally borne fruit. Featuring Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgård, and Olga Kurylenko, Cannes is set to close its curtains with this film. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has cemented its place in cinema lore as one of the most cursed projects, thawing in development hell for decades, even inspiring a documentary in the process. Miguel de Cervantes’ monumental achievement turns 403 this year, and the world is waiting to see how Gilliam’s opaque humour brandishes it.
(The writer is a journalist, a screenwriter, and a content developer who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise. He tweets @RanjibMazumder).
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)