Trump, turmoil, toxicity: Regional films set for starring role at Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival has announced its official lineup for this year’s selection of films, with The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola leading a star-studded bill.
Set to take place from May 15 to 25, it will screen works by renowned filmmakers, including Coppola’s Megalopolis starring Adam Driver; George Miller’s Mad Max prequel Furiosa starring Anya Taylor-Joy; and the first instalment of Kevin Costner’s highly anticipated Western epic Horizon: An American Saga.
George Lucas will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or award at the closing ceremony to celebrate his contribution to cinema, while Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig will preside over the jury.
In addition to these titles, there will also be several movies showcased by regional filmmakers. They include powerful stories of perseverance, thrillers bound to change the lives of everyday people and the biography of one of the world’s most polarising figures. Here’s a rundown of the main four.
Motel Destino
Algerian-Brazilian director Karim Ainouz, whose psychological thriller Firebrand starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law had its premiere at last year’s festival, will be showcasing another film this time.
Playing in the competition section of the festival, Motel Destino is the director’s eighth fiction film and is described as an “intimate picture of a youth whose future has been stolen by a toxic and oppressive elite”.
The thriller is also a love story between a young man who is actively fighting against a system that oppresses him and wants him dead ... and a woman who is fighting patriarchy in her own world.
Everybody Loves Touda
Screening in the Cannes Premiere section, Everybody Loves Touda by French-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch is the story of a young singer and poet named Shaeirat, who is raising her deaf-mute son in a small village. While she performs in bars under the gaze of men, Shaeirat plans to head to Casablanca to earn fame, better opportunities and a more secure future for her son.
However, things aren’t as easy as she believed they would be in Casablanca and she must navigate through challenges that will test her strength and determination. Everybody Loves Touda was co-written by Ayouch and his wife Maryam
Touzani, the actor-turned-filmmaker. The couple also cowrote the film The Blue Kaftan, which Touzani directed and Ayouch produced.
The Blue Kaftan made its premiere at Cannes in 2022 and won the Fipresci prize.
The Apprentice
Also playing in the competition section is Iranian-Dutch director Ali Abbasi’s film The Apprentice. The biographical drama explores the early years of Donald Trump’s life as a real estate businessman in New York in the 1970s and ’80s. The story’s main plot focuses on the relationship between Trump and his mentor Roy Cohn. The film is expected to explore themes such as power and corruption.
With Abbasi as director, the film was written by Gabriel Sherman and stars Sebastian Stan as Trump, Jeremy Strong as Cohn and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump.
Norah
Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s debut will be screened in Un Certain Regard and is the first movie in the festival’s official selection for Saudi Arabia.
Norah is a drama set in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and follows the story of two unlikely characters whose meeting changes the course of their lives.
Nader is a new teacher who arrives at a remote village where he meets Norah. Her curiosity and bravery inadvertently inspire him. Norah finds herself intrigued by Nader and starts to question what life could be like outside her village and the world she has known her whole life.
The film won a funding award from a Saudi Film Commission initiative to support young filmmakers.