SPOTLIGHT

French. But Cannes is also a Babel, teaming with the tongues of every film industry from around the world. In the international village, where nations have tented gathering places, wave the flags of dozens of countries. On the streets, almost any language can be heard. And on the movie screens, films from every corner of the globe line up alongside each other: one universal language of cinema.

But for Cannes to function, interpreters like Lahidji are a seldom noticed necessity, a lifeblood. Through them pass the cacophonous dialects of the festival, like go-between vessels connecting audiences with filmmakers, and vice versa.

“You’re here to have a transmission through you,” says Lahidji, an Iranianborn, France-based interpreter who works in Farsi, French, English and Spanish. “Ideally, you’re not there. You’re there to let an energy pass from one person to another.”

Twenty-one countries took part of the first Cannes film festival in 1946; it was partly imagined as a way to unite Europe after World War II. Over time, it’s grown increasingly global, as films from South America, the Middle East and Asia have grown commonplace. Last year, Saudi Arabia, where cinemas are again permitted, announced itself open for business at Cannes. This year’s festival jury is, for the first time, headed by a Latin American, director Alejandro Inarritu.

Petros Giannakouris / Associated Press Interpreters Yannick Gautier, top left, and Sarah Combette during a news conference at the 72nd Cannes international film festival in southern France.