Competition

About Dry Grasses

Samet, a young art teacher, is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in. Will his encounter with Nuray, herself a teacher, help him overcome his angst?

Directed by: Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
Year of production: 2023
Country: Turkey, France, Germany
Duration: 197
International Sales: PLAYTIME
info@playtime.group

Competition

Bread and Roses

Bread and Roses offers a powerful look at the seismic impact of women’s living conditions and rights after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021. The film follows three women in real time as they struggle to regain their autonomy. Mani captures the resilience and spirit of Afghan women through her intimate and raw portrayal of their heartbreaking suffering.

Directed by: Sahra MANI
Year of production: 2022
Country: Afghanistan, Pakistan
Duration: 90 minutes
International Sales: LBI ENTERTAINMENT
cjd@lbient.com

Competition

Close Your Eyes

A famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, disappears while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he’s been the victim of an accident by the sea. Many years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance is brought back into the spotlight by a TV programme outlining his life, and death, and showing exclusive images of the last scenes he filmed, shot by his dear friend, the director Miguel Garay.

Directed by: Victor ERICE
Year of production: 2023
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 169
International Sales: KADOKAWA CORPORATION
furutsuki-e@kadokawa.jp

Competition

Fallen Leaves

Two solitary people (Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen) meet by chance one night in Helsinki and each tries to find in the other his first, only and last love. Their path to this laudable goal is obscured by the man’s alcoholism, the loss of a telephone number, the ignorance of each other’s name and address. Life tends to put obstacles in the way of those seeking happiness.This tragicomedy tinged with indulgence is the fourth part that was thought to be lost of Aki Kaurismäki’s trilogy (Shadows in paradise, Ariel and The Match Maiden).

Directed by: Aki KAURISMAKI
Year of production: 2023
Country: Finland
Duration: 81 minutes
International Sales: THE MATCH FACTORY
info@matchfactory.de

Competition

Ishanou

Ishano” by Aribam Syam Sharma is a poignant story of love and loss rooted in the Manipuri culture. The story of Tampha, who responds to the inexorable call of the deity abandons her husband and daughter to join the sect of Maibi priestesses, clarifies the interference of the spiritual world with aspects of ordinary life. Its absorption into the mystical world of the Maibis also reveals the anguish of an alienated mother soon cut off from her child. The simplicity of the director’s approach, the work of the camera and the controlled acting of the actors, combined with the vivid representation of Maibi culture and the use of traditional Manipur music, give documentary authenticity to this ethnographic fiction.

Directed by: Aribam Syam SHARMA
Year of production: 1990
Country: India
Duration: 90 minutes

Competition

Killers of the Flower Moon

Based on David Grann’s critically acclaimed best-selling book, the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” is set in Oklahoma in the 20s and traces a case of murders of members of the Osage tribe, which became rich thanks to oil; A series of violent crimes dubbed “the reign of terror”.

Directed by: Martin SCORSESE
Year of production: 2023
Country: United States
Duration: 206 minutes

Cannes Premiere

Kubi

In the 16th century, Japan was tormented by conflicts between rival provincial governors. Among them, Lord Oda Nobunaga, determined to take over the rule, was at war with several clans when one of his generals, Araki Murashige, launched a rebellion before disappearing. Nobunaga then gathered his other vassals, including Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi, and ordered them to capture the fugitive Murashige, promising them that “ the one who works the most will become his successor “.

Directed by: Takeshi KITANO
Year of production: 2023
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 minutes
International Sales: KADOKAWA CORPORATION
furutsuki-e@kadokawa.jp

Cannes Classics

Last Summer

A prominent lawyer jeopardizes her career and threatens to break up her family by having an affair with her 17-year-old stepson.

Directed by: Catherine BREILLAT
Year of production: 2023
Country: France
Duration: 104 minutes
amauruc@pyramidefilms.com

Competition

Monster

The behaviour of young Minato is increasingly worrying. His mother, who has been raising him alone since the death of her husband, decides to confront the educational team of her son’s school. Everything seems to point to Minato’s teacher as responsible for the problems faced by the young boy. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth turns out to be far more complex and nuanced than anyone had originally anticipated…

Directed by: KORE-EDA Hirokazu
Year of production: 2023
Country: Japan
Duration: 126 minutes
International Sales: GOODFELLAS
edevos@goodfellas.film

Special Screenings

Occupied City

The past collides with the disorder of our present in Steve McQueen’s superb documentary Occupied City, which is inspired by the book Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945) by Bianca Stigter. The film offers a cross-portrait: both an immersion in the period of the Nazi occupation that continues to haunt the Dutch capital, the director’s adopted city; and a dizzying exploration of recent years, marked by the pandemic and social movements. The result is a moving experience that celebrates life, a vast meditation on memory, time and our common future.

Directed by: Steve MCQUEEN
Year of production: 2023
Country: Netherlands, United Kingdom
Duration: 262 minutes
International Sales: A24
joe@a24films.com

Competition

Perfect Days

Hirayama works on the maintenance of Tokyo’s public toilets. He thrives in a simple life, and a very structured daily life. He has a passion for music, books, and trees that he loves to photograph. His past will resurface according to unexpected encounters. A moving and poetic reflection on the search for beauty in everyday life.

Directed by: Wim WENDERS
Year of production: 2023
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 minutes
International Sales: THE MATCH FACTORY
info@matchfactory.de

Special Screenings

Pictures of Ghosts

The large cinemas of downtown Recife from the 20th century are mostly gone. This area of the city is now an archaeological site that reveals now lost aspects of life in society. And that’s only part of the story.

Directed by: Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO
Year of production: 2023
Country: Brazil
Duration: 93 minutes
International Sales: URBAN SALES
frederic@urbangroup.biz

Competition

Rapito

In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. On the cardinal’s orders, they came to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child would have been baptized in secret by his nurse as a baby and the pontifical law is indisputable: he must receive a Catholic education. Edgardo’s parents, upset, will do everything to get their son back. Supported by the public opinion of liberal Italy and international Jewry, the Mortaras’ struggle quickly took on a political dimension. But the Church and the Pope refuse to return the child, to establish an increasingly wavering power…

Directed by: Marco BELLOCCHIO
Year of production: 2023
Country: Italy, France, Germany
Duration: 125 minutes
International Sales: THE MATCH FACTORY
info@matchfactory.de

Un Certain Regard

Terrestrial Verses

Terrestrial Verses follows everyday people from all walks of life as they navigate the cultural, religious, and institutional constraints imposed on them by various social authorities, from school teachers to bureaucrats. These stirring vignettes, humorous and affecting, capture the spirit and determination of people amidst adversity, offering a nuanced portrait of a complex society.

Directed by: Ali ASGARI, Alireza KHATAMI
Year of production: 2023
Country: Iran
Duration: 77
FILMS BOUTIQUE
contact@filmsboutique.com

Un Certain Regard

The Buriti Flower

Through his child’s eyes, Patpro will travel through three eras in the history of his indigenous people, in the heart of the Brazilian forest. Tirelessly persecuted, but guided by their ancestral rites, their love of nature and their fight to preserve their freedom, the Krahô are constantly inventing new forms of resistance.

Directed by: João SALAVIZA, Renée NADER MESSORA
Year of production: 2023
Country: Portugal, Brazil
Duration: 123 minutes
FILMS BOUTIQUE
contact@filmsboutique.com

Un Certain Regard

The Mother Of All Lies

A tissue of family lies and a young woman in search of the truth. Through her own voice, Asmae, daughter and filmmaker, oscillates between national history and personal history to tell the story of the bread riots in 1981 and show how this event is connected to contemporary Moroccan society.

Directed by: Asmae EL MOUDIR
Year of production: 2023
Countries: Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt
Duration: 96 minutes
International Sales: AUTLOOK FILMSALES
salma@autlookfilms.com

Competition

The Old Oak

TJ Ballantyne is the owner of the “Old Oak”, a pub located in a small town in the north of England. He serves daily the same idle regulars for whom the place has become the last place to meet. The arrival of Syrian refugees will create tensions in the village. TJ will, however, become friends with Yara, a young migrant passionate about photography. Together, they will try to revive the local community by developing a canteen for the poorest, whatever their origins.

Directed by: Ken LOACH
Year of production: 2023
Country: United Kingdom, France, Belgium
Duration: 113 minutes
International Sales: GOODFELLAS
ecastro@goodfellas.film

Un Certain Regard

The Settlers

Tierra del Fuego, Republic of Chile, 1901. An immense, fertile territory that the white aristocracy seeks to “civilize”. Three horsemen are hired by a wealthy landowner, José Menendez, to dispossess the indigenous populations of their lands and open a route to the Atlantic. Under the orders of Lieutenant MacLennan, a British soldier, and an American mercenary, the young Chilean mestizo, Segundo, discovers the price of building a young nation, that of blood and lies.

Directed by: Felipe GALVEZ
Year of production: 2023
Countries: Chile, Argentina, France, Denmark, United Kingdom
Duration: 97 minutes
MK2 MOVIES
intlsales@mk2.com