Cannes Film Festival under the shadow of war

Actress Julianne Moore opened the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The first movie to be released on Tuesday was “Coupez!” During the opening ceremony, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski addressed the guests of the film festival through a video message.

In a speech, he made a comparison with Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Great Dictator” to urge the cinema not to “shut up” in the face of the Russian attack on Ukraine. Zelenski asked: “Will the cinema be silent or will it talk about it? “If there is a dictator, if there is a struggle for freedom, everything depends again on our cohesion.”

Cannes is the most important film festival in Europe. And he is such, both glamorous and with a political message. But in times of war in Europe, this claim has the potential for conflict. The artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, had announced early on that he did not want to host any official Russian delegation in the 75th edition. However, Frémaux reserved the right to include Russian filmmakers in the program.

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has already been invited to the competition with his film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife”. Frémaux argued that he had not received any funding from the Russian state. Serebrennikov is in Cannes for the third time. Russia, who has been under house arrest in Russia for two years, now lives in Germany. The film tells a biographical episode from the life of world-famous Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who, to hide his homosexuality, married a young woman who fell in love with him, plunging him into a tragedy.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker receives the Palme d’Or at Cannes

At the 75th Film Festival, “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” competes with 20 other films, only four of them with women directors. Director Rebecca Hall, who is a member of the jury, said she still sees no gender and minority equality in the film industry. “I thought we had made progress, but apparently it has not been done yet,” said Rebecca Hall. Her jury colleague Jeff Nichols predicts that issues such as the minority perspective may become the subject of discussion among jury members.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, who is presenting in Cannes the film he produced “For the Sake of Peace,” said funds needed to be raised to make more diverse films. In his film he tells the story of a young woman in South Sudan who tries to bring peace between hostile groups. In Cannes Whitaker receives the Palm of Honor. Also on the jury is Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who will soon face a copyright lawsuit in Iran. A former student accuses him of stealing the idea for his film “A Hero” – which was honored with an award in Cannes last year. The student says he got the idea from a documentary of hers.

The two-time Oscar winner objected to this on opening day in Cannes. The story is based on a true story that has been reported by many media outlets – and is therefore not covered by the copyright: “An event that happened belongs to the public domain.”

The jury with Rebecca Hall and chairman Vincent Lindon will also discuss the minority perspective

Canadian David Cronenberg, comes with the film “Crimes of the Future”, starring Léa Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart. “Crimes of the Future” is a science-fiction horror film set in a future world where advanced technology can change the biological composition of humans.

Other previous winners include Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Swedish director Ruben Östlund, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda, who won the 2018 Palme d’Or, and Romanian Cristian Mungiu. Even South Korean director Park Chan-wook has twice won an award in Cannes. In this festival he comes with the thriller “The decision to leave”. “Armageddon Time”, the film of the American James Gray, deals with an episode from the election campaign of former President Ronald Reagan, where the Trump family also has a finger. Starring Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins. The director has already been invited to Cannes five times, but so far he has always left the competition empty-handed.

Horror and glamor in Cannes

The opening film (out of competition) “Coupez!” by director Michel Hazanavicius is a zombie comedy. “Cut!” is the translated title, a pun on the craft of the filmmaker and vampirism. In fact, the movie was titled “Z (comme Z)”. But since the name is reminiscent of the Z symbol used by Russia in the Ukraine war, the film was renamed.

Scary is also the thriller “Holy Spider” by Iranian director Ali Abbasi: A man known as the “spider killer” in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad kills prostitutes as a divine mission.

This time, Cannes does not miss the Hollywood stars: Tom Cruise, who plays the main role in the out-of-competition premiere of the sequel to the cult movie “Top Gun”. 36 years after the first film, the second film was shot at the Côte d ‘Azure. Out of the competition is Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” about the king of Rock’n’Roll, played by American actor Austin Butler, and his manager is played by another Hollywood legend, Tom Hanks.

Guest star in Cannes: American actor Tom Cruise in the sequel to “Top Gun”.

Europe and its history of migration

It cannot be overlooked that the African continent is not represented at all. At least some directors are devoted to topics related to colonialism, migration and racism. With “Tori und Lokita” the Belgian Dardenne brothers tell a drama about two young immigrants from the African continent. Starring Joely Mbundu and Pablo Schils.

In “Mother and Son”, French director Lèonor Serraille tells the story of Rose and her two sons, Ernest and Jean, who emigrated from the Ivory Coast to Paris in 1986. The film follows the family until 2010. It shows that they grow up together, but that someday they have to separate. Catalan video artist Albert Serra’s work “Pacification – Tourment sur les iles” takes place in French Polynesia and focuses on the conflicts between the French establishment and the local population.

Christian Mungiu’s entry into the main race is interesting to understand racism: His drama “RMN” is about a village in Transylvania. Following the influx of foreign migrants, the village is invaded by racist prejudices. A disturbing mix between fears, disappointments, conflicts and passions spreads.

Movie still from “Stars at noon” by Claire Denis

Ukrainian films and boycott of Russia

In early March, the film festival announced that it would ban the participation of Russian delegations if the Russian attack was not stopped under conditions that pleased the Ukrainian people. And indeed, no Russian official representative, no Russian filmmaker and no Russian critic or journalist has been invited this year. The fact that Kirill Serebrennikov, who lives in Germany, is now represented in the competition, softens this harsh stance very little.

The most famous Russian critic, Andrei Plakhov, from Lviv, fell victim to this policy. However, he reacted with restraint: “Maybe we really need to understand what it is like to be a citizen of an aggressor country,” he wrote in a public statement on his Facebook page.

However, not everyone in Ukraine shares the policy of “zero tolerance” for everything Russian: Sergei Loznitsa, perhaps the most famous director in Ukraine, had spoken out in March against the general boycott of Russian films: “What is happening is terrible. He said in an interview with Variety magazine. “I urge everyone not to go crazy. “We should not judge people by their passports, but by their actions.” This position brought Loznitsa an exception from the National Film Academy of Ukraine, which was founded in 2017. In Cannes, his film “Natural History of Destruction” is shown in a special program out of competition.

Mantas Kvedaravicius

Director Mantas Kvedaravičius shot a documentary about Mariupol in 2014, but he could not finish the continuation of the documentary. He was killed by Russian weapons in Ukraine in 2022.

Shots on the front

Mantas Kvedaravičius’ film “Mariupolis 2” will also be screened in Cannes. The Lithuanian director was killed by the Russian army in Mariupol in April. His fiancée Hanna Bilobrova, who was there with him, was able to secure the footage. Together with Mantas Kvedaravičius editor Dounia Sichov, a shocking and very current testimony was created. The festival announced that it was absolutely essential to present “Mariupolis 2” in Cannes. That’s why the movie was then added to the program. Its premiere is on May 19th.

In one of the festival’s side programs, “Un Certain Regard” (“A Special Scene”), another film is drawing attention: “Butterfly Visions” by young Ukrainian director Maksim Nakonechnyi. The film, completed before the war, tells a “surreal story of a fighter, pilot Lilja, who, after being taken prisoner of war, desperately tries to return to her normal life,” says the director. “Unfortunately, my film was probably a premonition of war,” says Maxim Nakonechnyi. He has been at the front since the beginning of the Russian occupation – with a gun and a camera. A documentary will come out of this, he says.DW

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