A large Arab presence at the Cannes Film Festival

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Elaf who was: A few hours separate us from the beginning of the Cannes Festival in its 75th session, and despite its return last year following stopping due to the Corona pandemic, but in the session we can say that we are back to was as it was, and you notice that starting from the great press turnout, until two days before the festival there are still press credits You print, and you also notice the huge pressure on the ticket booking site.

This year, there is a very large presence of Arab cinema through eight films:

(Shapes) and (Under the Tree) in the Critics Contest

Within the critics’ week there are two Arab films, the first is (Ashkal), the first by Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi, whose events begin when a charred body is found in the middle of a construction site.

It is also showing the movie (Under the Tree), the first feature film by Tunisian director Areej Sehiri, whose story revolves around the relationships between young men and girls during the summer harvest, as they try to understand each other and create deep bonds.

A distinguished Arab presence in a competition from one look

The Arabs are in this competition with three films, the first of which is the film (Mediterranean Fever) directed by Maha Haj from Palestine, which deals with the story of a Palestinian writer suffering from depression, and who befriends his fraudulent neighbor to help him implement an exciting and unusual scheme to get out of this situation.

(The Blue Caftan) by Moroccan director Maryam Wazani, and the director previously participated in a special film that was shown in the same name (Adam). About the secret hidden by the couple.

The third film is the movie (Harqa), directed by the Tunisian origin Lotfi Nathan. In this film, he touches on the difficulty of life and the problems caused by the lack of manpower, through the story of the Tunisian young man “Ali” who earns his living from selling smuggled fuel and all that he wishes to have a better life away from the bitter reality.

(Boy from Heaven) a controversial Egyptian movie

It is directed by the Swedish director of Egyptian origin, Tariq Salah.

The film is very expected to provoke a great deal of controversy due to the sensitivity of the subject and the sensitivity of director Kassem, who prevented his first film from being shown in Egypt.

The director has a previous film entitled (What Happened at the Hilton), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Festival.

Among the films that are screened outside the official competition, is (The Rebel) by Belgian directors Adel Elaraby and Bilal Falah, and its story revolves around a Moroccan teenage boy who is experiencing an identity crisis following the death of his father and whose mother is trying to distance him from his older brother.

The third film is the Lebanese film “The Dam” by director Ali Shari, and the events are derived from real stories of workers in brick factories, whom the director met with and built strong relationships with them over the past years, to present us with the importance of imagination and the human ability to imagine a reality opposite to what he faces of oppression and injustice .

Presence Egypt Arabic strong committees arbitration

Although the Egyptian cinema is absent from the official competitions for films, this year the Cannes Festival is witnessing a distinguished Arab and Egyptian participation in the jury committees. Film critic Ahmed Shawky also participates from Egypt in the jury of the International Federation of Film Critics and is present with him in the same Moroccan critic committee Jihan Bougrain, and Tunisian director Kaouthar Ben Hania chaired the critics competition at Cannes.