Metronom to open Les Films de Cannes à Bucharest.
Sweden is the country in focus at the 13th edition.
A new generation of Scandinavian filmmakers is making waves, following in the footsteps of Ingmar Bergman, Lars von Trier and the Dogma movement: this year, three completely different directors with equally strong visions participated in the Cannes competition. All are linked to the famous “Swedish school of filmmaking”. This is an ideal opportunity for Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest .13 to offer Romanian spectators an unmissable Focus Sweden.
Swedish cult director Ruben Östlund, winner of the Palme d’Or in 2017 for The Square, returned to Cannes this year with Triangle of Sadness, with which he claimed the ultimate trophy once again. This fresh, sardonic masterpiece was joined by two other films by up-and-coming filmmakers, originally immigrants, that audiences can see this year: Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven, from Sweden – Best Screenplay Award, Cannes 2022, and Danish-Iranian Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider – Best Actress Award, Cannes 2022 for Zar Amir Ebrahimi.
Nordic filmmakers “often push the boundaries of cinematic language”, says Claus Christensen, editor of the Danish film magazine Ekko. “It’s about entertainment, but the aim is also to challenge the audience. The director has the freedom to explore his artistic vision, whatever it may be.”
Abbasi, born in Iran 40 years ago, educated in Sweden and based in Denmark, made his second appearance in Cannes this year, having previously won the 2018 Un Certain Regard section with Border, an eccentric, fantastical film about a border police officer. His new film, Holy Spider, is the gritty tale of a serial killer who “cleanses” the Iranian holy city of Mashhad of sex workers. “You can’t pigeonhole him. When you think you’ve defined him, he changes shape and becomes something else,” his producer Jacob Jarek told Agence France-Presse. Abbasi recently finished filming episodes for HBO’s upcoming post-apocalyptic series, The Last of Us, based on a video game.
Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider ingeniously manages to bridge the gap between social realism and “consumer” cinema in a way that suggests both are rooted in a similar area of gritty authenticity. This versatility defines his generation, says Jarek. The previous wave of Nordic filmmakers, such as von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, gained international fame with the Dogma movement, which established strict filmmaking rules designed to ensure a frustrated realism to their work. But the new generation is “more willing to work with genres and combine them: to make comedies and lighter things mixed with darker elements,” Jarek added.
Both Abbasi’s and Saleh’s films draw heavily on their immigrant backgrounds. Abbasi left Tehran for Sweden in 2002 and later settled in Denmark, while Saleh was born in Stockholm to a Swedish mother and Egyptian father.
Saleh’s background was crucial to the making of Boy from Heaven, he told Cannes press: “I think there’s a reason why a lot of directors have immigrant backgrounds, like Francis Ford Coppola and Miloš Forman. You’re positioned inside and outside of something. In a way, this is the role of the director… to see the similarities as well as the differences.” Boy from Heaven is a dark thriller set in Cairo about an impoverished boy who wins a scholarship to the prestigious Al-Azhar University, where he finds himself drawn into a brutal power struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elites. Being an outsider was crucial, Saleh said. “No one had ever entered Al-Azhar University with a camera before. An Egyptian filmmaker would go to jail if he did,” he told AFP. A former graffiti artist, Saleh grew up with a filmmaker father and worked in his film studio before attending an art school in Alexandria. As well as directing episodes of cult series Westworld and Ray Donovan, his 2017 film The Nile Hilton Incident, also set in Cairo, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Östlund, the doyen of the trio with six feature films to his credit, brought his first English-language film to Cannes. Triangle of Sadness is a savage satire of the world of fashion and the rich, but also a scathing critique of society’s emphasis on beauty.
At the 13th edition of Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest, not only the Nordic but also the local creative force will be reconfirmed. The festival will open with one of the most talked about and awarded productions of the moment, Metronom.
In 1972, while Țiriac and Năstase play the Davis Cup Final against America, two high school students fall in love and write letters to Radio Free Europe’s Metronom show. When the young man gets the go-ahead to leave the country for good with his family, the two lovers know they have to part ways, but don’t expect that their last days together are set to become decisive for their entire lives.
Metronom, Alexandru Belc’s feature film debut, won the Best Director Award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes to a standing ovation from audiences and critics. “This slow, stylish, richly imagined feature debut is much more than a Romanian riff on Romeo and Juliet,” writes the prestigious trade Variety, while Screen International describes it as “a compelling snapshot of adolescents on the cusp of adulthood, whose struggle to find their voice is made impossible by the authorities — everyone from concerned parents to the secret police — breathing down their neck.” The Clappers even call it “one of the best films of the year” due to it “resoundingly stunning craft and empathetic emotional journey,” while Disappointment Media assures us it’s “not a film we’ll soon forget.”
This “sublimely beautiful film” (The Upcoming) is distributed by Strada Film International and will be presented at Les Films de Cannes à Bucaarest two weeks before the theatrical release on November 4th.
More information can be found on filmedefestival.ro and on the festival’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest is presented by Orange Romania, the traditional partner of the event.
Inspired by: UniCredit Bank
With the support of: Sun Wave Pharma, Groupama, Dacin Sara, Mercure Hotels
A Cultural project financed by: Romanian National Center of Cinematography, SACD / Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, French Embassy in Romania and the French Institute in in Romania
Cultural partners: Romanian Cultural Institute, Italian Cultural Institute
Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest is a project co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB within the Bucharest – Affective City 2022 programme. For more detailed information about the financing program of the Bucharest mayorship through ARCUB, please visit www.arcub.ro.
Partners: Peasant Museum Cinema, National Film Archive – Romanian Cinematheque, Swedish Embassy in Romania, Avanpost, Abator, Aparterre, Europa Cinemas, Eventbook
Main media partners: Radio Guerrilla, TVR, Agerpres
Media Partners: Cinemagia, Zile și Nopți, Cinemap, Films in Frame, Ziarul Metropolis, Film Menu, iQAds, Smark, A List Magazine, Igloo, Urban.ro, LiterNet, The Institute, AARC – All About Romanian Cinema, Movie News, CineFan, Munteanu, CineGhid, Radio România Cultural
Cultural partner: RFI România
**The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the Bucharest City Hall or that of ARCUB.
