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A scene from Rafiki (Friend), which is banned in Kenya. It got a standing
ovation in Cannes. (Photo courtesy of the festival.)
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With the usual posse of big-name directors and actors missing from this year’s Cannes Film Festival in southern France, the event created space for cutting-edge films from Asia, Africa, small European states, and the Middle East.
Most of these films put the focus squarely on stories about outsiders, highlighting issues of exclusion, disability, racism and gender inequality (including in the film industry). The result was a festival with some of the most engaging movies in the last five years, alongside the trademark glitz.
The winners in the two main categories of the festival, which ran from May 8 to 19, exemplified the concentration on the underdog. Manbiki Kazoku (Shoplifters) by Japanese director Kore-Eda Hirokazu won the Palme d’Or top prize, from among 21 films, while Gräns (Border), by Iranian-born Danish director Ali Abbasi, was awarded the Un Certain Regard Prize, beating 17 other movies. The latter category recognizes films that stand out for their originality, and many critics agreed Gräns was remarkable.
“We feel that out of 2,000 films considered by the Festival, the 18 we saw in Un Certain Regard, from Argentina to China, were all in their own way winners,” stated the jury, headed by Puerto-Rican actor Benicio Del Toro.
“We were
extremely impressed by the high quality of the work presented, but in the end
we were the most moved by … five films” (including Gräns), the jury added
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| A scene from Gräns (photo courtesy of the festival). |
Full of
suspense, Abbasi’s movie tells the story of a “strange-looking” female customs
officer who has a gift for spotting, or sniffing out, travellers trying to hide
their contraband and other secrets, and it takes viewers on her journey to
discover who she really is.
We see her experiencing
verbal abuse from some travellers, and we slowly discover the exploitation she
and people like her have suffered, while also learning about her origins, and
seeing her fall in love and deal with appalling crime.
Based on a
short story by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, and with superb acting,
the film combines romance, dark humour and the paranormal to deliver a subtle
message about the treatment of people who are different and society’s behaviour
towards those most vulnerable, among other subjects.
A second film
that won a major award in the Un Certain Regard category also dealt with
“difference” and the acceptance of one’s individuality. Girl by Belgian director Lukas Dhont is a first feature about a boy
who dreams of becoming a ballerina, exploring the journey of a trans-teen with
a passion for dance. Victor Polster, the 15-year-old actor who plays the title
role with poignant credibility, won the best actor award, while Girl also won the competition’s Caméra
d’Or prize for best first film.
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| The poster for Rafiki (Friend). |
However, Rafiki (Friend), a movie that some
critics expected to receive a prize, had to be satisfied with the extended
standing ovation it received from viewers at the festival. The film – about
love between two young women – is banned in Kenya, despite being the first
Kenyan film selected for screening at the festival.
Director Wanuri
Kahui said she was moved by the appreciation the film received, telling
reporters that people are eager to watch a “joyful” and “modern” African movie,
away from the stereotypical images of poverty and disaster.
Regarding the
ban, she tweeted in April: “I am incredibly sorry to announce that our film
RAFIKI has been banned in Kenya. We believe adult Kenyans are mature and
discerning enough to watch local content but their right has been denied.”
Apart from the
Palme d’Or winner (about a family of shoplifters), the films that generated
widespread buzz in the main competition included Arabic-language Yomeddine, directed by Cairo-born A.B.
Shawky, and featuring a leper in Egypt, and BlacKkKlansman,
by African-American director Spike Lee, which won the Grand Prix, the second
highest honour at the festival.
Yomeddine stood out for its choice of subject and
for portraying and employing persons with disabilities. Viewer and British
actor Adam Lannon called the film “beautiful and brilliant”, adding that it was
“excellent” to see “actors with disabilities working on screen”.
The film’s main
character, Beshay, is a man cured of leprosy, but he has never left the leper
colony where he has been placed by his family since childhood. When his wife
dies, he sets out in search of his roots, with his loyal donkey. He is soon
joined by an orphan boy named Obama, whom he has been protecting, although he
would rather have been alone.
What follows is
an uplifting road movie across Egypt, with a series of tear-jerking encounters
on the way and echoes of “Don Quixote”. Shawky’s first feature has some flaws
in that certain elements seem too predictable, but he scores overall with his
appeal for humanity and inclusion. "It has always been my desire to film the oppressed, the excluded, the journey of someone who pulls through, against all odds," he said in the movie notes.
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| Director Spike Lee (left). Photo courtesy of the festival. |
For Spike Lee,
anger at racism comes across clearly in his latest work, which is the story of
a real-life African-American policeman who managed to infiltrate the local Ku
Klux Klan in Colorado. Lee incorporated recent events in the United States in
the movie, particularly the killing of Heather Heyer as she protested a
white-supremacist gathering in Charlottesville.
At his main
Cannes press conference, Lee slammed the current U.S. administration, in a
speech full of expletives. “We have a guy in the White House … who in a
defining moment … was given the chance to say we’re about love and not hate,
and that (expletive deleted) did not denounce the Klan,” he told journalists.
Gender issues
were also raised at the festival, with the #MeToo and #TimesUp issues never far
from movie-watchers’ consciousness, as is the global scarcity of female
directors. Only one film directed by a woman (The Piano by Jane Campion) has
ever won the Palme d’Or, and women have long been underrepresented at the directorial
level.
During the
event, 82 women working in the movie sector took over the famous red-carpeted
stairs to protest that inequality. Their number was an indication that since
the Cannes festival officially began in 1946, following World War II, just 82
movies by women directors have been selected for competition. In contrast,
1,645 films by male directors have been chosen.
Led by the five
women on this year’s competition jury, including jury president Cate Blanchett
and American director Ava Duvernay, the protest coincided with the screening of
Les Filles du Soleil (Girls of the
Sun), a movie by French director Eva Husson about a group of female fighters in
Kurdistan.
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| Front cover of the book. |
This was just
one of several protest events. A few days later, black women working in the
French film industry also denounced the lack of quality roles. Sixteen women
who have contributed to a book titled Noire
n’est pas mon metier (Being black is not my profession) made their voices
heard on the red carpet.
“We’re here to
denounce a system that has gone on too long,” said Senegalese-born French
actress Aïssa Maïga, who described how black actresses tended to be cast only
in certain roles.
Among the three
women directors in the main competition, Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki took
home the biggest award - the Prix du Jury for Capharnaüm, about a boy who sues
his parents for bringing him into the world.
In a moving
speech, Labaki called for everyone to do more to protect children and ensure
their education.
“Loveless childhood is the root of all suffering in the
world,” she said.
By the time the
festival wrapped up with a performance from singers Sting and Shaggy on May 19
(the same day as the royal wedding in England), it seemed that both filmmakers
and the public were yearning for lasting change, and different stories.
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Twitter: @mckenzie_ale
