“New voices are being heard”: the Asia and MENA films heading to Cannes

Among the high-profile filmmakers selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a wave of upcoming talent from Asia and the Middle East, including the first Indian feature chosen for Competition in 30 years and the first film from Saudi Arabia to ever make the Official Selection.

While Cannes has a reputation for bringing back familiar names year after year, the line-up for the 77^th edition does feature several rising filmmakers and not just in the “discovery” strands of the selection.

Making her first appearance in Competition is Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia with All We Imagine As Light. It marks her second feature after A Night Of Not Knowing Nothing, which played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2021 and won the l’Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) award for best documentary.

Kapadia’s first fiction feature centres on two nurses with troubled relationships in Mumbai who go on a road trip to a beach town, where a mystical space enables their dreams to manifest. Luxbox has secured international sales rights. The last Indian film in Competition at Cannes was Shaji N Karun’s Swaham in 1994.

“India and China are countries that are coming back to us,” said Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux at a press conference to announce this year’s line-up. “We are very glad about it.”

A landmark title in this year’s line-up is Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, the first film from Saudi Arabia ever to land in Cannes’ Official Selection. It will receive its international premiere in the Un Certain Regard section, after debuting at Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Jeddah in December.

Set in 1990s Saudi Arabia, the story centres on a young woman in a remote village who embarks on a perilous journey after the arrival of a teacher who is also a painter. It is the first local feature to shoot entirely in the AlUla region of Saudi Arabia and international rights are handled by Riyadh-based TwentyOne Entertainment.

The kingdom has shown major filmmaking ambitions since a 35-year ban on cinema was lifted in 2017 and first attended Cannes with a national pavilion in 2018. Fremaux singled out RSIFF when announcing the line-up and said: “Saudi Arabia already has the Red Sea International Film Festival, which says a lot about the desire of this country for cinema.”

The festival director was also enthused about The Village Next To Paradise, the debut feature of Somalian director Mo Harawe. “Africa is very important in cinema,” said Fremaux. “We have welcomed films from Kenya, Sudan and this time from Somalia. Suddenly, like Saudi Arabia, new voices are being heard.”

Playing in Un Certain Regard, the story is set in a remote Somali village and centres on a newly formed family that confronts challenges while pursuing individual goals. The cast includes Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim and Ahmed Mohamud Saleban. Paris-based Totem Films has boarded international sales.

Also from Africa comes Everybody Loves Touda by Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, following his 2021 feature Casablanca Beats, which marked the first Moroccan film to compete for the Palme d’Or. Screening as a Cannes Premiere, the female-driven story follows a poet and singer raising her deaf-mute son in a small village who heads to Casablanca in search of a better life.

China’s rising tide

As indicated by Fremaux, films from China are spread throughout the selection. In Competition is Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides, marking his sixth time in line for the Palme d’Or. Starring Zhao Tao, who is Jia’s wife, the romantic drama follows a woman experiencing the tumult of life, mixing fiction and documentary filmmaking. France’s MK2 Films handles sales.

In Un Certain Regard is Black Dog by Chinese filmmaker Guan Hu, set in the years before the Beijing Olympics and following a man in charge of ridding the streets of stray dogs.

Out of Competition is Peter Chan Ho-sun’s She’s Got No Name, which Fremaux labelled “the most important Chinese production of the year”. Starring Zhang Ziyi, Lei Jiayin and Jackson Yee, the film explores the progress of women’s right in China and shot in location in Shanghai. Moebius Entertainment handles international rights.

“It has been three of four years that China has been less present in world cinema due to the pandemic and we’re seeing them back,” said the Cannes festival director.

From elsewhere in Asia, Vietnam will be represented by Viet And Nam by Truong Minh Quý, which tells the story of two young miners and plays in Un Certain Regard; while Hong Kong genre feature Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In by Soi Cheang and South Korea’s I, Executioner by Ryoo Seung Wan are both set for Midnight Screenings.

From Japan comes My Sunshine by Hiroshi Okuyama, which has been selected for Un Certain Regard. It follows two youngsters who train as a figure-skating duo, while their feelings for each other grow. Charades has taken international sales rights.

It marks the second feature by Okuyama after Jesus, for which the filmmaker won the new directors award at San Sebastian in 2018. Fremaux said the filmmaker is “probably the new [Hirokazu] Kore-eda,” referring to the Palme d’Or-winning director of Shoplifters, Broker and Monster.

Further selected films that are set in India include Santosh, a UK-Europe co-production that marks the feature debut of British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, in which a woman assumes her deceased husband’s role as a police officer following his death; and The Shameless by Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov, a love story in which two women wrestle with an oppressive society rooted in centuries-old patriarchal traditions.

The 77^th Cannes Film Festival is set to take place from May 14-25.

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