DUBAI: The official selection of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival was announced on April 13, with nine filmmakers from the MENA region among the line-up for the 76th edition of the festival, running from May 16-27.
The roster also features five films that have been backed by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film fund, including Tunisian film “Four Daughters” by Kaouther Ben Hania, Senegalese film “Banel E Adama” directed by Ramata Toulayesy, Sudanese film “Goodbye Julia” by filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani, “Les Meutes” by Kamal Lazrek and “The Mother of All Lies” by Asmae El-Moudir.
Here are the nine filmmakers from the MENA region who will showcase their work at the festival this year.
Karim Ainouz
The Algerian-Brazilian filmmaker’s “Firebrand,” an historical drama following Catherine Parr and Henry VIII’s marriage, and starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law, will screen in the official competition category.
Kaouther Ben Hania
The Tunisian filmmaker’s “Four Daughters,” also showing in the official competition, stars Hend Sabry as the mother of four daughters, two of whom become radicalized and join Daesh.
Ramata-Toulaye Sy
The Senegalese-French film director and screenwriter’s debut feature “Banel & Adama” is a female emancipation drama set in a remote village in Northern Senegal, which will screen in the official competition category.
Elias Belkeddar
The Franco-Algerian producer-director’s “Omar La Fraise” follows the story of Omar Zerrouki, a gangster who leaves France for Algiers to escape a life of crime. The film will show in the Midnight Screenings at Cannes.
Asmae El-Moudir
The Moroccan filmmaker will screen “The Mother of All Lies” — a documentary that explores the events surrounding the deadly bread riots that shook El-Moudir’s impoverished Casablanca neighborhood in 1981 — in the Un Certain Regard category.
Mohamed Kordofani
The Sudanese filmmaker’s “Goodbye Julia,” also screening in the Un Certain Regard category, is set just before the secession of South Sudan, and follows a married former singer from the north who seeks redemption after causing the death of a southern man.
Kamal Lazraq
The Moroccan filmmaker’s debut feature “Les Meutes,” featuring in the Un Certain Regard category, stars Ayoub Elaid and Abdellatif Masstouri as a father-and-son duo.
Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami
Iranian filmmakers Ali Asgari (pictured) and Alireza Khatami will show their film “Terrestrial Verses” in the Un Certain Regard category of the competition.