April 14, 2023 The official selection for the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival was announced earlier this week, revealing the participation of nine MENA region filmmakers in the festival, which will be held from May 16-27. Additionally, the line-up includes five films that received support from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film fund, such as Four Daughters by Kaouther Ben Hania from Tunisia, Banel E Adama directed by Ramata Toulayesy from Senegal, Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani from Sudan, Les Meutes by Kamal Lazrek, and The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El-Moudir. The following are the names of the nine filmmakers from the MENA region whose films will be showcased at Cannes this year: Karim Ainouz, an Algerian-Brazilian filmmaker, will screen Firebrand, a historical drama depicting Catherine Parr and Henry VIII’s marriage, starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law, in the official competition category. Kaouther Ben Hania, a Tunisian filmmaker, will showcase Four Daughters, a film about a mother of four daughters, two of whom join Daesh, in the official competition category. Ramata-Toulaye Sy, a Senegalese-French film director and screenwriter, will present her debut feature Banel & Adama, a female emancipation drama set in a remote village in Northern Senegal, in the official competition category. Elias Belkeddar, a Franco-Algerian producer-director, will screen Omar La Fraise, a film following the story of Omar Zerrouki, a gangster who escapes a life of crime in France for Algiers, in the Midnight Screenings section. Asmae El-Moudir, a Moroccan filmmaker, will showcase The Mother of All Lies, a documentary exploring the deadly bread riots that occurred in El-Moudir’s impoverished Casablanca neighborhood in 1981, in the Un Certain Regard category. Mohamed Kordofani, a Sudanese filmmaker, will present Goodbye Julia, a film set just before the secession of South Sudan, portraying a married former singer from the north seeking redemption after causing the death of a southern man, in the Un Certain Regard category. Kamal Lazraq, a Moroccan filmmaker, will present his debut feature Les Meutes, featuring Ayoub Elaid and Abdellatif Masstouri as a father-and-son duo, in the Un Certain Regard category. Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami, Iranian filmmakers, will screen their film Terrestrial Verses in the Un Certain Regard category of the competition. The Cannes Film Festival will run from May 16–27, 2023.
