Un Certain Regard 2018 at Cannes Film Festival presented 18 films in competition. 6 of them were first films. The Opening film was DONBASS by Sergei Loznitsa which went on to win the prize for Best Director.
Under the presidency of Benicio Del Toro (Puerto Rican-American actor), the Jury was comprised of Annemarie Jacir (Palestinian director and writer), Kantemir Balagov (Russian director), Virginie Ledoyen (French actress) and Julie Huntsinger (American executive director, Telluride Film Festival).
“We feel that out of 2000 films considered by the Festival, the 18 we saw in UN CERTAIN REGARD – from Argentina to China – were all in their own way winners. Over the past 10 days, we were extremely impressed by the high quality of the work presented, but in the end we were the most moved by the following 5 films.
“UN CERTAIN REGARD” PRIZE
GRÄNS (BORDER) by Ali Abbasi
Customs officer Tina is known for her extraordinary sense of smell. It’s almost as if she can sniff out the guilt on anyone hiding something. But when Vore, a suspicious-looking man, walks past her, her abilities are challenged for the first time ever. Tina can sense Vore is hiding something she can’t identify. Even worse, she feels a strange attraction to him. As Tina develops a special bond with Vore and discovers his true identity, she also realizes the truth about herself. Tina, like Vore, does not belong to this world. Her entire existence has been one big lie and now she has to choose: keep living the lie or embrace Vore’s terrifying revelations.
PRIZE FOR BEST SCREENPLAY
SOFIA by Meryem Benm’Barek
Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca. Suffering from pregnancy denial, she finds herself breaking the law by giving birth to a baby out of wedlock. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide the father’s papers before informing the authorities…
PRIZE FOR BEST PERFORMANCE
Victor Polster for GIRL by Lukas Dhont
Determined 15-year-old Lara is committed to becoming a professional ballerina. With the support of her father, she throws herself into this quest for the absolute at a new school. Lara’s adolescent frustrations and impatience are heightened as she realizes her body does not bend so easily to the strict discipline because she was born a boy.
PRIZE FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Sergei Loznitsa for DONBASS
In the Donbass, a region of Eastern Ukraine, a hybrid war takes place, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies on a mass scale perpetrated by separatist gangs.
In the Donbass, war is called peace, propaganda is uttered as truth and hatred is declared to be love.
A journey through the Donbass unfolds as a chain of curious adventures, where the grotesque and drama are as intertwined as life and death.
This is not a tale of one region, one country or one political system. It is about a world, lost in post-truth and fake identities. It is about each and every one of us.
JURY SPECIAL PRIZE
CHUVA É CANTORIA NA ALDEIA DOS MORTOS (The Dead and The Others)
by João SALAVIZA and Renée NADER MESSORA
There are no spirits or snakes tonight and the forest around the village is quiet. Fifteen year old Ihjãc has nightmares since he has lost his father. He is an indigenous Krahô from the north of Brazil.
Ihjãc walks into darkness, his sweaty body moves with fright. A distant chant comes through the palm trees. His father’s voice calls him to the waterfall: it´s time to organize the funerary feast so the spirit can depart to the dead´s village. The mourning must cease.
Denying his duty and in order to escape a crucial process of becoming a shaman, Ihjãc runs away to the city. Far from his people and culture, he faces the reality of being an indigenous in contemporary Brazil.
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