Film tips from Cannes Domestic violence in a religious family, returning from exile and Russian war recruitment
The legal drama "Fjord" with Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve wins the Palme d'Or.
Image: © cineworx
Tilda Swinton presents the main prize to Romanian director Christian Mungiu.
Image: © Stéphane Cardinale – Getty Images
The second highest prize, the "Grand Jury Prize", goes to the crime drama "Minotaur".
Image: © cineworx
The post-war drama "Fatherland" with Sandra Hüller was awarded for Best Director.
Image: © Pathé Films
The legal drama "Fjord" with Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve wins the Palme d'Or.
Image: © cineworx
Tilda Swinton presents the main prize to Romanian director Christian Mungiu.
Image: © Stéphane Cardinale – Getty Images
The second highest prize, the "Grand Jury Prize", goes to the crime drama "Minotaur".
Image: © cineworx
The post-war drama "Fatherland" with Sandra Hüller was awarded for Best Director.
Image: © Pathé Films
The 79th Cannes Film Festival is history. The Palme d'Or goes to the justice drama "Fjord". blue News presents three selected highlights that are definitely worth seeing.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Christian Mungiu's "Fjord" with Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve wins the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
- The morally tricky legal drama is about a strictly religious family accused of domestic violence.
- Two other highlights of this year's festival are the crime drama "Minotaur", set in Russia, and the post-war drama "Fatherland" with Sandra Hüller.
Park Chan-wook, president of this year's Cannes Film Festival jury, joked that he didn't actually want to give the Palme d'Or to any of the films in competition because he had never won it himself. But he had "No Other Choice" - a reference to the title of his cleverly directed last film.
The main prize deservedly goes to the justice drama "Fjord" by Christian Mungiu. This is the second time that the Romanian director has won the Palme d'Or. In 2007, he achieved this with the stirring drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days".
As blue News reported at the beginning of the festival, there were no studio films from Hollywood at the 79th edition of the festival. But with "Paper Tiger" by US director James Gray and "Her Private Hell" by Danish filmmaker Nicholas Winding Refn ("Drive"), major independent productions celebrated their world premieres and brought glamor to the Croisette. In addition, the most expensive South Korean production "Hope" was shown as a real action firework.
blue News presents three more films from this year's line-up that are particularly worth seeing, caused a stir and are also likely to play a role at the next Academy Awards.
Palm winner "Fjord" with Sebastian Stan
In the legal drama "Fjord" by Christian Mungiu, Sebastian Stan - known as the Winter Soldier actor in the Marvel films - plays the Romanian software developer Mihai. He and his Norwegian wife Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) have just moved to their remote home village near a fjord. They have five children together and, as fundamental Christians, they bring them up in a strictly religious way.
When one of their daughters shows conspicuous bruises on her neck during gym class at school, the teachers suspect domestic violence and the child protection authorities immediately get involved. The children are temporarily taken away from their parents and a complicated legal process begins.
"Fjord" is inspired by true events and from a moral point of view, the film tells a highly suspenseful story. In this intricate judicial drama, a conflict arises between traditional religious values and progressive ideas, with politics and the law not knowing how to deal with it properly. Although the parents' religious upbringing is highly questionable, their treatment of the children nevertheless comes across as loving. On the other hand, the authorities' actions are rigorous and hasty, although the intentions are of course good.
Mungiu questions religion, politics and legislation. His film is a strong appeal for tolerance and acceptance in society.
The narrative style is calm and sober, but gains a high degree of emotional intensity as it progresses, and the cool, remote area forms the perfect setting for the story. Stan is almost unrecognizable with short-cropped hair and performs superbly, with a certain manner and a put-on accent in English.
"Fatherland" with Sandra Hüller
The post-war drama "Fatherland" by Oscar-winning Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski ("Cold War") is about Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann's (Hanns Zischler) return from the USA to Germany shortly after the Second World War. He is accompanied by his daughter Erika(Sandra Hüller), who is an actress, cabaret artist, author and even a racing driver.
While the country is in the midst of upheaval in 1949, both the West and the East have a great interest in winning Thomas Mann over and using his name for political purposes. Thomas is honored and not averse to these circumstances, but Erika does not shy away from expressing her doubts to him.
"Fatherland" is set in an incredibly complicated but also very exciting time. The GDR and the FRG are in the process of being formed. And as if the country had learned nothing from the misery of the war, politicians are already trying to arm themselves with propaganda again.
Art is being used, controlled or even "abused" for political purposes - a reprehensible state of affairs that still applies to a certain extent today.
With Sandra Hüller, one of today's most sought-after actresses, and Hanns Zischler, who has worked with all the great auteur filmmakers since the 1970s, the film has a top-class cast. The very familiar, but also ruthlessly honest way in which the two of them deal with each other is strongly expressed.
Visually, "Fatherland" is an elegant, noble work of art. The beautiful, powerful black and white images and the astonishingly real-looking setting with the sumptuous decor in the halls, the classic cars of the 1940s and the musical performances capture the period magnificently.
"Minotaur" by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev ("Loveless", "Leviathan"), who lives in France, is known for his socio-critical and political dramas. He does not shy away from addressing political grievances such as corruption and abuse of power in his home country of Russia. This is also the case in his powerful new film "Minotaur".
In this harrowing crime drama, wealthy and respected company director Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov) is asked by the state to submit a list of 14 men for the war effort. This puts him under enormous mental pressure. How is he supposed to decide which of his company's employees will be affected? At the same time, his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) is increasingly distancing herself from him. An act of violence threatens to cause his civilized, luxurious life to fall apart completely.
"Minotaur" is nerve-wracking, revealing and super suspenseful. With the theme of secret, underhanded war recruitment, Zvyagintsev courageously criticizes both the war in Ukraine and the brazen approach of politicians. Further examples in the film show how systematically corruption is anchored in the entire state apparatus.
The acting performances are all fantastic and lend the story the necessary emotional intensity. The longer the film lasts, the more unsettling and uncomfortable it feels to follow the main character Gleb. The detailed visual language is also extremely clever and the camera movements contribute significantly to the build-up of tension.
The Swiss cinema releases for the three highlights have not yet been set, but will be announced soon.
