The Palme d'Or for the Iranian film ‘It Was a Simple Accident’ by Jafar Panahi was no real surprise, as the film had been one of the festival's favourites. The director was finally able to accept a festival prize in person, as he was granted permission to travel for the first time. The verdict against him had been overturned and he was allowed to travel abroad again. He had already been seen with his wife and daughter on the red carpet at the premiere. The Palme d'Or for Panahi is therefore also a political decision that recognises his courage and resistance in the face of persecution by the Iranian judicial machinery.
For years, despite being under an official professional ban, he had made small films under the most difficult circumstances, which then appeared at international festivals while the director was not allowed to leave Iran. The fact that he openly addresses political repression and torture in prisons in his new film and is even able to show his film in person in Cannes and accept the award may be seen as a sign that something is gradually changing in Iran under the new president, Massud Peseschkian. Cinematically, Panahi's film was not the highlight of the festival. It is too heavily laden with dialogue and has too little depth in its drawing of characters. Nevertheless, the decision is understandable as a gesture of recognition. 28 years after the award for ‘The Taste of Cherry’ (1997) by Abbas Kiarostami, for whom Panahi worked as an assistant director, this is the second Palme d'Or for an Iranian film.
One of the strongest films this year was the Brazilian entry ‘O agente secreto’ (Secret Agent). Kleber Mendonça Filho deservedly won the award for best director, while his lead actor Wagner Moura also won the award for best actor. Wagner Moura, an international star since the series ‘Narcos’ and several American films, was delighted to be able to shoot in Portuguese again. After ‘Aquarius’ (2017) and ‘Bacurau’ (2019), this was Kleber Mendonça Filho's third invitation to the Cannes competition. More are sure to follow.
The Norwegian Joachim Trier, who narrowly missed out on the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Jury Prize with ‘Affeksjonsverdi’ (Sentimental Value), is today recognised as a director of international stature. Four years ago, he had a strong showing in Cannes with ‘The Worst Person in the World’ (2021), in which his leading actress Renate Reinsve was awarded Best Actress. In Trier's new film, she once again plays a leading role, an actress who reunites with her father (Stellan Skaarsgard) after years of leaving the family.
That the Belgians Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne were honoured for best screenplay was the very least that could be expected. Their film ‘Jeunes mères’ (Young Mothers), which had previously won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, would also have been worthy of a Palme d'Or, which the brothers have already won twice. Their film was a grand finale to the festival on the night before the awards ceremony. Cinematically intelligent and emotionally overwhelming.
The Jury Prize went equally to the Spanish film ‘Sirât’ by Oliver Laxe and ‘Sound of Falling’ by Mascha Schilinski. Oliver Laxe has worked his way up from the side series ‘Quinzaine des réalisateurs’, ‘Semaine de la critique’ and ‘Un certain regard’ to the competition in Cannes. ‘Sirât’, produced by Agustín and Pedro Almodóvar, is a radical, visually stunning road movie set in the Moroccan desert. Sergi Lopez and his young son are searching for his daughter, whom he believes to be at a rave. The opening sequence was filmed at the imposing rock formation Rambla de la Barrachina in the Spanish province of Teruel. Here he meets a group of Spanish techno freaks who are on their way to the next event on the Mauritanian border in their converted lorries. Together they drive through the roughest parts of the desert, always on the lookout for petrol and food. Little by little, the journey turns into a hellish trip that could also be called ‘The Last Days of Mankind’.
Mascha Schilinski's ‘Sound of Falling’ polarised opinions in Cannes: some were thrilled by so that much cinematic ambition, others found Schilinski's feminist-tinged ghost story about a farm in the Altmark region of Germany quite unappealing. The jury obviously enjoyed it all the more. Incidentally, there is now also a German title: ‘In die Sonne schauen’ (Looking Into the Sun).
The fact that 23-year-old Nadia Melitti won the award for best actress was a huge surprise. The student, who plays football and boxes, was discovered on the street at a casting. In Hafsia Herzi's film adaptation of the novel ‘La petite dernière’ (The Little Daughter), she plays Fatima, the little sister of a family with Algerian roots living in the banlieue of Paris. When she discovers her erotic fondness for women, she cannot confide in anyone and comes into conflict with her religious convictions. As appealing as it is to honour amateur actors, it doesn't seem fair to professional actors who immerse themselves in their roles in a completely different way, such as Léa Drucker in Dominik Moll's brilliant police film ‘Dossier 317’. Or the Iranian Parinaz Izadyar, who shows enormous versatility as a widowed nurse and mother of an adolescent son in the second Iranian film ‘Woman and Child’.
‘Resurrection’ by director Bi Gan from China, for which the jury awarded a special prize, also divided opinions. While admirers raved about an ‘enigma’, a ‘cinematic odyssey’ or a ‘treat for cinephiles’, others saw an almost three- long spectacle of cinematic ideas with no recognisable content. One has to be grateful that the film only won the special prize. It could have been worse.
This year's Cannes competition was perhaps not as spectacular as last year's, where films such as ‘Anora’, ‘Emilia Pérez’, ‘Substance’, ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘The Seeds of the Sacred Fig Tree’ became a worldwide success. However, in addition to the award winners, there were outstanding films such as ‘Dossier 317’, ‘Eagles of the Republic’ and ‘Woman and Child’, which made a strong impression and will hopefully find their audience.