{"id":11033,"date":"2022-02-25T08:16:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T08:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival"},"modified":"2022-02-25T09:14:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T09:14:51","slug":"this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival","title":{"rendered":"This could have been Africa\u2019s Cannes festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>This July\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, which returned to the Croisette after a year dominated by the ongoing pandemic, promised to be an exceptional one as it had two years to choose its selection. However, by all accounts, this was not the case, despite the quality and originality of some of the works presented.<\/p>\n

This included the films that were competing for the Palme d\u2019Or, which unsurprisingly went to a film directed by a woman but also quite shockingly to a trashy and \u2013 some might even say \u2013 gory film, the very beautiful and disturbing Titanium by the young Frenchwoman Julia Ducournau.<\/p>\n

What was true in general was also true for Africa and thus people were expecting, given the quantity and quality of the works selected as well as Senegal\u2019s Mati Diop\u2019s presence on the jury, an exceptional 2021 festival for Africa.<\/p>\n

Once again, people were somewhat disappointed. Two African films in competition When the festival\u2019s official selection was announced at the beginning of June, many were pleased to see that two African films were competing for the Palme d\u2019Or \u2013 a first in many years.<\/p>\n

These films were Chad\u2019s Mahamat-Saleh Haroun\u2019s Lingui-Les Liens Sacr\u00e9s and Morocco\u2019s Nabil Ayouch\u2019s Haut et Fort \u2013 Casablanca Beats. Although these two renowned filmmakers received standing ovations from the audience in the huge Salle Lumi\u00e8re after their works were screened, with Haroun even receiving an unexpected hug from jury president Spike Lee, they left the festival empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Not that they did not deserve to win, as the films received a lot of favourable reviews from the international media present at Cannes. However, the jurors ended up being seduced by more accomplished, stronger and original works.<\/p>\n

A consolation prize for Nabil Ayouch? The fact remains that out of all the films selected, only six African films \u2013 nevertheless a record \u2013 were screened on the Croisette.<\/p>\n

Two of them won prizes, admittedly less prestigious ones than those awarded by the official jury, but nevertheless coveted. Egypt\u2019s Omar El Zohairy, a small bearded man who is a little shy when approached, pulled off a masterstroke with his first film, Feathers.<\/p>\n

This film tells the story of what happens to a disinherited family living in a gloomy suburb of Cairo when a magician transforms the somewhat tyrannical head of the family into a chicken.<\/p>\n

With this highly original story \u2013 which is often funny and even a little disconcerting to say the least, despite its dramatic subject matter \u2013 Zohairy conquered the Croisette and left with both the Critics\u2019 Week\u2019s Grand Prize and the very demanding international press jury\u2019s first film prize.<\/p>\n

As for Ayouch, it\u2019s a pretty safe bet that he took home the consolation \u201cpositive cinema\u201d prize, which was awarded by Jacques Attali for Haut et Fort.<\/p>\n

But he must have been satisfied, quite rightly, with the reasons given for why he received this award for \u201ca film that revolves around the notion of awakening consciences, those of young Moroccans, and that is intended to serve future generations.<\/p>\n

\u201d Grabbing attention The other four African films present at Cannes, all of high quality, each held festival-goers\u2019 attention in their own way.<\/p>\n

Either because of their originality (in particular, the oddball Neptune Frost, an Afrofuturist musical comedy full of anti-imperialist dialogue by the Franco-Rwandan Anisia Uzeyman and her American husband Saul Williams, presented as part of the Directors\u2019 Fortnight selection), their beauty (A\u00efssa Ma\u00efga manages to capture the beauty of the Niger desert in her documentary on the effects of global warming, Marcher sur l\u2019Eau, which was shown during the official selection\u2019s special screening), their treatment of serious issues (shot in Djibouti, La Femme du Fossoyeur, the first film by Somalian Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, who lives in Finland, deals with a woman \u2013 and her partner with whom she is very much in love \u2013 who is awaiting a surgery that is only life-threatening because of a failing health system) or how they depict complex situations (Une Histoire d\u2019Amour et de D\u00e9sir by Leyla Bouzid, her second film which had the honour of closing the Critics\u2019 Week).<\/p>\n

There are also the successful films directed by members of the African diaspora (for example, the superb Freda by Gessica G\u00e9n\u00e9us, which celebrates the courage of the women of Haiti, and the very energetic Bonne M\u00e8re by Hafsia Herzi about a \u201ccourageous mother\u201d from Marseille).<\/p>\n

In any case, it is clear that Africa was very well represented at this very special edition of the world\u2019s largest film festival. This is all the more promising because a good part of the works mentioned were shot by young filmmakers and were their first feature films, which means that they are likely to continue to impress.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. This July\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, which returned to the Croisette after a year dominated by the ongoing pandemic, promised to be an exceptional one as it had two years to choose its selection. However, by all accounts, this was not the case, despite the quality and originality of some of the works […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,245,1772,241],"class_list":["post-11033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-africas-cannes","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nThis could have been Africa\u2019s Cannes festival - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This July\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, which returned to the Croisette after a year dominated by the ongoing pandemic, promis ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This could have been Africa\u2019s Cannes festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This July\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, which returned to the Croisette after a year dominated by the ongoing pandemic, promis ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-25T08:16:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-25T09:14:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/02\/img-62189dea26482.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"This could have been Africa\u2019s Cannes festival\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-25T08:16:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-25T09:14:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival\"},\"wordCount\":818,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/02\/img-62189dea26482.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Africa\u2019s Cannes\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/this-could-have-been-africas-cannes-festival\",\"name\":\"This could have been Africa\u2019s Cannes festival - 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