Directed by Taika Waititi
Already a cult-declared thing that won the audience's prize at the Toronto festival earlier this fall. In focus is a little guy who is a proud member of Hitlerjugend and has Adolf himself as a song mate. Screwed satire about xenophobia that teaches the mind of Charlie Chaplin's dictator. But that can in itself be mostly sales talk. However, an obvious and interesting choice. Directed and scripted by new Zealander Taika Waititi (who also did the vampire mock documentary What we do in the shadows).
AtlanticsDirected by: Mati Diop
Noted at the premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as it was the first time the festival had introduced a black female director in the ring dance around the Golden Palm. An odd mix of love tragedy and return drama that may not really live up to the pre-hyped, but which is clearly worth seeing, not least because Atlantics, like other good festival films, gives us a chance to marinate in another exciting movie temperament.
The ReportDirected by: Scott Z. Burns
Adam Driver's biggest title at the festival is the acclaimed opening movie Marriage story but this one also seems promising. Director Scott Z Burns, who among other things produced the climate chock An uncomfortable truth and Steven Soderbergh's The laundromat, which suggests a healthy regime-critical view of society. Here he directs a reality-based political conspiracy thriller that takes place in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist act. The magazine promises a movie in the style of Three Days for Condor and Spotlight.
parasiteDirected by: Bong Joon-ho
Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho swings elegantly and frictionally between the genres. From the monster movie The Host over the dystopian train thriller Snowpiercer to the finely crafted fable Okja, and now a small-screwed social drama where social classes frontal crashes so it sings about the canvas. Common denominator for all of his titles is a mind-boggling fantasy that sets the laws of nature out of the game and the audience rocking.
While at warDirected by Alejandro Amenábar
Spanish favorite Alejandro Amenábar, who 18 years ago made one of the greatest ghost films in film history, The Others (and before its fine Open Your Eyes), takes a look in the rearview mirror and tells a true story of the author Miguel de Unamuno who was one of the few who dared to stand up to the dictator Franco. Anti-fascist theme that is as relevant today as it was then.
State funeralDirected by: Sergei Loznitsa
Documentary in which Ukrainian Cannes winner Sergei Loznitsa recreates dictator Josef Stalin's four-day funeral. A display of a (forced) personality cult in which the people pretend to, or are suggested to, cry for the death of the despot. Thus, another chance to take advantage of the filmmaker's ability to find dry humor in Kafkaesian situations (as we have seen in The Humble) and to depict the absurdity of power.
Portrait of a woman on fireDirected by Céline Sciamma
French Céline Sciamma's romantic drama in the 18th century costume, which manages to be sensitive and down to earth at the same time. It is about creation, passion and forbidden love between two young women imbedded in patriarchal expectations and norms. Dynamic script (which won the award at Cannes) whose intensity grows at the same rate as the main characters' passion does. Potential presence is delivered by the lead role duo Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel (who also adorns the front page of the festival magazine). The latter French star is also involved in three of the festival's films.
SebergDirected by Benedict Andrews
Biographical drama about French New Libra star Jean Seberg who, because of his commitment to the civil rights movement, got the FBI behind. Seberg has received a fairly low rating on Metascore, but this is probably worth seeing for everyone who likes metafilm, and extra fun for the appropriately enough politically conscious Kristen Stewart to play the lead.
WhistlersDirected by Corneliu Porumboiu
Small-scale Romanian crime comedy that doesn't have quite the same impact as the filmmaker's political satire of 2006, 12:08 east of Bucharest. Yet a highly peculiar fiddle story that moves between Romania and the small Canary Islands La Gomera - where the main role is learning the island's traditional whisper language in order to communicate undisturbed with its buddies before a shock.
vivariumDirected by Lorcan Finnegan
A clean shot, but if you, as a signatory, embark on stories that are rooted in the cracks on the middle class's discreet façade, Vivarium seems to offer relapsing home anxiety. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Potts play a young couple who plans to live in the safe village of Yonders, which turns out to be the suburban idyll from hell. Easy to get in, impossible to get out.