Six Arab films will be shown outside the official competition at the 75th session of the Cannes Film Festival, which will be held from 17 to 28 May this year.

3 films in the "Un Certain Regard" competition

3 Arab films are participating in the "One Look" competition, which is one of the important and unofficial competitions in the festival.

The first film by Palestinian director Maha Al-Hajj "Mediterranean Fever", which revolves around an ambitious Palestinian writer suffering from depression, and by chance develops a friendship with his fraudulent neighbor, and begins to implement an evil scheme to help him get out of depression.

In the same competition, Moroccan director Mariam Touzani will participate in her film "The Blue Caftan". This is the second participation of the Moroccan director in the festival's activities, as she previously screened her film "Adam" in the 2019 edition.

The events of "The Blue Caftan" revolve around the couple, Halim and Mina, who run a shop specializing in Moroccan caftans in the city of Salé, adjacent to Rabat. Youssef joins them to learn the art of sewing, revealing the hidden secret the couple is hiding.

The third film is "Harka", directed by Lotfi Nathan from Tunisia, and it is the first feature-length work of its director. The film deals with the difficulty of life and the problems caused by the lack of manpower, through the story of the Tunisian young man "Ali", who earns his living from selling fuel. The smuggler dreams of a better life, but he lives a bitter and miserable reality.

out of the official competition

Outside the official competition, and about a 13-year-old Moroccan teenager who is experiencing an identity crisis after his father's death and his mother is trying to keep him away from his older brother, the movie "The Rebel" by Belgian directors Adel Elaraby and Bilal Falah is shown.

The film "A Boy from Heaven", directed by the Swedish director of Egyptian origin, Tariq Salah, is also participating. The film takes place on Adam's first day at Al-Azhar University.

The third film is “The Dam” by Lebanese director Ali Shari, and the events are derived from real stories of workers in brick factories, whom the director met with and built close relationships with them over the past years, to introduce us to the importance of imagination and the human ability to imagine a reality opposite to what he faces of oppression and injustice.

Critics' Week

As part of the Critics Week, the competition that celebrates the first and second work of directors, "Ashkal", the first feature film by Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi, is participating, and its events begin in a strange way when a charred body is found in the middle of a construction site.

It also screens "Under the Tree", the first feature film by Tunisian director Areej Sehiri, whose story revolves around the relationships between young men and girls during the summer harvest and between trees, as they try to understand each other and create deep bonds.

The Blue Kaftan is participating in the "One Look" competition (social networking sites)

A strong Egyptian Arab presence in the arbitration committees

This year, the Cannes Film Festival is witnessing a distinguished Arab and Egyptian participation in the jury committees.

Also from Egypt, film critic Ahmed Shawky chairs the jury of the International Federation of Film Critics, and in the same committee is the Moroccan critic Jihan Bou Grain.

Tunisian director Kaouthar Ben Hania, director of "The Man Who Sold His Back", chaired the critics' competition in Cannes.

Apart from the various competitions and festival programs, Egyptian director Ahmed Fawzy Saleh is participating in his film project "Hamlet from the Shantytown" to be one of the 15 projects participating in the "L'Atelier" forum for co-production, which took place from 22 to 27 May / This May, as part of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, the film is a contemporary treatment of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Director Mourad Mostafa will participate in the “La Fabrique” program in the Egyptian film “Aisha Can’t Fly.” The program is set to give emerging directors the opportunity to get production support for their first films. Healthcare in Egypt, and the film follows her work journey and her movement from house to house to provide assistance to patients.