10/05/2018 - The German sales agent is bringing a motley crew of dreamers, dancers, monsters and thieves to the Croisette

German sales agent The Match Factory has turned up at the Cannes Film Festival clutching a strong line-up that includes two films in competition, three movies that will premiere in Un Certain Regard and three pictures in the Directors’ Fortnight. Among the Palme d’Or contenders is Alice Rohrwacher’s (The Wonders [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
interview: Tiziana Soudani
film profile]) fantastic tale Happy as Lazzaro [+see also:
film review
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interview: Alice Rohrwacher
film profile], about an unusual friendship and a well-orchestrated kidnapping. Staged as a co-production between Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, the film stars Adriano Tardiolo, Agnese Graziani and Alba Rohrwacher. Another competition title is the intense drama Ayka [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sergey Dvortsevoy
film profile] by Russian writer-director Sergey Dvortsevoy (Tulpan [+see also:
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film profile]), about a young woman who gives birth to a child but has neither money nor a place to stay.

In the German Un Certain Regard flick In My Room [+see also:
film review
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interview: Ulrich Köhler
film profile] by writer-director Ulrich Köhler (Bungalow, Sleeping Sickness [+see also:
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interview: Ulrich Kohler
film profile]), the life of a bored freelance forty-something takes a dramatic turn when his beloved grandmother starts dying. The next morning, mankind has disappeared. For years, he has to deal with life on a quiet Earth until he meets a woman. In the Belgian drama Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lukas Dhont
film profile] by writer-director Lukas Dhont (Corps perdu), a 15-year-old is committed to becoming a professional ballerina, but her body does not comply so easily with the strict training regime, because she was born a boy. Meanwhile, the Argentinian mystery-thriller Murder Me, Monster [+see also:
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film profile] by writer-director Alejandro Fadel (The Wild Ones [+see also:
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film profile]) kicks off as a headless woman’s body is found in a remote region. When the prime suspect is sent to a mental hospital, he blames the crime on the appearance of a “monster”.

Another Argentinian title is being presented in the Directors’ Fortnight. The drama The Snatch Thief [+see also:
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film profile] by Agustín Toscano (Los dueños) is about a moped-riding robber who feels guilty after he badly injures an old woman. In Lucia’s Grace [+see also:
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film profile] by Italian writer-director Gianni Zanasi (Nella mischia), a working mother has trouble striking the right balance between her daughter, a complicated romance and work until a mysterious woman appears in her life. Also, Italian writer-director Marco Bellocchio (Sweet Dreams [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: Marco Bellocchio
film profile], Sorelle Mai [+see also:
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film profile]) is showing the short La Lotta, about a partisan who escapes the Nazis by diving into a river, in the Directors’ Fortnight.

Furthermore, The Match Factory is presenting the Cannes Classics movie Bergman – A Year in a Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jane Magnusson
film profile] by Jane Magnusson (Trespassing Bergman), about the legendary titular Swedish filmmaker.