After unfolding in extremis in 2020 and hosting its 2021 edition in the middle of the month of July, the Mons International Film Festival is returning with a rich and plentiful programme on its usual dates of 11 to 19 March. Relaunched by a new team in 2019, the festival will screen no less than 94 films in this year’s event, including 78 feature films.

Eleven of these will be battling it out in the International Competition. Belgian audiences will be treated to a European premiere of Darragh Carey and Bertrand Desrochers’ English romantic drama A Brixton Tale [+lee también:
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entrevista: Darragh Carey, Bertrand De…
ficha de la película], with the competition also including Serbian movie As Far As I Can Walk [+lee también:
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entrevista: Stefan Arsenijević
ficha de la película] by Stefan Arsenijevic, which nabbed Karlovy Vary’s Grand Prize; German-Iraqi film The Exam [+lee también:
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entrevista: Shawkat Amin Korki
ficha de la película] by Shawkat Amin Gorki, likewise presented at Karlovy Vary; French actress Noémie Merlant’s debut feature film Mi iubita mon amour [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], discovered in Cannes’ Special Screenings section; another first French feature Rose [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], by Aurélie Saada (who’s also a musician and the founder of folk duo Brigitte); Neighbours [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], by Kurd-Swiss director Mano Khalil; and two Belgian first films: The Hive [+lee también:
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entrevista: Christophe Hermans
ficha de la película] by Christophe Hermans and Sans soleil [+lee también:
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entrevista: Banu Akseki
ficha de la película] by Banu Akseki. The European co-production The Gravedigger's Wife [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Finland/Germany/France/Somalia) directed by Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, and the titles Drunken Birds (Canada) by Ivan Grbovic and Bantu Mama (Dominican Republic) by Iván Herrera round off the competition.

An international premiere of Singing Jailbirds [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Etienne Comar, starring Alex Lutz, Veerle Baetens, Agnès Jaoui and Hafsia Herzi, is set to open the festival, while Bouli Lanners’ latest film Nobody Has to Know [+lee también:
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entrevista: Bouli Lanners
ficha de la película], which is being released in Belgium, will close the event with its own international premiere on 19 March.

Mons will also play host to a number of high-calibre guests, including Abel Ferrara, who’s due to deliver a masterclass on Saturday 12 March, with a restored copy of his movie King of New York set to be re-screened by the festival; Laurent Cantet, who’s likewise delivering a masterclass, on 16 March, and presenting his latest film Arthur Rambo [+lee también:
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entrevista: Laurent Cantet
ficha de la película]; and Belgian director of photography Benoît Debie, Gaspar Noé’s trusty sidekick (responsible for the cinematography in Noé’s most recent opus Vortex [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]) who’s also previously teamed up with Jacques Audiard, Wim Wenders and Ryan Gosling.