“A Ciambra”
Director: Jonas Carpignano
Synopsis: A young boy from a Romani community in Calabria, Italy, precipitates serious consequences when he tries to prove his adulthood by getting involved in his streetwise elder brother’s debt problems.
What You Need to Know: One of the most promising emerging social-issues filmmakers of his generation, Carpignano turned heads with the austere, authentic and confident “Mediterranea,” which debuted in Critics’ Week in Cannes and followed a pair of friends from Burkina Faso through their storied journey to Italy and the hardships of their new lives there. From the immigrant experience, he now moves to a study of the Romani community in his native Calabria with his sophomore feature, based on his own 2014 short film of the same name, and this time he will play in Directors’ Fortnight. Already a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Board of Review’s award for Best Debut Feature, Carpignano is one to watch, especially now that his sensitive, humanist, socially committed storytelling feels increasingly urgent.
“Jeannette”
Director: Bruno Dumont
Synopsis: In 1425 France, eight-year-old Jeanne becomes impassioned by the cause of the salvation of souls and the defeat of the English in a retelling of the Joan of Arc story, only this time, it’s also a musical.
What You Need to Know: We’re not quite sure what sort of bump on the head transformed French director Bruno Dumont from the dour, stentorian creator of punishingly austere religious-themed dramas such as “Camille Claudel 1915” and “Hors Satan” to the kooky deadpan comedian of “Li’l Quinquin” and “Slack Bay,” but we’re all for it. That said, he did perhaps push the wacky a bit too far with “Slack Bay,” which does, however, give us a handy rule of thumb: when Dumont is in the Official Selection (as he has been four times, with “Humanité,” “Flanders,” “Hors Satan” and “Slack Bay”), we tend to be not so keen. When he’s in Directors’ Fortnight, as he was for his provocatively tough, grimly realist debut “La Vie de Jesus” and droll masterpiece ‘Quinquin,’ it’s another story. So it’s good news that “Jeannette” is due back to the Fortnight, and also that it will perhaps synthesize the two opposing sides of his persona in being a story of religious fervor told in the usually frothy and un-self-serious form of a musical.
“Good Time”
Director: Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie
Synopsis: We’re not sure there exists a better synopsis than star Robert Pattinson’s claim that it’s a “really hardcore kind of Queens, New York, mentally damaged psychopath, bank robbery movie.”
What You Need to Know: The first two films from New York indie directors Josh and Benny Safdie, “The Pleasure Of Being Robbed” and “Daddy Longlegs,” both played the Directors’ Fortnight. But the reason their newest film, which stars Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Oscar-nominated “Captain Phillips” star Barkhad Abdi, has made the leap all the way into the main competition, apart from the profile of the cast, is an interim movie that premiered in Venice, won the Tokyo Film Festival and really put them on the map. “Heaven Knows What” is a remarkable piece of work, a woozy, street-level evocation of the alternately listless and passionate lives of a group of young New York City junkies, and for its daring, semi-experimental format, outstanding use of music and raw, unfiltered performance style, it put us immediately on high alert for whatever they cooked up next.
“You Were Never Really Here”
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Synopsis: Following a botched rescue attempt in a city brothel, a war veteran who has dedicated his life to combating sex trafficking becomes entangled with a powerful New York politician.
What You Need To Know: The great Lynne Ramsay, after just three feature films and one very public dust-up over an abortive fourth, has earned a bit of a rock-star edge. In retrospect, it now seems that, if anything, her sudden exit from “Jane Got A Gun,” given the disappointment it turned out to be, was the right choice, however traumatic it may have seemed at the time. Ramsay is a director whose short filmography is a testament to the refusal to compromise: from remarkable feature debut “Ratcatcher,” which played in Un Certain Regard; brilliant follow-up “Morvern Callar,” which was selected in the Directors’ Fortnight; and the gut punch of “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” which snagged a Competition slot. This time she’s back In Competition, where she belongs, and this film, based on the novella of the same name from New York-based “Bored To Death” creator Jonathan Ames and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola and newcomer Ekaterina Samsonov, who also features in Todd Haynes‘ “Wonderstruck,” should give her her best shot yet at raising some silverware.
“Happy End”
Director: Michael Haneke
Synopsis: An ensemble drama centering on a Calais family that becomes embroiled in the refugee crisis unfolding in the city.
What You Need To Know: It’s a little undignified, the way conversations around the great chilly Austrian maestro inevitably become a kind of horse race commentary on the likelihood of him taking a third Palme d’Or (an ordeal he shares with The Dardenne Brothers). But it’s unavoidable seeing as he not only has two Palmes, he also has form: prior winners “Amour” and “The White Ribbon” were his last two movies, so should he win this year, it would be unprecedented twice over. And the hot-topic subject matter and the cast, including “Amour” stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert, plus Matthieu Kassovitz, Laura Verlinden and Toby Jones, are formidable enough to make it a strong possibility. Huppert described it as closest in tone to Haneke’s brilliant, overlapping storyline film “Code Unknown,” though that film ended on an ambivalent note, while here the by-no-means-ironic title clues in those critics who’d like to leave a few minutes before the credits that we can expect neat resolution and a freeze frame on the ensemble laughing at all the life lessons they’ve learned. Thanks, Haneke!