Today, there are two feel-good movies on the Croisette: one Russian and one Egyptian, both of high quality. We thoroughly enjoyed them.
LETO (The Summer), Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)
Leningrad. A summer in the early 1980s. Before perestroika, still under Brezhnev, although the Stalinist straitjacket of the old USSR is starting to loosen. A rock scene inspired by Lou Reed and T.Rex begins to emerge. Mike, an established rocker, facilitates the rise of the talented Viktor Tsoi, under the watchful eye of Natasha, his wife, who is intrigued (and perhaps a bit more) by the newcomer.
This film, predominantly in black and white, with very original direction (dreamlike scenes in the form of old clips), is full of energy, humor, and decibels. The critique of the old world is subtle but effective, and its exotic documentary aspect is fascinating.
But it is also, and perhaps above all, a superb love story among the three main characters, a kind of discreet and rock and roll Jules and Jim on the banks of the Neva.
But let’s not be mistaken: today’s Russia is merely a patch-up of the old Stalinist USSR. The talented director Kirill Serebrennikov is not at Cannes. He has been under house arrest for 9 months in his Moscow apartment for embezzlement… The classic charge used by the authorities against opponents!
YOMEDDINE, A.B Shawky (Egypt)
Yomeddine is an improbable road movie across the Egyptian desert with Beshay, a cured leper but with a body scarred by disease, and Obama (like the one on TV, he says), a young black orphan. Beshay wants to find the family that abandoned him as a child. After numerous adventures that are neither miserabilist nor picaresque, will he find his family?
A.B Shawky, a young director of 33 years old with this as his first film (a serious contender for the Camera d’Or), delivers a film full of humanity, which particularly praises diversity since in this Arab and Muslim Egypt (whose arrogance becomes apparent through the scenes and encounters), Beshay is a Christian Copt and Obama a black-skinned Nubian.
