Times critic Justin Chang is there, seeing as many movies as possible and writing about it for a day-by-day, film-by-film diary. This is one in a series of entries spanning from the opening festivities to closing night. For more entries and reviews, click here. I saw a beautiful movie at Cannes on Saturday night β an artful, surprising and thrillingly intelligent story about a few women trying to make a difference, forging bonds of solidarity in quiet defiance of the repressive, small-minded men in their rural village.
This has become fairly routine for Panahi, who was arrested in for allegedly making anti-Islamic propaganda and was sentenced to a year ban from filmmaking. Before she vanished, Marziyeh, whose family strongly disapproves of her choice of calling, sent an alarming self-shot video to the famed actress Behnaz Jafari playing herself.
Much of this subtly, bracingly pleasurable movie is spent following Panahi and Jafari as they drop in on the villagers and make inquiries. It was a sweet but somber occasion, especially compared with the rousing events that had unfolded on the red carpet a few hours earlier.
Bahar managed to escape as we see in flashbacks , and now is preparing to lead a peshmerga unit, consisting of other female ex-captors like herself, to liberate her hometown. Thankfully, Mathilde is cast aside for much of the running time, allowing Husson to favor the direct perspective of Bahar and her fellow captives-turned-fighters.
But he drew the line at programming films in competition simply because they were directed by women, noting that while he believed in positive discrimination in society, the Cannes selection process would always be strictly merit-based.
