African cinema, frequently ignored or underappreciated in Cannes, has taken center stage this year with a record number of films in the official roster.
In her hybrid documentary ‘The Mother of All Lies’, Asmae El Moudir sought out the truth behind her family’s accounts of the 1981 Moroccan Bread Riots and earned the Un Certain Regard award for best director.
A Moroccan woman’s search for truth gets tangled with a web of lies in her family’s history. As a daughter and filmmaker, Asmae fuses personal and national history as she reflects on the 1981 Bread Riots, drawing out connections to contemporary Morocco.
‘Hounds’, a crime drama set in the Casablanca suburbs, received the Un Certain Regard jury prize, which was given to Kamal Lazraq.
Hounds plot: Working for the local mob in Casablanca’s dark underbelly, a father-son duo gets into serious trouble amid a kidnapping assignment.
Baloji, a hip-hop artist of Belgian and Congolese descent, won the new voice award for best first feature with his directorial debut, ‘Omen’.
Omen is a “cinematic symphony exploring the complexities of social norms and expectations. It delves into the sacred and the profane, encapsulating rebellion and reverence in a profoundly personal homage to confronting fear, honoring grief, and navigating one’s place in the urgency of the present moment.
Another first-time director, Mohamed Kordofani’s Sudanese drama ‘Goodbye Julia’ took up the Un Certain Regard freedom award.
‘Goodbye Julia’ is a 2023 Sudanese drama film directed by Mohamed Kordofani. It is Kordofani’s first feature film and the first film from Sudan ever to be presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.
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