RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Chronicles from the Biosphere: A Film Programmer's Report from the Cannes Film Festival
JF Film Quarterly
FD University of California Press
SP 77
OP 84
DO 10.1525/fq.2019.73.1.77
VO 73
IS 1
A1 Salti, Rasha
YR 2019
UL http://fq.ucpress.edu/content/73/1/77.abstract
AB Veteran festival film programmer Rasha Salti reports from the seventy-second edition of the Cannes Film Festival. She devotes the first part of her report to an anthropological description of the Darwinian “biosphere” that is Cannes, a psychosocial experiment where status is measured in the type and color of your festival badge. After calling attention to the particular hypocrisies of the Cannes subculture, according to which the social injustices rendered on-screen attract more interest than those encountered outside the screening room, Salti turns her attention to the cinematic highlights of the festival. Observing that it was an exceptional year for African and Arab cinema, Salti notes the prevalence of themes relating to zombies, ghosts, and possession in films from these regions, including Mati Diop's Grand Prix winner, Atlantique.