
The festival has announced its complete official film selection for the 78th edition, scheduled from May 13 to 24.
Included in the “Un Certain Regard” section is ‘O riso e a faca,’ the second feature film by Pedro Pinho, arriving eight years after ‘The Nothing Factory’ (2017), which received a critic’s prize at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
‘O riso e a faca’ follows the story of Sérgio, an environmental engineer who travels to a West African metropolis to work with a non-governmental organization on constructing a road between the desert and the jungle, as stated in the synopsis released by production company Uma Pedra no Sapato, in collaboration with Terratreme Filmes.
The narrative details Sérgio’s intimate but unbalanced relationship with two city dwellers, Diara and Gui. As he delves into the neocolonial dynamics within the expatriate community, this fragile bond becomes his sole refuge against loneliness or barbarism, according to the synopsis.
The film stars Sérgio Coragem, Cleo Diára, and Jonathan Guilherme in main roles.
Pedro Pinho, a co-founder of the Terratreme production collective, is known for works such as “Bab Sebta,” a documentary co-signed with Frederico Lobo, the medium-length film “Um fim do mundo,” and the collaboratively directed documentary “As cidades e as trocas” with Luísa Homem.
Lav Diaz’s film ‘Magalhães,’ co-produced by Rosa Filmes, will appear in the “Cannes Première” program. Filming took place in Portugal and Spain.
‘Magalhães’ features Mexican actor Gael García Bernal as the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), who embarked on the circumnavigation journey and died in the Philippines.
In early April, shortly before the Cannes lineup announcement, Lav Diaz told Deadline and Screen Daily that ‘Magalhães’ is a project he has been working on for several years, with an anticipated run-time of about nine hours. A shorter version is expected to be presented at the festival.
Originally titled ‘Beatriz – A Mulher,’ in reference to Magellan’s wife Beatriz Barbosa de Magalhães, Diaz shifted the narrative focus to the Filipino perspective.
“It is no longer from a European perspective. It is more from a Southeast Asian point of view. Whenever we do historical things related to Europe or America, it’s always on the white man’s side, and I want to balance that,” the director told Screen Daily.
The film is co-produced by Epicmedia Productions from the Philippines, Andergraun Films from Spain, and Rosa Filmes from Portugal, with support from the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual.
Also scheduled at Cannes is “Once Upon a Time in Gaza,” by Palestinian siblings Arab and Tarzan Nasser, co-produced by Ukbar Filmes from Portugal and featured in the “Un Certain Regard” section.
The Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Cabeleira’s feature film ‘Entroncamento’ has been selected for the ACID Cannes program, which runs parallel to the festival.
In the film market, an area dedicated to business and project presentation, the animated feature project “Ana, en passant,” by Fernanda Salgado, will be showcased. This is a co-production between Portuguese Sardinha em Lata and Brazilian Apiário.