CANNES IN JULY

It has been over two years, but Cannes is back!

To celebrate the return of in-person festivities to La Croisette in 2021, we have put together a collection of films that celebrate the Cannes Film Festival, and some of the world’s most vaunted filmmakers, who will be making their return to the festival this year. Our Cannes in July collection encompasses titles from a range of directors who, having made a splash at Cannes in the past, will see their latest works screen as part of the Official Selection or the Director’s Fortnight at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

The Films We Like Cannes in July collection includes films from some of our favorite directors, such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mia Hansen-Løve, and Jafar Panahi, all of whom have graced the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival in the past. Enjoy Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2010 Palm d’Or winner UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, or his subsequent works MEKONG HOTEL and CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR. Feel the joy and heart break of Mia Hansen-Løve’s EDEN and THINGS TO COME. Experience the blurring of past and present in Miguel Gomes’ TABU. Travel back in in Marco Bellochio’s BLOOD OF MY BLOOD. Immerse yourself in the pastoral beauty of Alice Rohrwacher’s THE WONDERS. Watch the emotional turmoil depicted in Radu Muntean’s ONE FLOOR BELOW and TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS. Get lost in Jafar Panahi’s meta master work THREE FACES. Live a day in someone else’s shoes in Joachim Trier’s OSLO, AUGUST 31ST.

Through out the month of July we will be spotlighting each of the films in the collection to celebrate their directors, and the iconic festival where they have competed. If you can’t make it to the Côte d’Azur this summer, the Films We Like Cannes in July collection is the next best thing!

CANNES IN JULY COLLECTION

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave -- the birthplace of his first life.

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Mekong Hotel

A portrait of a hotel near the Mekong River in the north-east of Thailand. The river there marks the border between Thailand and Laos. In the bedrooms and terraces, Apichatpong held a rehearsal with his crew for a movie that he wrote years ago called Ecstasy Garden. The film shuffles different realms, fact and fiction, expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and her daughter, the young lovers and the river. Mekong Hotel - since it was shot at the time of the heavy flooding in Thailand — also weaves in layers of demolition, politics, and a drifting dream of the future.

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Cemetery of Splendour

Soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a temporary clinic in a former school. The memory-filled space becomes a revelatory world for housewife and volunteer Jenjira, as she watches over It, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. Jen befriends young medium Keng who uses her psychic powers to help loved ones communicate with the comatose men. Doctors explore ways, including coloured light therapy, to ease the mens’ troubled dreams. Jen discovers Itt’s cryptic notebook of strange writings and blueprint sketches. There may be a connection between the soldiers’ enigmatic syndrome and the mythic ancient site that lies beneath the clinic. Magic, healing, romance and dreams are all part of Jen’s tender path to a deeper awareness of herself and the world around her.

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Things To Come

Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. One day, Nathalie’s husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With freedom thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent her life.

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Eden

In the 90’s, french electronic music is developing at a fast pace. in the exciting Paris nightlife, Paul is taking his first steps as a DJ. With his best friend he creates a duo called “Cheers”, and they rapidly find their audience. They are quickly caught up in a euphoric and short-lived rise to fame and Paul, blinded by his passion, overlooks his own life.

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Tabu

A temperamental old woman, her Cape Verdean maid and a neighbour devoted to social causes live on the same floor of a Lisbon apartment building. When the old lady dies, the other two learn of an episode from her past: a tale of love and crime set in an Africa straight from the world of adventure films.

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Blood Of My Blood

Federico, a young priest, is summoned by the 17th Century Inquisition to a convent prison in the town of Bobbio. His mission is to coerce Sister Benedetta to confess that she has seduced and driven to death her previous confessor, Federico's brother. Benedetta must undergo three trials - water, fire and tears - to prove her innocence if she does not confess. Federico, too, falls under the spell of the hypnotic Benedetta...

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The Wonders

Nothing will be the same at the end of this summer for Gelsomina and her three younger sisters. She is the designated heir of the strange, secluded kingdom that her father constructed around them to protect his family from "the end of the world." An extraordinary summer, when the strict rules that hold the family together, are beginning to break: in part due to the arrival of Martin, a German boy on a youth rehabilitation program, and in part the local community's participation in a TV competition for big prizes "Village Wonders," presented by the mysterious Milly Catena.

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One Floor Below

After being the sole unfortunate witness to a domestic quarrel that ends up in a murder, Patrascu finds himself at odds with two very close neighbors: one is the bizarre murderer. The other is his very own conscience.

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Tuesday, After Christmas

A young woman, Ethel, escapes from a mental hospital during the chaos of a nearby multiple-car accident. She is mistaken for a shock victim by a rescue volunteer who finds her trying to place a stone in a dead woman’s mouth. The volunteer drives her to her sister’s house. Not wishing to be alone in the house with her, the sister brings two neighbor women over. She calls the hospital and finds out that Ethel “wasn’t released at all but somehow got out.”

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3 Faces

Well-known actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught by a provincial girl’s video plea for help—oppressed by her family to not pursue her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory. Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help solve the mystery of the young girl’s troubles. They travel by car to the rural northwest where they have amusing encounters with the charming folk of the girl’s mountain village. But the city visitors soon discover that the protection of age-old traditions is as generous as local hospitality…

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Oslo, August 31st

Anders will soon complete his drug rehabilitation in the countryside. As part of the program, he is allowed to go into the city for a job interview. But he takes advantage of the leave and stays on in the city, drifting around, meeting people he hasn't seen in a long while. Thirty-four-year-old Anders is smart, handsome and from a good family, but deeply haunted by all the opportunities he has wasted, all the people he has let down.

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About Films We Like
Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential, Carmine Street Guitars) Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent, and international films in Canada. Recent releases include About Endlessness, Dear Comrades!, and Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide.