From completely opposite realities, but not without controversy, Cannes premieres the Russian’s new works in competition Kirill Serebrennikov and the swedish Tarik Saleh.
The first portrays, from the perspective of a contemporary creator, the history of lights and shadows of one of the national prides, the romantic composer Pyotr Tchaikowsky, while the second delves into the darkest points of the ins and outs of the State in a fast-paced thriller with a religious background as a powerful political form.
Tchaikowsky’s Wife (Kiril Serebrennikov)
Russian filmmaker Kiril Serebrennikov returns to parade down the Croisette after last year he presented ‘Petrov’s Flu’ through a video call, due to house arrest that rumors blamed on disagreements with the Russian government. Despite the harsh accusations against the Cannes Film Festival for this controversial programming, the Russian competes again with a musical biopic, although on this historic occasion, with which breaks the canons of a genre in which it seemed that everything was already written.
In Espinof
Cannes Film Festival 2022: among Belgian friends in the mountains and on a trip with an adorable Polish donkey
The director of the hypnotic punk musical ‘Leto’ brings back the best features of the former to reformulate its formal structure with a fascinating staging that is based both on the word and on what is not said. An imaginative proposal with cameras that follow characters who break the fourth wall, unexpected daydreams and a great sense of rhythm that confirm the filmmaker’s stylistic talent and masterfully deconstruct the traditional corseting of great historical dramas.
Pity a troublesome point of view that delivers a message that resonates contradictory and uncomfortable. Starting from the premise that Tchaikowsky would have married, not because of his own interest in covering up appearances, but because of the insistence and coercion of Antonina Miliukova, who according to the film will cling to her status as “woman of” until the end of her days, ‘Tchaikowsky’s Wife’ delivers in the first person the portrait of a manipulative woman and obsessive while suffering and martyr by choice.
‘Boy from Heaven’ (Tarik Saleh)
After the death of the Great Egyptian Imam, the academics of the most prestigious university in Cairo are preparing to choose his successor from among the three most popular candidates, who debate between different postulates and approaches to religion such as vehicle of state power. The apparent democratic vote will unleash a fierce struggle for power when the assistant of one of the candidates is found dead in the courtyard of the religious institution.
In Espinof
Cannes Film Festival 2022: the protagonist of ‘The Squid Game’ makes his directorial debut with a brutal and frenetic thriller that takes his proposal too far
A powerful trigger which will lead to an internal war that will drag an innocent first-year student (great role of Tawfeek Barhom), trapped in a web of dangerous interests and lies, which leaves no one free from blame, from the students themselves to the religious authorities and the government.
The Swedish filmmaker of Egyptian origin, Tarik Saleh (‘Cairo Confidential’), does not leave a puppet with a head in this hard story of political and soul corruption that uncovers the worst of the sewers of the State and the religious authority that preaches with its supposed moral exemplarity, to later twist it in order to justify its own ethical baseness.
A fast-paced thriller through the streets of a local Cairo and away from the eyes of tourists that has a good dose of twists in all directions and don’t lose interestalthough its central section is somewhat light and superficial compared to its powerful dramatic start.
With a style that draws from Hollywood codes, Tarik Saleh introduces a powerful dialectic component into the equation that provides debate and reflection on the power of the word as a form of control, introduced by portentous performances such as that of the imposing Egyptian actor fares fares. Of the most interesting in the first days of official competition.
(function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0]; if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); } })();
–
The news
Cannes Film Festival 2022: Tchaikovsky’s wife goes crazy and a young man from heaven becomes a spy
was originally published in
Espinof
by Sara Martinez Ruiz.