Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #183. Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Salem

Published on January 5, 2023

Salem

Jean-Bernard Marlin got his big break with his feature debut Sheherazade blasting out of the Critic’s Week in 2018 with César Awards wins in three departments including Best First Film and the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo the following year. For his sophomore film, Salem – he works in the fantasy space for a project set in the troubled housing projects of Marseille.

Gist: 14-year-old Grasshoppers gang member Djibril leads a dangerous existence in a Marseille slum, along with his pregnant girlfriend Camilla who belongs to a rival gang, the Crickets. When Djibril is manipulated into killing the young Cricket Mahad, war breaks out. Djibril is haunted by the curse Mahad spat out as he lay dying, and begins to communicate with the spirit world….

Release Date/Prediction: We could see this grabbing a coveted Midnight spot at the Cannes Film Festival.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).