Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #59. Mektoub, My Love: Canto Tre – Abdellatif Kechiche

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Tre

The conflict continues surrounding the impending theatrical release of Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2019 Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo (read review), which premiered in competition at Cannes to divisive responses and widespread critical consternation (and again, found the director at troubling odds due to the treatment of his female lead, which Kechiche cites as a conspiracy smear campaign). Nevertheless, as the title of his past two Mektoub films would indicate, we have always been destined for a Mektoub, My Love: Canto Tre. While Intermezzo waits for its theatrical premiere in France, potentially a different, edited version of what was seen at Cannes (the film is apparently circulating on bootleg DVDs amongst the North-African population in France), conversations suggest Kechiche’s third chapter in the ongoing Mektoub saga is ready for a festival premiere.

Kechiche’s 2000 debut Poetical Refugee played Venice Critics’ Week and he’d go on to compete for the Golden Lion three times, with 2007’s The Secret of the Grain (winning several awards, including the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI), 2010’s Black Venus and 2017’s Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno. His breakthrough first came with 2003’s Games of Love and Chance, which won the Cesar for Best Film, Director and Screenplay (a trifecta repeated with Grain). And Kechiche won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for 2013’s Blue is the Warmest Color (also taking the FIPRESCI Prize), where he returned to compete in 2019 with Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo.

Gist: Likely a continuation of Amin’s ‘coming-of-age,’ with cousins and cohorts predictably somewhere in the mix.

Release Date/Prediction: While Canto Uno competed in Venice and Intermezzo went to Cannes, it appears whatever version of Canto Tre (whether it be a newly edited version of the last film or an entirely new chapter altogether) is tipped to be unveiled in Berlin. This premiere strategy is similar to Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, wherein each segment competed in a different fest (Love in Cannes, Faith in Venice and Hope in Berlin).