From Belgium, Lukas Dhont makes his third trip to the Croisette. 2018’s Girl premiered in Un Certain Regard section and won just about everything from the Caméra d’Or, Queer Palm and Best Performance (Victor Polster) in Un Certain Regard. Close won the second biggest prize in the competition section in 2022. Usually working with themes of masculinity, vulnerability and emotional repression, with identity, bodily experience and social pressures and standards, with Coward, his first period film. Set in 1916, during World War I, Pierre serves at the Belgian front alongside other comrades. Behind the trenches, the soldiers try to keep their spirits up. One day, Pierre meets the flamboyant Francis. To counter the rhetoric of war and the omnipresent misery, the two men decide, with their comrades, to put on a theatrical revue. Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne topline. This is competition film #20 of 22.
In 2022, Close was our Cannes Critics’ Panel top rated film with an average score of 3.5. We are still early with the grades from today’s late night world premiere but surprise surprise Coward is currently tied with Fatherland and Fjord with an average score of 3.7.
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