‘Ahed’s Knee’ Teaser Trailer: ‘Synonymns’ Director Nadav Lapid Returns With First Cannes Competition Title

Attention, geeks: the teaser trailer to Army of Thieves is out, along with keyart and first-look images from the eagerly awaited prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, which bowed in May.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentPenelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are Spain’s biggest Hollywood names, and Pedro Almodovar’s most frequent stars, but – extraordinary as it may seem – to date, they’ve had just two minutes on screen together, in the opening scene of 2013’s “I’m So Excited.”In comedy “Official Competition,” a frontrunner for Venice selection next Monday, they get to share the screen for the whole of the film.

Emiliano De Pablos Sales agency Heretic has picked-up worldwide sales rights to “The Sacred Spirit,” Spaniard Chema García Ibarra’s feature debut, which world premieres in the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival.Its teaser trailer is launching exclusively in Variety.García Ibarra’s awaited feature debut, “Sacred Spirit” blends local detail and dystopian surrealism, following José Manuel and the other members of a Spanish Ufology association -UFO-Levante- who meet weekly to

Sony Pictures Classics said Thursday that it has acquired North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Middle East rights to Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6, the Finnish film that just had its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The deal was struck with Totem Films.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMubi, the London-based streamer and theatrical distributor, has acquired North America, U.K. and more territories on Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s “Lingui, The Sacred Bonds,” a highlight of the Cannes Film Festival competition.The powerful Chadian abortion drama has received unanimous critical praise and is being talked about as a potential Palme d’Or winner at the midpoint of the festival.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAsghar Farhadi, an Oscar winner for “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” is in Cannes with “A Hero,” the Iranian auteur’s fourth film to world premiere in the festival’s competition after “The Past,” “The Salesman” and Spanish-language “Everybody Knows.”“A Hero,” which sees Farhadi returning to filmmaking in Iran, is about a man named Rahim who is in prison because of an unpaid debt.

Christopher Vourlias Three years after his musical drama “Leto” bowed on the Croisette, Kirill Serebrennikov returns to Cannes’ main competition with “Petrov’s Flu,” a deadpan, hallucinatory romp through a post-Soviet Russia in the grips of a mysterious flu epidemic. The acclaimed director spoke to Variety about living with fear and making the most out of solitude.How did you get involved with “Petrov’s Flu”? I was hired to write the script.

At the end of the last season of “The Witcher,” Geralt finally met his destiny when his paths crossed with Ciri. Now that the pair will be traveling and working together in Season 2, what misadventures await them? READ MORE: 65 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series of 2021 Fans of the show will get answers to that question in time, but they’ll have to wait a bit.

Norwegian actor Anders Danielsen Lie will be busy in Cannes with two films world premiering in Competition. It’s not a new phenomenon for onscreen talent to be supporting various movies, but Lie stands out as likely the only professional actor who will be heading to the Palais while taking time off from his other job as a full-time physician: the doctor has lately been working with the Covid-19 vaccination program in Oslo, and has for years straddled both callings.

Christopher Vourlias Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun returns to the sun-scrubbed Sahel region of West Africa for his latest feature, “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” which competes for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.Set on the outskirts of the capital city of N’Djamena, “Lingui” is the story of a single mother, Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), whose already fragile world threatens to collapse when she learns that her daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio Brahim), is pregnant — a

The daughter of two doctors who showed their little girl Psycho at the age of eight, filmmaker Julia Ducournau is unapologetically the product of her environment. After her last visit in 2016 with the visceral cannibal horror Raw in Critics’ Week, which caused several audience members to faint when it screened in Toronto, festivalgoers were left reeling by the film’s inspired infusion of blood and gore into the standard rites-of-passage story.

Ben Croll Nadav Lapid was used to mining the past.

After serving up three very potent films over the past decade, Israeli director Nadav Lapid issues forth a shrill and strident screed in his fourth feature, Ahed’s Knee (Ha’Berech). Undeservedly included in the Cannes competition, this rough and hasty-looking outing is nothing short of a bilious broadside of anger at and resentment toward anything to do with the Israeli government.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales company The Match Factory has pre-sold Austrian director and screenwriter Sebastian Meise’s second feature “Great Freedom,” which plays in Un Certain Regard at Cannes on Thursday, to Paname Distribution in France.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKorean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s “In Front of Your Face” is assured of a release in the U.S. following a rights deal between sales agent Finecut and distributor the Cinema Guild.“In Front of Your Face” will have its world premiere in competition in Cannes and plays late on the second week of the festival.

The first decade of Nadav Lapid’s career has been a rapid ascension to the top.

Charlotte Gainsbourg is not only a multifaceted renaissance woman, actor, model, singer; she’s also French royalty, the daughter of louche French pop singer Serge Gainsbourg and model/actress/singer Jane Birkin. She’s also now a filmmaker, having made her first documentary, “Charlotte By Jane,” which melds all of these ideas together.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales agency and producer The Match Factory has acquired “Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash,” which will receive its world premiere in competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival in August. The film is directed by Edwin, one of Indonesia’s best known and most well-respected directors.The film centers on Ajo Kawir, a fighter who fears nothing, not even death.

Haley Bosselman editorPower is fleeting, as Sandra Oh’s Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim learns in Netflix’s first trailer for its new comedy, “The Chair.”From writer and showrunner Amanda Peet, “The Chair” debuts on Aug.