Theme of Cannes 2019

Considering the films I watched when I was at Cannes, I would say that the theme of this year’s films
was the idea of culture in the face in a modern era. This year’s festival featured many young filmmakers
who either are of multiple cultures or feel the need to explore what place tradition has in modern society.
This idea was a prominent part of almost every movie I watched here.

Probably the most notable example of this idea was Levan Akin’s And Then We Danced, which was
Akin’s attempt to promote the celebration of Georgian culture, but remind young Georgians that they
have an opportunity to redefine their culture. Inspired by the attacks on LGBT groups in Georgia, Akin
decided to create a film that would inspire hope in the younger generation, rather than turn them away
from Georgia entirely. In doing so he created a beautiful film about not only self-acceptance,
but acceptance of one’s country and people as well.

This duality of culture was prominent in other films such as A Regular Woman, a German film telling the true story of Hatun Sürücü, who was murdered by her brother for being “too German” in a Muslim family. Germany certainly does not have the best history with Muslim immigrants, a fact not hidden by this film. However, the film is more concerned with the culture clash that comes from immigration, more specifically the two extremes of losing one’s culture versus keeping in isolation in order to preserve one’s culture. The film offers no real solutions to either problem, rather serves a grim reminder that there are issues that everyone, no matter their own culture, needs to be aware of.

Zombi Child, a French film concerning the role of “zombies” in Voodoo culture, told the story of Melissa, who finds herself ostracized from her mainly white school in Paris for her Haitian traditions. In returning zombies to their cultural roots, while analyzing culture clashes in the modern world, the film explores how different cultures can be manipulated or swayed by other dominant cultures.

Give Me Liberty, an American film, serves as an analysis of American culture and life in general, pondering over the idea that there is a single American culture in the first place. This film was just refreshing to me personally, as someone who has grown up in what has at times felt like many different Americas, but it also showed an immigrant perspective of the American midwest, also something that is close to me personally. Too many films from the United States present culture in the country as a homogeneous thing, but as many younger Americans know, it is not one experience, nor does it stay the same for everyone for their entire lives, which this film explores brilliantly.

All of these films explore the notion of identity within a culture, but mainly explore what culture even looks like in today’s world. Many cultures are ingrained with many extremely traditional and problematic beliefs (such as in And Then We Danced and A Regular Woman), but many of the filmmakers at Cannes raise the question of whether or not there is a way to celebrate one’s culture, while ultimately redefining it for the sake of progress.