JFBB at Cannes

Festival Director Bernd Buder is attending the Cannes Film Festival. Here are his impressions:

“Among the many films that discover the light of the screen at the Cannes Film Festival each year, there are always some that reflect on Jewish themes. A selection from this year: in WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS, director–actor–co-writer Daniel Auteuil portrays the rescue of more than one hundred Jewish children from a camp in Vichy France during the Holocaust, while also reflecting on the fate of the parents who could not be saved.

In THINK GOOD, Géraldine Nakache depicts the toxic marriage between a controlling husband and a woman who postpones her own emancipation—until even the mikveh offers no solace and the rabbi himself advises separation.

I was particularly impressed—along with many others—by Lila Pinell’s highly dynamic second feature film SHANA, about the precarious everyday life of a young adult who, with a short fuse, tries to escape the pressure weighing on her: her husband is in prison for domestic violence, her teenage years were marked by a strained relationship with her mother—who at the time prioritized a new partnership—and her younger sister’s upcoming bat mitzvah adds further strain. A portrayal of Jewish experience infused with slang, deeply grounded, and carried by a captivatingly raw and authentic performance by lead actress Eva Huault.

Three very different French films telling very different Jewish stories—films that will surely soon tour (not only) Jewish film festivals, perhaps also the Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg in late April/early May 2027.”