Cannes Film Festival regular Bruno Dumont (Slack Bay, Flanders) is returning to the Croisette this year with his latest, Red Rocks, screening in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.
Directors’ Fortnight added the feature, described as a Romeo and Juliet-style romantic drama set on the French Riviera, as a late edition on Thursday. Dumont will also give a masterclass in the section, where he premiered his feature debut, The Life of Jesus in 1997. Over the years, the French director has screened several works in the section, which runs parallel to Cannes’ main festival. He screened his four-part television miniseries Li’l Quinquin in Directors’ Fortnight in 2014 and the musical drama Jeannette, the Childhood of Joan of Arc there in 2017.
Dumont has also graced the main Competition multiple times, winning the Grand Jury Prize for both his 2006 psychological war drama Flanders and his 1999 crime mystery Humanity. His recent Palme d’Or contenders include the comedies Slack Bay (2016) and France (2021).
Red Rocks joins a high-profile, and unusually star-studded, lineup for the 58th edition of Directors’ Fortnight. Highlights this year include Reed Van Dyk’s Iraqi war veteran drama Atonement, starring Kenneth Branagh, Hiam Abbass and Boyd Holbrook; Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri’s Mrs Dalloway with Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo and Ayo Edebiri; and Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, starring Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough, which will open the sidebar on May 13.
