Young Ahmedby Luc Dardenne et Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Cinéart
Cannes: "Young Ahmed" by Dardenne brothers in Competition
The official selection for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival was unveiled on Thursday 18 April. Young Ahmed, the new film from the Dardenne brothers, will be presented in Competition.
Presented in Competition, Young Ahmed tells, in Belgium, today, the destiny of young Ahmed, 13, caught between his imam's ideals of purity and life's temptations.
Young Ahmed is produced by Les Films du Fleuve in a co-production with Archipel 35, France 2 Cinéma, Proximus and RTBF (Belgian television) with the participation of Canal +, Ciné +, France Télévisions, Wallimage (Wallonia) and the Bruxelles-Capitale region. The film was produced with funding from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel and Eurimages and support from the Belgian federal government's Tax Shelter, Casa Kafka Pictures and Casa Kafka Pictures Movie Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius in association with Wild Bunch, Diaphana, Cinéart and BIM Distribuzione. International sales are handled by Wild Bunch.
Young Ahmed is the eighth film from the Dardenne brothers in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film will be released in Belgium (Cinéart), France (Diaphana) and Switzerland (Xenix) on 22 May and in the Netherlands (Cinéart) on 4 July.
Through their production company Les Films du Fleuve, the Dardenne brothers are also involved in the new film from Ken Loach, Sorry We Missed You, also presented in Competition. The film has received support from the Belgian federal government Tax Shelter, Be tv and Cinéart.
Also in Competition is Atlantics, the debut from Senegalese director Mati Diop.
The action takes place in a working-class suburb of Dakar, where the workers on a futuristic tower construction site, who have not been paid for months, decide to leave the country over the ocean for a better future. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, who is engaged to someone else. A few days after the boys' departure, a fire devastates the young woman's wedding and a mysterious fever grips the girls of the neighbourhood. Ada has no idea that Souleiman has returned…
The film was co-produced in Belgium by Frakas Productions with funding from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, CNC, Arte, TV5 Monde, the Aquitaine region, Visions Sud Est, Ad Vitam, MK2, Fopica, Le Fonds Image de la Francophonie, Eurimages and Casa Kafka Pictures.
On the eve of its 72nd edition, the Cannes International Film Festival remains one of the highest-profile events in the world and the most important film festival in terms of international influence. Every year, the Festival invites film-makers from every country to present their personal vision of the world today and tomorrow, drawing a map of global film appreciation. "Its founding vocation is to reveal and highlight quality works to serve the evolution of cinema, promote the development of the film industry all over the world and celebrate international film," declares Thierry Frémaux, the Festival's director since 2007.
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