Podcasts about rfi's rosslyn hyams

In this October-November 2019 Cinefile podcast, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams talks to Little Joe's leading actress Emily Beecham, and looks at For Samaa, Alice et le Maire (Alice and the Mayor). Also, Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Soldier (J'accuse) and Costa-Gavras Adults in the Room, and more. The title of the Franco-Algerian film Papicha, which won hearts at Cannes in the Un certain regard section means pretty girl. In this film it applies in the plural, and makes the subject all the more biting. Why hide beauty, when as the poet John Keats wrote, "A thing of beauty, is a joy forever"? Mounia Meddour sets her film in a particular period of acute repression in Algeria in the 1990s. Since then the cries for women's rights have become louder. But progress in most quarters is patchy. Here's a film which flies in the face of curtailment of rights and freedoms seen through 20-year-old Nedjma's experiences and encounters. Her journalist sister assassinated, her student friends traumatised and prevented by machismo from making the most private and personal choices about their own lives, Nedjma decides to organise a fashion show with revealing clothes made out of a cloth, a haïk, traditionally used to cover women like a hijab. Papicha is young and full of energy. The fast-moving action flows from one chapter to the other. With the action revolving around Nedjma's all-female university residence, Meddour's characters span a range of male and female situations. For example, one male shop owner is sympathetic to the girls, another puts on a front for the religious fundamentalists, another delights in the cloistering of the girls, exploits them and would even rape them. Females and males are equally part of the clampdown on freedom for women, but women fight the hardest against it. Meddour's film avoids pitfalls and endows Papicha with appeal beyond the 15-35 female age group. Click on the "play" button above to hear Emily Beecham talking about "Little Joe" and about the rest of this films in this edition of our Cinefile podcast.     Fahim, the little chess prince Gérard Dépardieu (as grumpy chess coach Xavier Parmentier) reigns supreme in this French film for all ages, which just fails to bring tears to the eyes. Fahim, the Little Chess Prince is based on the true-life story of a Bangladeshi wunderkind, son of an asylum seeker who's determined his misfortune will transfomed into 8 year-old Fahim's triumph.

In this late summer Cinefile podcast, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to UK documentary film maker Ursula McFarlane about Untouchable, a moving and compelling set of interviews, audio recording and newsreel footage, which revisit a deeply rooted culture of different types of harrassement in the film sector via the Harvey Weinstein case. Also Late Night, an overall feel-good film which carries a sharp observation of the effect of power and hierarchy in the TV business. Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling star in Nisha Ganatra's latest. Click on the arrow to listen. 18 minutes.

In this month's Cinefile podcast, RFi's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to film makers Bertrand Bonello and Benoit Forgeard and actress Judith Chemla about their latest films released in June in France. Click on the photo above. Quick-fix reviews below. Zombi Child by Betrand Bonello Essentially a teen movie around a Franco-Haitian story, told as a zombie story, based on the possible zombie case of real-life Clairvius Narcisse. From an educational point of view it has a lot to offer. It carries a pre school-holiday warning about summer love, and slips in valuable, not chicken, nuggets of Napoleonic French history. However, interesting as it is to discover little talked-about French elite institutions, and popular as zombie films are at present, Bonello's film misses the mark and Zombi Child lacks the suspense and boldness of his previous youth hit, Nocturama (2016). All about Yves by Benoît Forgeard Can a fridge fall in love? Become a new-age matchmaker? Could a fridge take over our lives? Yves is a smart looking and sounding fridge-freezer programmed to improve eating habits. The machine is imposed on a sausage-consuming rapper who has moved into his granny's home to write a star-quality composition. A gimmicky rom-com à la française, like chocolate and hazelnut paste spread over a hot contemporary topic. Love it or hate it. It's entertaining. My Polish Honeymoon by Elise Otzenberger A young Jewish mother reluctantly leaves their baby in Paris with grandparents to spend a few romantic few days in Poland with her child's father. Poland, not Venice because Anna's husband has been invited to attend a commemorative ceremony in his grandfather's home village, in Poland. Anna leaps at the chance like Bambi. Otzenberger mixes comedy and gravity, fact and fiction, to vehicle a personal story, tied to the historical tragedy and horror of the World War Two attempt at genocide in Europe. Should the search for roots become so important when it means uncovering dead-ends, disappointments and a scarred present?  

In this Cinefile, RFi's Rosslyn Hyams looks at three films which premièred at the Cannes Film Festival, Les Misérables, Atlantique and My Brother's Wife. Les Misérables Ladj Ly’s police thiller has it all. An engaging plot, credible, just larger than life characters, pace and an athletic camera lens. The joint-winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Jury Prize shared his trophy with Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Bacurau, which, like Les Misérables, has a devastating and cruel social divide. Ly’s Les Misérables remains rooted in the everyday but made of stuff of memorable films, it surprises and shocks. A new police officer, Stéphane (Damien Bonnard) joins a crime squad whose beat is a poor, tough and drug-infested housing estate. Stéphane immediately locks horns with rough, bossy and mouthy Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada who has grown up in the ‘hood (Djebril Zonga). They have to find ways of dealing with all the local clans, from teenage girls to estate lords, to bored penniless pre-teen boys hungry for kicks, the religious gang and also, the outsiders and very muscular circus team. Ly portraits these groups and some indiviuals, but refrains from judgment of people or characters. They are drawn from his real life experiences of growing up in a poor area. In Monfermeil, many families were originally from Africa, but their children, like Gwada the police officer, have grown up in France. The younger generation, Issa’s, were born in France. Ly disproves the old saying that directors should neither work with children nor animals. On his first film no less, he takes the risk of working with both. His own son plays Buzz, the all-important drone operator, and Issa is the wayward teen who attracts trouble like a magnet and cannot resist stealing an adorable lion cub. Only the lion cub belongs to the circus, and in particular one lion-tamer with massive biceps. The housing estate is a tinderbox. The theft sparks a war between the three local crime squad officers. Director Ly can handle them all. He and his crew turn the most ordinary and unattractive places into décors and real-life into cinema. Ly has refreshed the European approach to social dramas with some strong character actors, and pumps excitement into French cinema. Atlantique Another prize winner at Cannes. Maty Diop’s debut feature won the Grand Prix. It’s set in Senegal and is based on a short film which was tied to the film festival. Atlantique explains why young men leave behind their loved ones and risk their lives on the sea. They hope of finding jobs for which they will be paid. A young woman, Ada, is promised to a rich businessman. Her true love Suleiman is a construction worker, too poor for her family to consider him a suitable husband. Diop pitches the natural playing style of young Senegalese actors against a story of the supernatural, with special, rather than visual effects. The green laser beams in a club, its mirrors and the moon were used to effective mysterious effect without adding the zombie eyes. Quite a teen film, in spite of the serious case of the effects. Le femme de mon frère, My Brother’s Love Anne-Elisabeth Bossé makes this Québecois rom-com with socio-political undertones, an agreeable watch. Bossé plays Sophia, the sister who feels ditched by life because she can’t get a job in spite of her PhD.. She then feels doubly ditched by her brother who falls in love with her own gynaecologist. Bossé bounces her often hilariously sad lines off her wonderfully crazy '68er father (Sasson Gabai) and mother (Micheline Bernard) or off brother Karim (Patrick Hivon). Director-screenwriter Monia Chokri’s constant stream of sometimes deeply satirical humour, seems made for the actress. Charming in many ways, love, couples and connections are at the heart of Canadian-Tunisian Chokri’s happy-ending, 30-somethings, debut feature. Listen to the film directors Ladj Ly and Monia Chokri and film score composer Fatima Al Qadiri in the Cinefile podcast. Just click on the arrow in the photo.

A group of friends - a musican, an actress, a documentary maker and an artist in the Afghan capital Kabul - decide to follow their dream to establish a culture centre in the city after the Taliban clamp-down on arts. RFi's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to Kabullywood's director Louis Meunier. Four friends set about renovating a disused cinema inhabited by the former projectionist and a bunch of orphans. Roya Heydari plays Shab, a young woman who against the wishes of her brother, hangs out with her male artist friends. Farid Joya is her mean brother Khaled. Ghulam Reza Rajabi is the painter, Mustafa. A contemporary guitar player, Qais, is driven by his desire to compose, and Mohd Qais Shaghasy take this role. The project leader, reluctant at first, but eager to impress Shab, is called Sikander. He's a documentary film maker whose father and police-chief is concerned primarily about his son's well-being and future. Kabullywood champions freedom of expression in a place where it is curtailed. But it's also about generational misunderstandings. It has the feel of a first feature film, with a certain freshness and intuitive experimentation. However, it's not just any debut. It was made against the odds in Kabul, where Louis Meunier and his crew had to deal with real-life security issues. The docu-fiction is a brave attempt to show the enthusiasm and convictions of some Afghans to defend and keep art and artists alive. Listen to the interview with the link above.

In January, Cinefile takes a closer look at Les invisibles, The Invisible People, an artistic gesture of social realism to foster a sense of resistance against inhumane pragmatism, while a docu-drama Another Day of Life combines highly-colourful and imaginative animation, historicial documents and recent interviews in a tribute to the work of reporter Richard Kapuczinski during the Angolan War. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams hosts guest directors Louis-Julien Petit and Raul de la Fuente. Corine Masiero who plays Manu, the manager of the womens' day-time shelter says  Les Invisibles, a film with a balance of gravity and humour, is a political film. “Manu starts out with setting up a humanist centre. When she loses official support, she says, OK, I’m going to take this on my own shoulders. It’s what people around us today are doing to oppose the agro-food heavyweights, or they flout laws to help migrants and refugees. You get to a point where you have to move your arse, no matter what. Julien-Louis Petit’s film tells politicians that, hey, enough, we the ordinary people are doing what we can. Now it’s time you found solutions.” Click on the link to listen to the interview.

Caravaggio in Rome: Friends and Foes is a compact yet intense exhibition running at The Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris. Some of the most important works of the early 17th-century Italian painter, as well as those of his peers and his disciples, are on display. The exhibition explores the painters' milieu, highlighting themes like music, games, romance and religion. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to Pierre Curie, curator of the Jacquemart-André Museum and co-curator of Caravaggio in Rome.

In this edition of Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams keeps us posted on films in French with a look at the bittersweet I Feel Good, and the beautiful, poetical Fortuna. And she speaks to leading French actor with loads of charm, Pierre Deladonchamp about his latest film, The Wind Turns. To listen to September's Cinefile, click on the arrow on the photo. I feel good Jean Dujardin (Jacques) and Yolande Moreau (Monique) play 40-50 year-old siblings whose lifestyle choices are so far apart. Jacques' first appearance is when he rolls up in a monogrammed white towelling bathrobe and slip-ons, walking along the motorway. Monique, is an almost overly-sympathetic worker with an out-of-the-way charity centre where objects are repaired and recycled like the people who have found shelter there. The satirical writers and directors, Gustave Kervern et Benoît Delepine went to a real Emmaus 'village' for their film location to slam unbridled capitalism and draw attention to people who are so often invisible to most of us. After failing to amass dizzying amounts of material wealth, Jacques lands up in his sister's world and, through contact with her and the other residents, he undergoes an extreme transformation. The transformation materialises thanks to the enthusiastic embrace of capitalist values in a former communist country. Both serious and ironic, the film had entertainment value as well. However, the humour can be cumbersome at moments and could leave a nasty taste for some. But the film actually is the bearer of a crucial message. Degrees of whackiness aside, Kervern says their film is "optimistic because it shows that capitalism has its limits, that money cannot be an end in itself." Full of good heart and the potential to become a cult film from the directors of Mammuth (2010) starting Gérard Dépardieu. Failing cult-status, it will be remembered for the screen presence of non-actors at the Lescar-Pau Emmaus village. Le Vent Tourne (The Wind Turns) Environment, ecology are muddled with the meaning of personal freedom. Pauline (Mélanie Thierry) invests her energy in her family farm in the mountains. Her partner Alex (Pierre Delandonchamps), an urbanite, is as committed to the project, and like a convert, tires himself with zeal. The couple tires too. The two add-on characters, the wandering engineer and the young Eastern European house-guest who lands up to improve her health, pale into insignficance in comparison with the force of Pauline and Alex. Swiss director Bettina Oberli's achievements in this film lodge in some dramatic moments, such as the challenges facing farmers caught between politically correct 'green' practices and those handed down by previous generations The theme is definintely a popular European one these days. Some are more tightly interwoven on the human vs. environment issue however, such UK director Clio Barnard's Dark River this year, and Hubert Charuel's big hit of 2017, Petit Paysan. Fortuna Fourteen-year-old Ethiopian orphan Fortuna, played by Kedist Siyum lands up in a monastery in the Alps and unfortunately becomes attached to a fellow countryman, Kabir, 12 years her elder. Veteran actor Bruno Ganz anchors the story, and adds to the dramatic force of the black and white feature with his expressions of doubts and a few certitudes about life and human beings, in his role as Father of the few monks whose spiritual lives are disrupted by the migrants who are waiting for the asylum process to save them. Sounds and silences mark this film steeped in snow and isolated from the world until a police raid interrupts the quiet concerns of all. It's a sad story, made of sad beauty in snowy, yet firey black and grey and white.

In October's Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams talks to Cannes award-winning director Pawel Pawlikovski about his grave love story, Cold War and talks about light-hearted but serious unlove story L'Amour Flou's success with actor-directors Romane Bohringer and Philippe Rebbot. Click on the arrow to listen to Cinefile. Cold War A lot has already been written about Pawel Pawlikovski's film, as it has travelled across the world since winning the prize for best director at the 2018 Cannes Fim Festival. Zula and Viktor fall in love just after World War Two is over. She is much younger and intrinsically unsettled. She unsettles Viktor who remains perturbed throughout the film. Joana Kulig plays opposite Tomasz Kot and they are a well-matched as ill-matched lovers, her exuberance and passion versus his smouldering desire. Although in real life, there is a mere five-year age difference. It's not surprising as when they first meet at an audition of girls and boys from the Polish countryside, ironically, supposed to be pure, Zula explains that she if she killed her father it's because she needed to explain to him that "he had confused his daughter, with his wife." Kulig explains why this line is so important in building Zula's character. "We knew that she had a problem with the father, with a really difficult situation and something really strange about her background. So in her relationship with Viktor, we knew that Zula, who is so sensitive, at the same time, she doesn't have a good example from men. Sometimes Zula fights with Viktor, but he really loves her, and she has a problem with trust. She later on realises the problem and turns to drink to help. But it doesn't." No matter that they want different things from life, Viktor and Zula are destined to be together, because of love. Contrasts are key to the director's vision in Pawlikowski's third feature film  Black and white, a powerful folk, jazz and rock and roll music score and the passage of 30 years in the space of less than two hours, sharpen the drama of Cold War, which as Pawlikovski says "is not political, although public money does go to folk culture rather than to some more contentious expressions. That being said there is freedom of expression today." Cold War is not just a clever title about an impossible love affair. It led Kulig to think about the Communist past of Poland."I knew it was difficult in those times for my parents and grandparents, and I remember my mother and grandmother talking about Walesa, and thinking this was very important. Now we can say what we think. In those days people were scared and had to be careful." *** L'amour flou (Hazy Love) In their first directing bid, the Bohringer-Rebbot team, mother-father and two children, Rose and Raoul, dish up a comedy based on the drama of separation. They make a sallient point about the blurry lines upon which so many relationships flounder, and make a success out of a situation commonly deemed a failure. Experienced actors both, they bring something refreshing to their French romp. Romane and Philippe have had enough of each other. Or so they think. It's not so easy to cut the ties and move on, or out, when you have two little ones you want to care for. Avoiding potentially stale humour about domestic love-on-the-wane, the duo lead the spectator along a bumpy path to possible contentment. Bohringer and Rebbot are at their funniest in this bundle of emotions when they feel the pull of attraction elsewhere. Rebbot's eye wanders to a much younger jogger, is thwarted by a cat-allergy, while Bohringer is led astray by lust and fantasy, hetero and homo sexual. Bravo to them for converting a family break-up into a tender un-breakup.

In this week's Culture in France, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams visits the Vaux le Vicomte Fait son Cinéma exhibition in the 17th Century palace and gardensnear Paris. The grounds and rooms have featured in some 50 movies over the past half-century since opened to the public in 1968, a revolutionary year. Click on the arrow on the photo to hear the feature. US director Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2005) was shot in part at Vaux le Vicomte, as was French stage and film director Ariane Mnouchkine's Molière (1977), along with at least two films directed by French veteran film maker Bertrand Tavernier, including Que la Fête Commence (1974), and Milos Forman's 1988 Valmont. More recently, Vaux le Vicomte, also popular for its Year-End decorations and festivities, hosted the shoot of Dany Boon's comedy Raid Dingue (2016), and the TV historical drama series, Versailles devised and directed by Simon Mirren and David Wolstencroft. The exhibition, Vaux le Vicomte fait son cinéma which runs until 4 November combines 17th century French history, with the excitement of finding out how films are made, from costumes and make up to special effects. As Vaux le Vicomte has hosted many shoots, it seemed like a good idea tothe owners, the de Vogüé family and their team who help run the site, to reveal some of the secrets of cinema. The history of Vaux Le Vicomte is in itself intriguing. It begins with rivalry and surprises pitching powerful public figures in 17th century France, including those very close to King Louis IVXth, against the Sun King. More discretely, in the old kitchens, under the ground floor, you can see the original storyboard for the 2016 film Raid Dingue, The series of drawings serve as a blue print for the director and his team, showing camera angles, entrances and exits and such, but are works of art in their own right. Next door, a bluescreen adventure in a hot-air balloon basket over the palace and its gardens awaits budding actors and actresses and directors, complete with sound effects of the wind and tweeting birds. 360° virtual reality headgear and stools in the central hall of the palace puts visitors in the place of an actor at the banquet table, with the film crew looking on from behind, don't forget to swivel. You can marvel at props and costumes used in Moonraker, one of the most popular James Bond films, made in 1979 with the late Roger Moore as 007. The chateau is making the 50 kilometre trip from Paris even more like an amusement park day-out with the chance to win a ride in a helicopter, just like James Bond. Although the winners are not expected to pull off the same stunts as in the Moonraker aerial scenes, just sit tight and marvel at the exceptional aerial view.  

In this week's Spotlight on Asia, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams looks at the potential knock-on effects in South Asia and in the Indian diaspora, of the Indian Supreme Court ruling to decriminalise homosexual consensual sexual relations. The ink was only just dry on the Indian Supreme Court's decision to scrap the Section 377 which made sex between homosexual consenting adults a crime, and already more ink was being poured into comments about how this move will help the Indian economy. According to one of the petitioners in the case and cited by the French news agency AFP. "It can bring billions of dollars to the Indian economy if they can activate the spending of gay people in India," Keshav Suri, a hotelier said, adding that 'there is business to be done, real estate to be bought and sold, holidays and all the services that go with that." The so-called pink economy is evaluated cent by cent, and in India's case rupee by rupee by a marketing agency in Australia. Out Now has counted more than 55 million Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual and Intersexual adults in India.  

In this month's Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams meets artists from two French feature films. Both stories about the rougher or tougher side of life: Shéhérazade and Sauvage. Shéhérazade In the sunny port of Marseille, director Jean-Bernard Marlin sets a true-story based on the experiences of teenagers who roam the streets in less salubrious areas and hang out with local, and barely older gang-leaders in housing estates near the city limits. Marlin cast Dylan Robert who'd just been released from a deliquent's centre in real life, as his hero, Zac. Not a professional actor, but with charm and vitality, able to convey different emotions from joy to anger to love and Robert should be well on his way after this first on-camera try. Marlin's leading lady, Kenza Fortas who plays the title role, makes a huge impact in her debut role. She incarnates a street-wise character, forced to grow up before her time, who after cracking tough deals in exchange for her body, falls asleep in Zac's arms like a baby. With the city by night and by day as a backdrop, these unbridled youths seem to take possession of the streets, becoming involved in violent as well as petty crime. The camera seems to be constantly on the go. Marlin stays close to Zac and Shéhérazade as they take on eastern European gangsters, local gangsters and disinterested parents. The story could take place in any other city or any other region says the director, "I researched the background to the true love story that took place in Marseille between a very young prostitute and the boy who became her pimp. That was just the starting point. Afterwards I went to the areas where the prostitutes were. I talked to many of the yong girls, and then I dramatised the situations for my screenplay." Marlin, admits an affinity with the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini, "especially his first two films, Amaroma and Accatone where he worked with actors who had no previous experience, and people we don't often see in cinema. Also Elia Kazan, for his ambiguous relationships and contradictions in the characters, like in America, Amercia or On the Waterfront... I think my main character is not so dissimilar to the main character in On the Waterfront [Marlon Brando]. Without giving the game away, one reason he chose a happy ending was to prevent his first feature (after an award-winning short called Fugue or Runaway)   falling into the banality of real-life.

In this month's Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams tells curious film-watchers about two arresting June and July releases in France, Argentinian film Zama and US-French Thirst Street.

The Avignon Festival is one of the biggest collective annual theatre events in Europe. The programme will see the whole spectrum of performing arts take place in and around the south-eastern French region. In this week's Culture in France, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams talks to festival director Olivier Py and some of the artists whose work has marked the first of the three week-long international showing.

In Spotlight on Asia, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams turns to some of the main news in Asia this week, including the murder of Shujaat Bukhari, leading Kashmiri journalist and former RFI English correspondent, the UN's first report on human rights violations in Kashmir, and whither nuclear disarmement of the Korean peninsula after Kim Jung-un and Donald Trump give an historic handshake.

The Champs-Elysées film festival is underway at some of the many cinema halls on and around the famous Parisian avenue. The festival focus is American and French independent cinema. One of its highlights are its retrospectives. One of the special guests is British actor Tim Roth. A man of many faces, and even an ape's as RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports in this month's Culture in France. Roth's full interview with RFI can be heard on RFI Soundcloud. The 7th Champs-Elysées film festival runs competitions for feature and short films, French and US, and some coproductions. Results at the closing ceremony on Tuesday, June 19. Here's a list of movies in the running: US Features 1985 directed by Yen TanHale County This Morning, This Evening directed by Ramell RossMadeline's Madeline by Josephine DeckerMy Name is Myeisha by Gus KriegerSollers Point - Baltimore directed by Matt PorterfieldTyrel directed by Sebastián Silva French Features 68, mon père et les clous (68, My Father and the Nails) directed by Samuel BigiaouiCassandro, The Exotico ! directed by Marie LosierContes de Juillet (July Tales) directed by Guillaume BracFunan directed by Denis DoLa trajectoire du homard (The Lobster Trajectory) directed by Vincent Giovanni and Igor MendjiskyNaufragé volontaire (Happy to be Sea-Wrecked) directed by Didier Nion US Shorts Absent directed by Sudarshan SureshAfter/Life Directed by Puck LoAgua Viva directed by Alexa Lim HaasCaroline directed by Logan George and Celine HeldDisintegration 93-96 directed by Miko ReverezaGreat Choice directed by Robin ComisarHair Wolf directed by Mariama DialloReady for Love directed by Dylan Pasture and Lauren McCuneSkip Day directed by Ivete Lucas and Patrick BresnanThe Shivering Truth directed by Vernon Chatman and Cat Solen French Shorts Allonge ta foulée ! (Lengthen your Stride) directed by Brahim FritahBut You Look So Good directed by Marina ZiolkowskiDe Natura directed by Lucile HadžihalilovićHuit (Eight) directed by Mathieu MouterdeLe mal bleu (Blue Evil) directed by Anaïs Tellenne and Zoran Boukherma Ordalie directed by Sacha BarbinPlus fort que moi (Beyond My Control) directed by Hania OurabahPoke directed by Mareike EngelhardtSilence directed by Léo Cannone and Thibaud Lomenech    

Cinefile with RFI's Rosslyn Hyams takes a look back at some of the main features of the Cannes Film Festival this month, a bumper edition in many ways. Also a feelgood pic pools India and French production talent in just released The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir directed by Ken Scott. The 2018 Cannes International Film Festival jury headed by actress and women's rights activist Cate Blanchett gave the Golden Palm to Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu's 13th feature, Shoplifters. The jury usually awards seven prizes but this year was special in that it awarded nine. The Best Scenario Palm went to to two best scripts, Alicia Rohrwacher's Happy as Lazarro and Jafar Panahi's 3 Faces which is one of the first Palm winners to go on general release in France since the festival, on 3 June 2018. A special one-off award was given to 87-year-old Jean-Luc Godard for his work, and for his intellectually and emotionally stimulating film entry in the Palm competition this year, The Image Book where he plays as much with sound levels as with images, colour and form. Besides the strong films from across the world which won the prizes, and some others which didn't, the festival pulled off a change of media focus. Ahead of the festival, screening time changes were not well-received and doomsday commentators thought the end was nigh because of this and other novelties. But, once into the event, action to further the cause of women's rights stepped into the spotlight, and the Cannes International Film Festival rediscovered its former glory. Two high-profile women-power demonstrations at peak viewing time, the at least-50-per-cent satisfying selection, as well as clinched deals in the market section, proved that the festival can thrive. It doesn't need former US producer Harvey Weinstein, now in the eye of the sexual-abuse and harrassement storm. Review - The Fakir's Extraordinary Voyage Looking for a charming but not entirely soppy film? The Fakir's Extraordinary Voyage could be the one to liven your spirits. Canadian Ken Scott of Delivery Man and Starbuck-fame has directed this Franco-Indian-Belgian coproduction, blessed by Sony International Pictures. As the hero says, "Chance is in the hand of cards that life deals you," and the production seems to be quite lucky to get such a boost. The hero Ajatashatru Oghash Rathod, performed by southern Indian actor, Dhanush, is a showman, and Dhanush's energy level and expressions keep the romcom on the move. As in a fairy-tale, Scott makes the impossible possible. He also makes fun out of difficult situations. Aja, the conman-tourist's life is a roller-coaster. Even when the hero is about to be deported from the UK as an illegal immigrant, Scott throws in a singing policeman routine. High points in The Fakir's Extraordinary Journey are some examples of Indian cinema's legendary dance routines, which Dhanush mixes with a touch of Michael Jackson and Saturday Night Fever nostalgia whisking Bérénice Béjo round a green- and purple-lit disco, postcard pretty scenes in Paris and Rome, the "I don't think I'm a lesbian" flat-mate-in-pyjamas scene, the singing policeman, and the way Scott has us laugh along with would-be migrants. The director also observes the hardships of migrants from Africa or elsewhere as they are shunted around and back to square one, if not worse. "If we get people to think about what the migrants go through and to realise that they are the same as everybody else, then we will have accomplished something," said Scott who also told me that he was sought out so that he would bring his trademark humour to the film. Released in France on 31 May 2018.

The Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, The Directors' Fortnight opens on Wednesday, 9 May, 2018 in Cannes. In its 50th anniversary year, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams looks at one the documentaries from the first Quinzaine in 1969, a documentary which harks back to the origins of the parallel programme.

In this month's Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams meets British actress and producer Gemma Arterton for her new film The Escape, directed by Dominic Savage, and Walid Mattar for his Franco-Tunisian film Vent du Nord (Northern Wind). THE ESCAPE -UNE FEMME HEUREUSE The Escape (Une Femme Heureuse) reads like a short story with train-ride views instead of an illustrated page inserted before each chapter. Editing speeds up the family routine and disrupts the monotony. What is happiness and how do you find it? "It's an honest film. It's not necessarily an easy one to watch. It's quite a taboo subject, talking about a woman who leaves her children..." Tara, played by Gemma Arterton, is married (her husband is played by Dominic Cooper). However, she is pulling away from him even though he beleives he has everthingl he needs to be happy - wife, kids, house, car, and job. Tara flails around from the beginning of the film until she reaches for the cross-Channel train and a pokey hotel room in Paris. Inevitably, she embarks on a romantic interlude in Paris with Jalil Lespert whose footloose character has his own baggage. The film is realistic, but the paring down of the elements packs an emotional  punch and drama. "I think even the happiest of couples may go through difficult times," Arterton says. The audience is left with even more questions than they did at the outset, the most sallient of which is Tara 'Une Femme Heureuse', a happy woman? VENT DU NORD - NORTHERN WIND Walid Mattar's Vent du Nord, Northern Wind blows industry from the north. Mattar's film is constantly moving and offers brief pauses for thought with aerial views of a container ship sailing from the top of the screen to the bottom and vice versa. Throughout the film, Mattar asks about what the people who live in these physically different places have in common. It stars Corinne Masiero as a swimming pool cleaner flogging her husband's fishing catch to colleagues, and Philippe Rebbot as her husband trying to rebound after miserable lay-off pay-off. Kacey Mottet-Klein is their school-leaver son who chooses what ironically appeals as a 'secure' job away from his economically depressed home area. Nineteen-year-old Mottet-Klein has already shown his versatility after playing the 18th century Spanish, Prince Louis role in last year's The Exchange of the Princesses where Lambert Wilson played his father, the mad King Philippe. Mattar's social-realism film bears traces of Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake, but is  not as dark. Mattar captures and contrasts the northern sea and sky colours of the region on the English Channel around Calais, with the sunnier southern side of the Mediterranean. "The optimism in the film lies [in the fact] that any 'normal' human being wants to keep going. The question I'm asking is whether in the current system are human beings important," he says. There are two cultures and  two stages of economic development. Mattar manages to find commonalities between the two in his search for humanity. The grass is always greener even when there are pebbles and sand.  

Spotlight on Asia, focuses on the jailing of South Korea's former president 66 year-old Park Geun Hye. Produced and presented by RFi's Rosslyn Hyams with guests John Nilsson-Wright and Noh Jung-sun. South Korea's first woman president Park Geun-hye, was found guilty of 16 counts of corruption and abuse of power, and fined her close to 100 million euros. The people of South Korea, more than 50 per cent of who in February 2013 elected the daughter of former late South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee, are divided over the unprecedented sentence, and noisy supporters protested outside the court after her sentence on 6 April 2018. John Nilsson-Wright, a senior lecturer at Cambridge University in the UK and Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia at the Asia Programme at Chatham House, notes that "there's certainly a will and a desire on the part of the current government of president Moon Jae-in, to change the political and economic culture of South Korea. He was a beneficiary of the candle-lit protests against President Park that led to her impeachment." While acknowledging that some analysts see corruption and influence peddling as an issue which runs through the various strata of South Korean society, and noting that questions could be asked about the fairness of Park's heavy sentence, he considers "it will send a very powerful signal to other politicians and to corporate Korea." Click the start arrow to hear more from John Nilsson-Wright and from Korean academic Noh Jung-sun on this issue. Park's former culture minister, Cho Yoon-sun was jailed for two years in January for her role in drawing up a blacklist of between 9,000 and 10,000 artists seen as critical of Park's government, by criticising her or her late father, or who had voiced support for opposition parties. The list, included artists in film, theatre, dance, music, fine arts and literature, and included world-renowned personalities including novelist Han Kang, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian, and 2018 contender, and film director Park Chan-wook, whose Oldboy took the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, and the Jury Prize in 2009 for Thirst. Former President Park had denied she was involved in the blacklist, along with other corruption charges that led to her stiff sentence.

In this month's Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams talks to the director of the award-winning French film, La Prière, The Prayer, Cédric Kahn. And she also speaks to Jeroen Eisinga, Dutch art documentary-film maker at the international Paris documentary film festival, Cinéma du Réel which was started 40 years ago by Jean Rouch.

The Georges Pompidou Centre this spring is hosting three photographers from South Africa. David Goldblatt's critical work during apartheid and emigré South African photographers Oliver Chanarin and Adam Broomberg, in their conceptual work. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams has this report.

In this month's Cinefile, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams meets Lebanese director Ziad Doueri to talk about his tense movie, The Insult which released on 31 January in France. Miran-sha Na-yik joins in by phone from India to talk about his first feature called Juze (The Child from Goa). Ridley Scott's thriller All the Money in the World caught RFI's Tony Cross' attention this month.

From January 19th to February 22nd, a wide range of French feature length and short movies are available for viewing online via local platforms, free of charge in many regions of the world, or for a small fee in others. In this week's Culture in France, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports on the event called, 'My French Film Festival'. 'My French Film Festival' is France's annual, month-long online film festival. Last year seven million viewers across the world from the Americas to China were able to watch French films which released in the previous year in France. Usually French films can only be seen outside of cinema theatres or Alliance Française French culture centres abroad, after three years.  'My French Film Festival' is now eight years-old, and offers a selection of about 30 films, features, shorts (available for free) and a documentary. This year, it also includes a few classics as well as a competition, which has an audience award. Ten French feature films and ten French shorts are competing. Among the selection is Guillaume Canet's Rock n 'Roll - a successful comedy starring Marion Cotillard, and with an appearance by the late Johnny Halliday. There is also Ava, a first feature by Léa Mysius which premièred at the Critic's Week in Cannes in May 2017, and The Last Metro - François Truffaut's memorable 1980 wartime drama starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Dépardieu. For details of how to access the festival which is open to all click here.

Culture in France presented by RFI's Rosslyn Hyams visits a revamped theatre space in the Palais de Chaillot opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris where a Norwegian dance season opens this January.

La Monnaie de Paris, the French national Mint, on the banks of the River Seine in Paris, reopened this autumn... in style. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports on a new Parisian museum in this week's Culture in France.

Sharp and harsh, contradictions in Iranian urban society seen through the life of four characters living in Tehran, are made larger than life in a recently-released animated fiction feature film. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams meets Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, one of the actresses in Tehran Taboo, who plays a tragic, dynamic young woman who resorts to extreme action to maintain some sense of independence.

RFI's Rosslyn Hyams presents Cinefile. This month her special guest is director Raoul Peck whose latest film after the documentary on James Baldwin called I am not your negro is a militant feature film, The Young Karl Marx. Cinefile's September Film of the Month is Philippe van Leeuw's, war-thriller called In Syria (Une famille syrienne).   REVIEW In Syria, also known as Insyriated and In Syria, is economical film shot in an apartment with only a few cautious peeks into a staircase and onto a small courtyard. The family in the well-kept apartment is isolated. Not a film for sufferers of claustrophobia, it is effective in emotional impact, buoyed by intense sound. Apart from the standard helicopter buzz, gunfire and mortar explosions inherent in most films about war, the characters are also seen listening intently to marauders moving ominously in the almost-empty building. The family is headed by an elderly man, a father-in-law, played by Mohsen Abbas who director Philippe Van Leeuw says he imagined as being "an engineer, a teacher, nothing political. Through the window this wise man contemplates the entire life of a community." However, it's Hiam Abbas as Oum Yazan, who comes across as the leader in her role as mother, daughter-in-law and significantly, as a neighbour. Diamond Bou Abboud plays Halima, taken in with her baby by Oum Yazan after being bombed out of her place on an upper floor. They make the most of their roles which dig deep into quotidien 'normality', the drama of vulnerability and the ruthlessness of war. Juliette Navis plays an essential role of messenger as the Asian house-maid who, in spite of water shortages, meets the demands of her demanding employer to keep the place and the everyone in it fed and clean. Van Leeuw's reference to the contained and efficient classical drama of many cultures, draws on real-life experiences of his crew and actors, and on his own imagination to bring the Syrian war, and others, into our own spheres.   Raoul Peck cast August Diehl to carry the title role of The Young Karl Marx who comes across as likeable, kind and committed. Diehl's 20-something year-old Marx who is exploited by his employers and who lives from hand to mouth, is barely able to look after his family. The author of Das Kapital is however clearly committed to theory as against any direct action. Peck's film revisits the origins of The Communist Manifesto of 1848 and recalls the conditions of factory workers and the poor in general the 19th century. It leads us to consider how far we've come since then, with two world wars in between, and consequently, how important it is not to slide backwards and lose the human dignity that has been fought for and gained. Times were indeed hard in the mid-19th century. With smoggy brown and grey tones, mixed with the mists of London, Paris and Brussels, Peck sharply contrasts cruelty and need. The intellectual Marx, along with his aristocratic-born wife Jenny (Vicky Krieps), and his mate Friederich Engels (Stefan Konarske), whose father owned factories in Britain and Germany, sparked major upheaval in Europe where the Industrial Revolution was steaming ahead. Peck shows the conviction and tenacity of the rich kids who vent their social conscience. It is an important part of European history that has been exported and often perverted by opportunistic dictators. The film portrays a youthful and serious Marx engrossed in theory, in love, and also in partnership with an angry young Engels, the militant party. Originally a television-film project for public-funded channel Arte, Peck will now likely get the benefit of both worlds for The Young Karl Marx.    

In Spotlight on Asia this week, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams meets Jean-Joseph Boillot who spends his time as an academic researcher travelling between France and India. Boillot's latest book -  soon to be published in English in India - is called L'Inde Ancienne au chevet des Politiques (literally Ancient India on the Politicians' Bedside Table) takes parts of an ancient Indian treatise on how to rule, and what leaders should do to attain prosperity for all. He says that Narendra Modi, apparently a fan of the Arthashashtra represents a new generation of Indian leaders who refer to their own culture's teachings and experiences rather than borrowing from foreign sources. Boillot suggests that European politicians today take a leaf out of the book of Kautilya, the right-hand man of the Indian Maurya Empire's Ashoka who reigned some 2300 years ago. Under the headings such as "on discipline", "on good behaviour of counsellors and ministers", "on safety of assets and persons" , "on the kingdom's vices and calamities", it sounds quite contemporary. Boillot makes it more relevant by updating the vocabulary in his translation, while reminding us that even Ashoka, remembered as a great leader, made mistakes and lost his empire.

In this week's Spotlight on Asia, RFi's Rosslyn Hyams talks to a documentary film maker who has co-directed a feature length work that highlights transgender issues in Vietnam.

The Korean peninsula made headline news all over the world this week. South Korea's president Park Geun-hye, now former president, was sacked and will most likely face corruption charges. North Korea's muscle flexing is testing the new US administration as well as its neighbour China, believed to be an ally, and challenging Malaysia over the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the North Korean leader's half-brother. In this week's Spotlight on Asia, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to Jonthan Holslag, specialist on security issues in East Asia, about the current brinkmanship in the region. He warns, "we have to be careful that this tiny little power on the doorstep of China doesn't become the Serbia of the 21st century."          

In this week's Spotlight on Asia, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams focuses on political change in Sri Lanka. The European Union is preparing to reward the government with an economic push, if it pursues efforts in good governance and human rights.

The South Korean president's future hangs in the balance. She is suspected of involvement in a potentially far-reaching corruption scandal, linked to a close friend. Discontented Koreans have been protesting in the street. Crucial deadlines loom as the parliamentary session ends on 9 December.  South Korea's internal political troubles are the focus of this week's Spotlight on Asia with RFI's Rosslyn Hyams.