Works of Congolese, Egyptian directors feature at Cannes 2020

There will be no African film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival according to organizers. In the midst of the fight against the coronavirus, the annual meeting of world cinema will be held virtually.

A setback that did not prevent Pierre Lescure, the president of the festival, and Thierry Frémaux, the artistic director, from announcing the creation of the Cannes 2020 label to encourage the directors of 56 films.

In this official selection, only two films are directed by professionals from the African continent: the documentary En route Pour le Milliard du Congolais by Dieudo Hamadi and Souad, the feature film by Egyptian director Ayten Amin.

Included in this selection are two feature films by British director Steve McQueen, which shed light on issues faced by the black community in England.

Frémaux told the press: “He’s (Steve McQueen) coming with two films produced by the BBC “Lover’s Rock” and “Mangrove”, two historical films. Films that as one of the members of the selection committee said we’re really going to increase the rate of diversity since it’s the black community in London in the 70’s…

“… and obviously “Mangrove” is a film of trials of police officers who harass the black community, obviously it resonates very dramatically with what happened to George Floyd and Adama Traoré.”