Cannes Film Festival has recently announced the Official Selection for 2021 (we can’t overlook Radu Muntean’s Intregalde in the Directors’ Fortnight / Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section), so it’s only fair that this month we get a glimpse into their program. At the same time, we can’t miss out on the latest titles showcased by streaming platforms and available in cinemas nationwide.

Bergman Island (drama, dir. Mia Hansen-Løve)

“You do realize we’re going to sleep in the bed where they shot Scenes from a Marriage, the film that made millions of people divorce?” This could be the opening line of a romantic thriller where the “victim” that is killed by being “stabbed” dozens of times is none other than the relationship of the protagonists played by Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth. They’re both film directors and come to the isolated island of Fårö to finish their new script. The spectrum of Ingmar Bergman and the proximity of the places where, among others, Persona and The Passion of Anna were shot will certainly become a challenge in this new feature by Mia Hansen-Løve.
Bergman Island has its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it competes for the Palme d’Or.

Sweet Tooth (fantasy drama, series created by Jim Mickle)

Sweet Tooth is perhaps the most watchable series released on Netflix in a long time. The SF outset (a deadly epidemic decimates the human race, while women give birth to hybrid babies, born part human, part animal) is just a pretext to address topics such as the fear of the unknown and the other, but also what makes us human (or the opposite). The hero of the series is Gus, a hybrid deer-boy brought by his father to a nature reserve where the kid grows up without any worries, but only until his father dies. Gus will have to venture into the wide world and, for someone his age (he’s only ten years old), he has a lot to say about what he sees around him. A great series for the whole family, especially since it does not avoid difficult topics, sometimes very difficult.
Sweet Tooth was released on Netflix on June 4th.

The Exit of the Trains (dir. Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă)

What we have above is not actually a trailer, because the format chosen by directors Radu Jude and Adrian Cioflâncă cannot accommodate a classic trailer. This documentary essay presented in the Forum section at the 2020 Berlinale deals with Romania’s denial regarding the Holocaust, reconstructing pieces of stories pertaining to the Jews that were brutally murdered during the Iasi Pogrom in June 1941. It’s hard to look at the succession of images of the victims and listen to the testimonies depicting their fate, but it’s even more difficult to realize that the documentary presents only a few hundred out of more than 13,000 victims of the mass murder.
The film comes out in cinemas on June 18, almost at the same time as the 80th anniversary of this dark moment in the history of Romania.

Katla (Sci-Fi drama, series created by Sigurjón Kjartansson, Baltasar Kormákur)

A young woman disappears during the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. The family has been looking for her for a year and now the young woman appears as if by magic, disoriented and covered by a thick layer of ash, but otherwise alive and well. Could this Icelandic production be the new Dark? The trailer for this series developed by Sigurjón Kjartansson and the ever-present Baltasar Kormákur seems to suggest exactly that, looking very promising as far as dark revelations go, and of course, it all takes place in the breathtaking setting of Iceland.
Katla premieres on Netflix on June 17.

No Sudden Move (drama, dir. Steven Soderbergh)

1955, Detroit. Several small-time criminals need to get over their personal issues and work together on what seems to be a simple job. But their plan goes horribly wrong and the heroes realize that in order to save themselves, they need to uncover the mysterious organization that hired them, throwing them into a lion’s den. No Sudden Move is directed by Steven Soderbergh but the film’s style is extremely different from his other movies with hustlers, from the Ocean’s series to Logan Lucky. Nevertheless, Soderbergh can’t help but populate his movie with a lot of stars: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbor, Ray Liotta, Jon Hamm, and Brendan Fraser are on the poster.
No Sudden Move premieres on HBO Max on June 18.

Wild Romania (documentary, dir. Dan Dinu, Cosmin Dumitrache)

After a long period of traveling only in our minds, there can be no better invitation for those brimming with wanderlust than this documentary directed by Dan Dinu and Cosmin Dumitrache. With a production that lasted more than a decade, no doubt that the directors had plenty of images of some of the most beautiful regions of our country to choose from, as if inviting us to visit them all, no matter the season. And we’re pretty sure that this film didn’t slip any images of animals that do not even live in our country, as did another much-promoted documentary, Untamed Romania.
Wild Romania has its world premiere at the Transilvania IFF in July, and its theatrical release is scheduled for September 17.

Petrov’s Flu (drama, dir. Kirill Serebrennikov)

Petrov’s Flu‘s itinerary is overshadowed by the fact that director Kirill Serebrennikov (Leto, The Student) is banned from leaving Russia until June 2023, so he cannot be present at Cannes, where his film has been selected in the main competition. Petrov’s Flu presents a day in the life of a comic book artist in post-Soviet Russia. Sick with the flu, he lets his imagination run wild to break free from his gray reality and escape into his own world. We can’t help but wonder if the images showing the protagonist’s wife killing a bunch of abusive men with a kitchen knife are in fact part of reality in this film that has little chance of pleasing the Kremlin regime. The subtitled trailer can be watched here.
Petrov’s Flu will have its world premiere at Cannes and there’s every chance a Romanian distributor will buy it and release it in our country.