Competition for Cannes Film Festival 2012

AMOUR (LOVE) directed by Michael HANEKE
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple’s bond of love is severely tested.

BAAD EL MAWKEAA (AFTER THE BATTLE) directed by Yousry NASRALLAH
Mahmoud was part of the armed groups coerced by the Egyptian Government which carried out attacks on protestors in Tahir Square the 2nd of February 2011. Since then, Mahmoud has lost his job, been subjected to humiliating treatment, and been ostracized by his own community that live close to the Pyramids. He and his family are close to despair when he meets Reem, a secular young Egyptian divorcee and modern-thinker who works in advertising. Reem is a fervent ecologist who lives in a wealthy neighbourhood of Cairo. This will be the encounter of two people but also of two different worlds.

COSMOPOLIS directed by David CRONENBERG
Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager’s day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.

DA-REUN NA-RA-E-SUH (IN ANOTHER COUNTRY) directed by HONG Sangsoo
A young film student and her mother run away seaside town of Mohang to escape their mounting debt. The young woman begins writing a script for a short film in order to calm her nerves:
Three women named Anne appear, and each woman consecutively visits the seaside town of Mohang. The first Anne is a successful film director. The second Anne is a married woman secretly in an affair with a Korean man. The third Anne is a divorcée whose husband left her for a Korean woman.
A young woman tends to the small hotel by the Mohang foreshore owned by her parents. A certain lifeguard can always be seen wandering up and down the beach that lies nearby. Each Anne stays at this small hotel, receives some assistance from the owner’s daughter, and ventures onto the beach where they meet the lifeguard.

DE ROUILLE ET D’OS (RUST AND BONE) directed by Jacques AUDIARD
Put in charge of his young son, Ali leaves the north of France for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Ali’s bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident

DO-NUI MAT (THE TASTE OF MONEY) directed by IM Sang-Soo
Young-jak who is a private secretary of madam Baek, the center power of Korean conglomerate, deals with immoral private issues of her wealthy family. He reports to madam Baek that her husband, Mr. Yoon is having an affair with a Filipino nanny, Eva. Madam Baek is now despaired, then greedily seducing Young-jak for her sexual desire. On the other hand, he begins to feel conflicted by madam Baek’s daughter, the only family member who approaches him with the true heart. Lost between his morality and shortcut to successful life, he has to make the biggest decision he’s ever made to choose whom he will hang on to, in order to survive in this harsh world.

DUPÃ DEALURI (BEYOND THE HILLS) directed by Cristian MUNGIU
A drama centered on the friendship between two young women who grew up in the same orphanage; one has found refuge at a convent in Romania and refuses to leave with her friend, who now lives in Germany.

HOLY MOTORS directed by Leos CARAX
From dawn to dusk, a few hours in the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. He is, in turn, captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man… He seems to be playing roles, plunging headlong into each part – but where are the cameras? With Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue.

JAGTEN (THE HUNT) directed by Thomas VINTERBERG
Following a tough divorce, 40-year-old Lucas has a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of reestablishing his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things go awry. Not a lot. Just a passing remark. A random lie. And as the snow falls and the Christmas lights are lit, the lie spreads like an invisible virus. The shock and mistrust gets out of hand, and the small community suddenly finds itself in a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity.Following a tough divorce, 40-year-old Lucas has a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of reestablishing his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things go awry. Not a lot. Just a passing remark. A random lie. And as the snow falls and the Christmas lights are lit, the lie spreads like an invisible virus. The shock and mistrust gets out of hand, and the small community suddenly finds itself in a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity.

KILLING THEM SOFTLY directed by Andrew DOMINIK
Jackie Cogan is a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game. With Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta.

LAWLESS directed by John HILLCOAT
Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits. With Tom Hardy and Guy Pierce.

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE directed by Abbas KIAROSTAMI
An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.

MOONRISE KINGDOM directed by Wes ANDERSON
A pair of 12 year old lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. With Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Edward Norton.

MUD directed by Jeff NICHOLS
Two teenage boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the bounty hunters on his trailer and to reunite him with his true love. With Reece Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey.

ON THE ROAD directed by Walter SALLES
Dean and Sal are the portrait of the Beat Generation. Their search for “It” results in a fast paced, energetic roller coaster ride with highs and lows throughout the U.S.. With Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst.

PARADIES: LIEBE (PARADISE: LOVE) directed by Ulrich SEIDL
On Kenya’s beaches they are known as “sugar mamas”: European women who seek out African boys selling love to earn a living. Teresa, a 50-year-old Austrian woman, travels to this vacation paradise. “PARADISE: Love” tells of older women and young men, of Europe and Africa, and of the exploited, who end up exploiting others. Ulrich Seidl’s film is the first in his PARADISE-Trilogy about three women, three vacations and three stories of the longing to find happiness today.

POST TENEBRAS LUX directed by Carlos REYGADAS
Juan and his urban family live in the Mexican countryside, where they enjoy and suffer a world apart. And nobody knows if these two worlds are complementary or if they strive to eliminate one another.

REALITY directed by Matteo GARRONE
Luciano is a Neapolitan fishmonger who supplements his modest income by pulling off little scams together with his wife Maria. A likeable, entertaining guy, Luciano never misses an opportunity to perform for his customers and countless relatives. One day his family urge him to try out for Big Brother. In chasing this dream his perception of reality begins to change.

THE ANGELS’ SHARE directed by Ken LOACH
Narrowly avoiding jail, new dad Robbie vows to turn over a new leaf. A visit to a whisky distillery inspires him and his mates to seek a way out of their hopeless lives.

THE PAPERBOY directed by Lee DANIELS
A reporter returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate. With Zac Efron, John Cusack and Matthew McConaughey.

V TUMANE (IN THE FOG) directed by Sergei LOZNITSA
Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces impossible moral choice.

VOUS N’AVEZ ENCORE RIEN VU (YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET!) directed by Alain RESNAIS
From beyond the grave, celebrated playwright Antoine d’Anthac gathers together all his friends who have appeared over the years in his play “Eurydice”. These actors watch a recording of the work performed by a young acting company, La Compagnie de la Colombe. Do love, life, death and love after death still have any place on a theater stage? It’s up to them to decide.