A crime thriller film by French director Sarah Arnold, whose events revolve around wild boars Lots of monsters (L’Espèce is explosiveEuropa Cinemas has received the Europa Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the organization revealed on Thursday.
The award, given for the 23rd time at Cannes, goes to the strongest European title in the Directors’ Fortnight section, and comes with support from the European Cinema Network – 3,166 screens in 815 cities in 39 countries – including additional promotional support and exhibitor incentives to expand the film’s theatrical run.
The jury, made up of four exhibitors from the European Cinema Network, praised Arnold’s debut as “a truly new and innovative debut film” and “a true genre film, spanning action, romance, thriller, comedy and police procedural”. They cited the film’s unpredictability as a major strength, noting that the “accessible plot continually takes the audience in completely unexpected directions”, culminating in what they called a “delicious, crazy, drug-fueled rollercoaster” in the final fifteen minutes.
In his review, Hollywood Reporter Critic Jordan Mintzer said the film calls to mind “the Coen brothers’ deadpan thrillers and the downbeat 1970s crime films of French director Alain Curneau”, while finding “smart new ways to tell a familiar story of crooked cops and small-town corruption”.
In northeastern France, a simmering war between farmers and hunters over a devastating wild boar population turns into a murder, attracting Fulda (Alexis Manenti), a brash Corsican policeman, and Stéphane (Ella Rampf), a psychologist sent to help local law enforcement tackle a violent crime spree. As the two reluctant partners delve deeper, they find themselves unable to trust anyone around them—not the locals, not their colleagues, not even the law itself.
What begins as a farcical murder mystery investigation gradually unravels into something very strange, culminating in a psychedelic finale that is as much about the unlikely relationship between its two protagonists as it is about the rampant corruption at the heart of a small rural community.
The film is “much more than that,” Mentzer said Fargo from There is no country for old menshe takes great pleasure in the idiosyncrasies of her troubled heroes.
The jury echoed that human warmth in their quote and invitation Lots of monsters “A very human film – nuanced and in no way didactic” in its examination of corruption and society.
Lots of monsters It is Arnold’s first appearance. Playtime handles international sales.
