All These Creatures won at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of Tempest, an Australian teen of African heritage whose father suffers from mental illness. The title ostensibly refers to the older man's obsession with the insects overrunning his back garden. A drama film told through narration as much as visuals, it contains very little actual dialogue. It is more of a contemplative piece, with little in the way of story. It is certainly nicely made, with a filmic look, but one wonders if its win in Cannes played a part in its future successes.
Lunch Time was in competition at Cannes in 2018. It tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who has been sent to identify her mother's body in the hospital morgue, but discovers that she has to be accompanied by a guardian in order to do so. She claims that, with her father in rehab, there is no-one else in her family who could identify the body but the hospital staff are suspicious of where she got her black eye.
Rate Me played at Cannes as well as many other festivals around the world, picking up several awards along the way. Rate Me presents us with a bewildering array of different possibilities as to the true nature and identity of a young woman who is being rated by punters who claim to have used her services. The film highlights the difficutly of knowing what is real in our post-truth, online world. Are these people even talking about the same person?
Stone Cars is a coming of age love story set in a deprived South African township. April's boyfriend wants to have sex but she is unsure. However, when she thinks she may be raped by the local thugs, she is faced with a decision: should she have sex now to ensure that she does not lose her virginity to a rapist? This is not an unusual thought process for young women who live in dangerous places.