Father & Soldier, a World War I drama featuring French star Omar Sy (Lupin), will open this year’s Un Certain Regard sidebar at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
The period drama, from first-time director Mathieu Vadepied, follows forgotten heroes of WWI: the Senegalese infantrymen who were forced to leave their homeland and fight to liberate France. Sy plays Bakary Diallo, a father who enlists in the French army in 1917 to join his 17-year-old son Thierno, who was drafted against his will.
Sent to the front, father and son have to face the war together. Alassane Diong and Jonas Bloquet co-star. Sy produced Father & Soldier together with Bruno Nahon. With Vadepied as a co-producer. Vadepied co-wrote the screenplay for the war drama with Olivier Demangel.
The Franco-Senegalese co-production from Unité and Korokoro will open Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section on May 18. Father & Soldier will be released theatrically in France by Gaumont, which is also handling international sales.
The Un Certain Regard section, considered Cannes’ main sidebar, runs through May 27. Among the competition highlight of this year’s selection include Agnieszka Smocynska’s The Silent Twins starring Letitia Wright and Jodhi May, and Beast, the directorial debut of actress Riley Koeugh, co-directed with Gina Gammell.
Source: Hollywood
