Luca Guadagnino, who serves as jury president of the Marrakech Film Festival, spoke in fluent French about his North African heritage during the opening gala ceremony on Friday.
On stage with fellow jurors including Jacob Elordi and Andrew Garfield, Guadagnino delivered a lyrical speech in which he revealed he had a personal bond to Morocco.
“My Algerian mother grew up in Casablanca. She was half-Moroccan, so I am half-Moroccan too,” said Guadagnino, whose jury will watch first and second features in competition during the week-long festival to award the Etoile d’Or Prize.
“For me, Marrakech and cinema are the same thing. The mystery of the image, the power of editing, of contrast, the beauty and devouring force that animates the cinema I love, it embodies Marrakech and Morocco,” the filmmaker continued.
He reminisced about his first trip to Marrakech in 2002, when he came to accompany a friend who was part of the short film jury and said he was swept away by the friendliness of Marrakech.” “I immediately rediscovered my deep roots,” Guadagnino said.
The daring helmer’s latest movie “Queer” world premiered to warm reviews at the Venice Film Festival and could potentially land Daniel Craig an Oscar nomination for his part as a gay American expat in 1950s Mexico City. The A24 movie is based on the 1985 novel by William S. Burroughs.
Marrakech Film Festival’s jury duty reunites Guadagnino with Garfield whom he just directed in the thriller “After The Hunt,” also starring Julia Roberts. Elordi, too, has a connection to Guadagnino who directed him alongside Margot Robbie in the Chanel campaign, “See You At 5.” Notoriously press-shy, Elordi showed up on the red carpet but mainly smiled to journalists from a distance.
The rest of Marrakech jury is equally prestigious, with “The Apprentice” filmmaker Ali Abbasi; Patricia Arquette; Indian director Zoya Akhtar; Belgian actor Virginie Efira; Moroccan actor Nadia Kounda, and Argentine director Santiago Mitre.
Abbasi got candid on the red carpet discussing the backlash over his Donald Trump movie “The Apprentice” which opened at the Cannes Film Festival and has been plagued by controversy. The film recently made headlines after Sebastian Stan, who plays Trump in the pic, revealed he couldn’t be part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series because no other talent wanted to be paired with him.
“I just think U.S. is back in the McCarthy period again. We’re in the back in the 1950s,” said Abbasi. “I don’t think the world is going to end because Mr. Trump has become President, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be less critical of him.”
In terms of talent roster, it’s the biggest edition so far for the Marrakech Film Festival which is led by the tireless French powerhouse Melita Toscan du Plantier ,whom Guadagnino referred to as “the queen of filmmakers” on stage. He also thanked her, as well as the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, and the Crown Prince, Moulay Hassan, for welcoming him.
Aside from the jury, Toscan du Plantier also invited Justine Triet, Tim Burton, David Cronenberg, Sean Penn, Alfonso Cuaron, Ava DuVernay and Justin Kurzel, among others, who will take part in masterclasses which are free and open to the public. Triet, Cuaron, Burton and Cronenberg were in attendance at the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony was followed by Justin Kurzel’s political thriller “The Order” starring Jude Law as a FBI agent fighting neo-Nazi terrorists. Kurzel, who came on stage with his producer Stuart Ford to introduce the movie, credited classic American films by Sidney Lumet and William Friedkin as “huge inspirations.”
“I love what they did with the genre of these particular films. They grounded them and they brought a messiness to the lead protagonists. The ways these characters fail in a way,” Kurzel said, adding that Law’s part in “The Order” is a “throwback to those great characters.” Kurzel has a long history with the Marrakech, having won the jury prize with his 2011 feature debut, “Snowtown.”
Curated by Remi Bonhomme, the 21st edition of the festival will screen 70 films from 32 countries, including 12 Moroccan films.
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