Incredibly familiar with the higher echelons of the Cannes Film Festival given that it’s boasted at least one Palme d’Or contender in its line-up no less than ten times over the past 20 years, French international sales agent Playtime has no intention of breaking a good habit for the 78th edition of the event (running 13 to 24 May), since the Marché du Film will see the firm negotiating on behalf of Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic which is due to world premiere in competition.

This work is the third chapter in the Cairo-based trilogy by the Swedish filmmaker of Egyptian origin (revealed in Venice’s International Critics’ Week in 2009 via Metropia [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tarik Saleh
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ficha de la película] (awarded Cannes’ Best Screenplay Prize in 2022), a director whom Cineuropa met in Paris back in January (read our interview). Notably starring Lebanese-Swedish talent Fares Fares (the director’s favourite actor), French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri and their French-Moroccan peer Zineb Triki, Eagles of the Republic (whose screenplay was penned by Tarik Saleh) revolves around Egypt's most adored actor, George Fahmy, who is pressured to star in a film commissioned by the highest authorities. He reluctantly accepts the role and finds himself thrown into the inner circle of power. Like a moth drawn to the flame, he begins an affair with the mysterious wife of the general overseeing the movie… The film’s music is composed by Oscar-winner Alexandre Desplat, while production falls to Swedish firms Apparaten and Unlimited Stories alongside French outfit Memento Production (whose arm Memento Distribution will manage the film’s release in French cinemas on 23 October) and Denmark’s Ström Pictures.

The Playtime team steered by Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Sébastien Beffa and François Yon will be wagering on a second trump card in the Official Selection in the form of The Richest Woman in the World by French director Thierry Klifa, a Récifilms production co-produced by Versus Production (Belgium) which will be presented out of competition with its star Isabelle Huppert (flanked by Marina Foïs and Laurent Lafitte, among others) heading up proceedings. The film’s release in France will be overseen by Haut et Court on 29 October.

Playtime’s Cannes line-up also includes a market premiere of Chopin, A Sonata in Paris by Poland’s Michał Kwieciński and a continuation of presales on several post-production titles: The Rembrandt Syndrome by French director Pierre Schoeller (article), C'est si bon! by fellow French director Diane Kurys, In A Whisper by Tunisia’s Leyla Bouzid, Gorgonà by Greece’s Evi Kalogiropoulou and Five Seconds by Italy’s Paolo Virzì (article).