Occidental (film)

Occidental is a 2017 French drama film written and directed by Neïl Beloufa. The film premiered at the 2017 Angers Premiers Plans.[1] It also showed in the Forum section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in 2017[2] and the Wavelengths strand of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.[3]

Occidental
Directed byNeïl Beloufa
Written byNeïl Beloufa
Produced byJacques Dodart
Hugo Jeuffrault
Pierre Malachin
Starring
  • Idir Chender
  • Anna Ivacheff
  • Paul Hamy
  • Louise Orry-Diquero
  • Hamza Meziani
  • Brahim Tekfa
CinematographyGuillaume le Grontec
Edited byErmanno Corrado
Music byGrégoire Bourdeil
Alexandre Geindre
Production
companies
Bad Manners
Le Fresnoy Studio National des Αrts Contemporains
Distributed byFilm Movement
Release date
  • January 2017 (2017-01) (Angers)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Plot

Two suspicious men, posed as Italians are trying to rent a room for a night at Hotel Occidental. Diana, who is the hotel's manager, assumes that they are possibly thieves, but can't prove it. Due to the lack of evidence she let them stay a night, while her colleagues became very suspicious of her. While all this going on, receptionist Romy and his colleague Khaled flirt with the guests. All this is happening while a violent political protest is staged outside for an unknown reason.

Cast
  • Idir Chender as Antonio
  • Anna Ivacheff as Diana
  • Paul Hamy as Giorgio
  • Louise Orry-Diquero as Romy
  • Hamza Meziani as Khaled
  • Brahim Tekfa as Karim
  • Françoise Cousin as Sophie
  • Pierre Rousselet as Christophe
  • Geoffrey Carey as M. Dubreuil
  • Brune Renault as Vanessa
  • Christophe Perez as CRS 2

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has a score of 80% based on reviews from 5 critics, with an average rating of 6/10.[4]

Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter called Occidental "A visually and sonically striking ensemble piece that plays mischievous games with audience expectations".[5]

Christopher Machell of Cine Vue wrote "Occidental may not offer much in the way of coherence or thematic depth, but its surreal and charming qualities are more than enough to recommend this bizarre farce".[6]

Awards

References
  1. Lemercier, Fabien (20 January 2017). "The future of European film in bloom at Premiers Plans". Cineuropa. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  2. "Occidental". Berlin International Film Festival. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  3. "Occidental". Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  4. "Occidental (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  5. Dalton, Stephen (10 February 2017). "'Occidental': Film Review - Berlin 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  6. Machell, Christopher (8 September 2017). "Toronto 2017: Occidental review". Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  7. "Queer Lisboa - 1997-2019" (PDF). Queer Lisboa International Queer Film Festival. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.


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