On Wednesday, the official competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival begins, in an edition that brings together the glamour of stardom and the weight of humanitarian and political issues, alongside the screening of a moving film outside the competition that addresses the final days of the French teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed in 2020.

The film portrays a series of events that led to the assassination of the history and geography teacher after he showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during one of his lessons, before being killed in an attack carried out by a radicalized Chechen youth in France.

Actor Antoine Reinartz portrays Paty, while his sister Mickaëlle Paty, who co-wrote the screenplay, is expected to attend the red carpet alongside the film crew and director Vincent Garenq.

A scene from La Croisette on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival opening. (AFP)

Today, the official competition screenings begin with the films “Nagi Diary” by Japanese director Koji Fukada and “A Woman’s Life” by director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet.

The festival continues its packed program featuring prominent names, as Thursday will see the screening of the latest film by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, with a cast including several well-known actors. German actress Sandra Hüller is also expected to draw attention on the red carpet, just a few months after winning the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

Hüller plays the lead role in the latest film by Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski, which explores the return of German writer Thomas Mann to Germany after the end of World War II.