Justin Kurzel’s neo-Nazi thriller The Order opened the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival on Friday evening, with the director jetting over from Australia where he recently wrapped WWII drama The Narrow Road to the Deep North with Jacob Elordi.
Kurzel told Deadline that the Moroccan festival had been a special place for him ever since he made the 24-hour trip from Australia in 2011 to compete with first feature, true crime drama Snowtown, which won the jury prize and best actor for Daniel Henshall.
“The French distributor pleaded for me to come. It’s a long away… she said, ‘You better come… the festival will change you.’ I did… and just the city, it’s really quite magical. It was the first time I was with first-time filmmakers, so I was able to establish a bit of a posse, a bit of tribe,” he said.
Kurzel was joined by AGC boss Stuart Ford, who produced The Order, alongside the director, the film’s star Jude Law and Bryan Haas. He is a regular visitor to the MENA region, scouting for talent and financing opportunities.
“We like to watch new movies locally and pick up new voices, new trends. It’s an exciting part of the world. There’s so much optimism and ambition here. The audiences are young, whether it’s at the Red Sea, Abu Dhabi, Qatar or here in Marrakech, there’s always a vibrancy,” he said.
Tim Burton and Monica Bellucci
Friday night’s red carpet also featured the jury, presided over by Luca Guadagnino and including Patricia Arquette, Virginie Efira, Elordi and Andrew Garfield, as well as Monica Bellucci, who is attending with Maria Callas: Letters and Memoirs, Tim Burton and David Cronenberg, who is being feted by the festival alongside Sean Penn this year.
Burton, who will participate in a conversation event on Saturday, said he was taking a breather after a busy few months rolling out hit Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and filming a second season of Wednesday.
The starry line-up – which will also feature Alfonso Cuarón and Ava DuVernay among others later on in the festival – is the work of the festival’s long-time director Melita Toscan du Plantier, who takes pride in the fact that the event does not pay its A-list guests to attend.
The well-connected producer revealed she had managed to secure Elordi for the jury after visiting the set of The Narrow Road to the Deep North in Australia, and then asking Kurzel to pull strings.
“The stars are with us after the difficult year of last year,” she said, referring to the fact that the last edition came together against the backdrop of the Hollywood actors strike as well as a devastating earthquake in the nearby Atlas Mountains just two months previously.
“People become friends of the festival. It’s a real festival, nobody’s paid here. People come for the quality of the festival, the films but also because it’s a real public,” she said.
Behind the glitz and the glamor, the festival has also built its reputation on its solid program mixing auteur fare, led by the main competition focused on first and second films, and high-profile festival hits including titles now in the awards season fray such as Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here and Mohamad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, with both directors due to attend.
At the opening ceremony, Guadagnino spoke fondly of his long love of Marrakech and the festival, as well as his familial ties with Morocco.
The director, whose latest film Queer has just released in the U.S., recalled how he had immediately fallen in love with Marrakech on his first visit some 20 years ago.
“I arrived on a direct flight from Rome in the middle night… I was completely carried away by Marrakech and immediately reconnected with my deep roots. My Algerian mother grew up in Casablanca… I’m half Moroccan,” he said to applause in theatre.
The festival gets into its stride on Saturday with in conversations featuring Anatomy of a Fall director Justine Triet and Burton; a tribute event for Sean Penn, featuring a screening of Gus Van Sant’s Milk; competition titles The Village Next To Paradise and One of Those Days When Hemme Dies and a special screening for Cannes 2024 hit All We Imagine As Light.