War Pony and Rebel Receive Acclaim At The 2022 Cannes Film Festival
Amidst early praise, the two CAVIAR projects made their festival debut at Cannes.
Two CAVIAR films, War Pony and Rebel, made an impression at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. War Pony made its premiere in the festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar and was awarded the Camera D’or, as well as the Palm D’og for poodle Brittany’s performance. Rebel debuted with the Midnight Screenings strand and received high praise from critics.
War Pony, written by Gina Gammell, Riley Keough, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, and directed by Gammell and Keough, follows the stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Bound by their shared search for belonging, the two young men grapple with a world built against them as they navigate their unique paths to manhood.
The film marks Gammell and Keough’s directorial debut, though Keough has previously starred in notable films including Zola and The Girlfriend Experience. Despite this being their first time behind the camera, the duo approached this distinctly Native American story with tact and authenticity that’s often missing from similar projects. “We were just trying to lead with our hearts and be as mindful and responsible in every moment as we could be,” Keough told Variety. The project was born naturally out of years-long relationships, making it possible to write with representation and reciprocity at top of mind. “There is a way to responsibly collaborate or collaborate with love, because I think that — historically — these sorts of collaborations have been done as transactional, not sustainable and, frankly, hurtful,” added Gammell.
Not only was the film recognized at Cannes, War Pony has received high praise in Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter, among others.
Rebel, a personal story from directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and co-writers Jan Van Dyck and Kevin Meul, follows Kamal, a young man who despite his resolve to help Syrian war victims is forced to join the militia. While Kamal’s younger brother Nassim becomes a target for radical recruiters promising to reunite him with his brother, their mother Leila fights to protect her son and his future.
Initially set to shoot in the directors’ home country of Morocco, Rebel had to relocate when the country closed its borders due to COVID. The crew ended up in Jordan, which proved to be a blessing in disguise. “We got lucky that we went to Jordan because we were at the center of it all; outside the capital of Jordan was the border of Syria, in 30 kilometers there was Iraq, in 30 kilometers, Israel,” says producer Dimitri Verbeeck. “So you’re really in the heart of the whole conflict.” Ultimately, being so close to it all, as well as interacting closely with many Syrian refugees, worked in favor of the story’s ultimate goal. “We got to see the evolution of what happened in this historical moment in the lead up to the war in Syria and we wanted to tell that story,” El Arbi told Deadline. “We wanted to tell the story of how romantic and heroic Jihad might seem at first glance and how religion is used as a weapon.”
El Arbi and Fallah previously worked with CAVIAR on another production: Black, a Romeo & Juliet-type drama set in the world of organized crime in Belgium. The duo also directed the blockbuster Bad Boys For Life in 2020.
Congratulations to the teams behind both of these outstanding films.