Mektoub, My Love

Abdellatif Kechiche is a distinctive filmmaker, best known for Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013), which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. He has divided audiences with his ambitious and controversial Mektoub project. The first instalment, Canto Uno (2017), premiered in Venice and became a major talking point among critics and cinephiles. The middle chapter, Intermezzo (2019), was both a sensation and a scandal at its Cannes premiere. The director’s depiction of sex in general — and one scene of unsimulated sex in particular — sparked intense debate, and a lack of financing meant the film never received international distribution. Now Canto Due has arrived, and following its premiere in Locarno, it has received widespread acclaim.

Kosmorama presents Canto Uno and Canto Due, which stand strong without the intermediate film. After the screening of Canto Due, there will be an in-theatre conversation with film editor and Montages editor Karsten Meinich, and Kosmorama’s Head of Film, Mads Outzen.

The year is 1994, and young aspiring screenwriter Amin returns to his hometown of Sète in southern France for the summer holidays, spending time with family and friends. He reconnects with both old and new acquaintances, including his best friend Ophélie, for whom he harbours secret feelings — even though she is already engaged and involved with his cousin. What does fate have in store? Abdellatif Kechiche places human encounters at the centre, capturing them with an unusually sensual, lingering, and vibrant cinematic language.

During the summer in Sète, Amin unexpectedly meets an American film producer who becomes fascinated by his screenplay. The producer wants to turn it into a feature film — casting his own wife in the lead role. But fate has other plans… In Canto Due, Kechiche continues the story he began in Canto Uno. The film explores interpersonal relationships with the same striking, deliberate, and immersive aesthetic as the first instalment. The material was shot nearly ten years ago, and now the completed film is finally ready for the big screen.