Laurent Cante, the French director of the film “Between the walls” (“Entre les mures”), which in 2008 won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and later claimed the Oscar for international film, has breathed his last at the age of 63.
No clear cause of death was given other than that Kante was suffering from “an illness” as stated by his agent.
A huge artistic success in its time, not only in France but throughout the world, the film “Between the walls” takes place in a multi-ethnic school in contemporary Paris and focuses on the difficulties that arise in the relationship between a teacher and his students. A film that every teacher should keep in mind, it is based on the experiences of the teacher Philippe Bigonto, who wrote the script and himself plays the role of the teacher in the film.
Scene from the movie “Between the Walls”
Inspired by a tragic incident that had shocked French public opinion, L. Cante’s second feature film “Free Time” (L’emploi du temps, 2001), shot two years after his feature debut, “Human dynamic” (Ressources humaines, 1999) is the one that made him known for the first time. It is the detailed, curious and at times exhausting psychograph of a dual personality: a man of about forty years (Aurelien Réguin), who, while attracted by the risk of uncertainty hidden behind the “permanent search”, at the same time, he does not want to disturb the emotional “comforts” that his familiar faces offer him. A reasonable question that arises is, of course, why does he do all this? The film doesn’t want to answer that, it just examines his case by following him as he walks the tightrope of his own making.
In “Return to Ithaca” (2014) Cante lets the past of five Cubans (between 50 and 60) unfold while they talk on a rooftop in Havana. The reason for the meeting was the return of a man after 16 years of exile in Madrid. Until dawn, Amadeo, Aldo, Tania, Rafa and Edi talk, dance, drink, smoke, comfort each other, get angry, sing and above all share… dreams, memories, feelings and stories of their strong friendship. The main reason behind the creation of this film is called Leonardo Padura. Cante met the famous writer in Cuba while working on the feature film Seven Days in Havana.
In 2017, Laurent Cante’s penultimate film, L’atelier, was played in our country. Set in a creative writing summer workshop somewhere in the South of France and with Robin Campillo on the screenplay (“120 beats a minute”), Cante here takes a pointed look at the youth of France at the time of the film, talking about the difficulty teenagers find the path they really want to take in their lives.
L. Kante’s last film is “Arthur Rambo” (2021). The film was screened at the Thessaloniki Film Festival but did not find commercial distribution in Greek theaters.
