Nahuel Pérez Biscayart in "The Sentinel" by Ali Cherri. (Credit: Last Dream Production)
By Sunday night, one thing was clear in the halls of Cannes: with ''La Sentinelle,'' Ali Cherri may have delivered one of the Critics’ Week’s most striking entries — a mesmerizing short that lingers long after the screen fades to black.After other shorts like ''L’Intranquille'' (2013), ''Le Creuseur'' (2015), ''Le Guetteur'' (2024), and his feature ''Le Barrage'' (2022), the Lebanese filmmaker and visual artist here seems to reach a kind of apotheosis. Rarely has a 29-minute short so successfully captured something deeply contemporary with such accuracy, all while giving it the feel of a dreamlike, strange, and suspended nocturnal fable. Beneath its red neon lights reminiscent of David Lynch sets, austere military dorms, empty corridors, and an underground...
By Sunday night, one thing was clear in the halls of Cannes: with ''La Sentinelle,'' Ali Cherri may have delivered one of the Critics’ Week’s most striking entries — a mesmerizing short that lingers long after the screen fades to black.After other shorts like ''L’Intranquille'' (2013), ''Le Creuseur'' (2015), ''Le Guetteur'' (2024), and his feature ''Le Barrage'' (2022), the Lebanese filmmaker and visual artist here seems to reach a kind of apotheosis. Rarely has a 29-minute short so successfully captured something deeply contemporary with such accuracy, all while giving it the feel of a dreamlike, strange, and suspended nocturnal fable. Beneath its red neon lights reminiscent of David Lynch sets, austere military dorms, empty corridors, and an...