Cannes 2019: Shamoon Abbasi to attend the opening ceremony of Directors’ Fortnight

Last week, it was reported that actor-director Shamoon Abbasi’s upcoming directorial venture, titled Durj, will be screened at the prestigious Cannes 2019.

To confirm the news, Instep got in touch with Shamoon Abbasi, who shared that Durj has entered phase one of the Cannes 2019 screening. Abbasi also revealed that he will be attending the opening ceremony of Directors’ Fortnight, which is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival and is organized by the French Directors’ Guild.

“The film was recently submitted for review by the Societe Des Realisateurs De Films (The Society of Film Directors) and eventually it will be part of the competition at the prestigious Festival De Cannes this year,” he said.

Talking about Directors’ Fortnight, Abbasi informed, “We sent a short version of Durj, which is based on real events and explores the genre of cannibalism, to be selected in the Directors’ Fortnight screening and they liked it, and invited me to attend the Opening Ceremony on May 14. To be part of the Guild, you need to submit a certain fee and they sent me a letter of invitation.”

He further went on to say that the film is not yet in the competition but they have their fingers crossed. “Now that Durj has come this far, we are hoping that it will become part of the main competition as well,” Abbasi said, adding that the team have worked hard on Durj and it is finally making its way to the world.

The film features Shamoon Abbasi and Sherry Shah in lead roles along with Myra Khan, Nouman Javaid and Majid Khan (Dodi) among others.