Out of Competition: “Boarding Gate” by Olivier Assayas

With the Out of Competition presentation of Boarding Gate, French director Olivier Assayas, a regular who has presented three others in the Cannes Festival Competition,
Sentimental Destinies in 2000, Demonlover in 2002 and Clean in 2004, is back on the Croisette. This latest film features an international cast
– Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Loong Ng, Kelly Lin – in a thriller that follows the destiny of Sandra, a young Italian rebel who leaves Hong Kong after her lover dies and then
finds herself in a sordid game of manipulation.

Talking about how Boarding Gate came about, Olivier Assayas explained: “A news brief caught my eye about the murder of French financier Edouard Stern during an S&M
session. It seemed right out of my film Demonlover. I also thought about a woman on the run, trying to escape both the murder and the past. I wanted the second part to be about
her escape, her being desperate and on the move. I knew the first part could pretty much take place in any Western city. But the second part had to be in Hong Kong.”

Photo copyright Anne-Laure Bigot