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'Peaky Blinders' star Joe Cole and director Clio Barnard on class, masculinity and modern Britain

Premiering in the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival, "I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning" is Clio Barnard's adaptation of Keiran Goddard's acclaimed novel about five childhood friends from working-class Birmingham whose lives have drifted far from the futures they once imagined. "Peaky Blinders" actor Joe Cole stars as Rian – the one who escaped, made money and seemingly "made it", only to discover that success cannot free him from the place he came from.

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Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu on the film that conquered Cannes

Nearly 20 years after his first Palme d’Or, Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu once again takes the festival's top prize for β€œFjord” – a film exploring the tensions between religious conservatism and social liberalism. It stars β€œMarvel” actor Sebastian Stan and Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve as parents accused of domestic abuse. Before the big win, Eve Jackson sat down with Mungiu and Reinsve in Cannes.

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100 years after GaudΓ­'s death, the Sagrada FamΓ­lia rises

One hundred years after his death, Antoni GaudΓ­Β remainsΒ one of the world's most influential architects and the creator of Barcelona's most iconic landmarks. In this special edition of arts24, Eve Jackson travels to the Catalan capital to explore the extraordinary legacy of the visionary behind the Sagrada FamΓ­lia, ParkΒ GΓΌellΒ and Casa BatllΓ³. Through exclusive access, interviews with the architects continuing his unfinished masterpiece and a journey through the buildings that shaped modern Barcelona, discover why GaudΓ­'s imagination still captivates millions a century later.Β 

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AI feature film on Iran’s protest movement makes festival history

A film about Iran's protest movement is making cinema history. "Dreams of Violets" is the first fully AI-generated feature film ever selected by a major international film festival. The 75-minute drama will premiere at New York's Tribeca Festival next week. Created by Iranian-British director Ash Koosha from his home in London, the film took just three months to produce and cost less than 2,000 euros. There were no actors, no cameras, no sets and no film crew. Koosha says the film simply could not have been made through conventional means. Living in exile and unable to safely film inside Iran, he turned to AI to recreate events linked to the country's deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters. The film is based on journalistic reports, photographs and eyewitness accounts, and explores themes of memory, censorship and resistance. But as Tribeca becomes the first major festival to embrace a fully AI-generated feature, the film is also reigniting a fierce debate. Can artificial intelligence tell deeply human stories? Does AI democratise filmmaking or threaten the future of the industry? Eve Jackson speaks to Ash Koosha about Iran, ethics and the future of cinema.

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