Joe Blog

The 13th European Film Festival South Africa is here. Over 10 days across 4 cities, audiences will have the opportunity to see some of the best films in current European cinema, fresh from Cannes, Venice, Berlin and beyond. Featuring award-winning films by giants of European cinema alongside bold new voices and starring Europe’s biggest names: this year’s films follow families of all kinds – biological, chosen, broken, rebuilding – fighting to hold together and carve out a future against everything working to pull them apart.
ALL FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS WILL BE SCREENED WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
SEE THE FULL BIOSCOPE PROGRAM HERE
The Beloved (Spain)
Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Psychological Drama. 2hrs 15mins.
Javier Bardem gives a quiet but complex performance as the fictional, acclaimed mercurial Spanish film director Esteban Martínez, who after years spent winning Oscars and awards overseas, returns to his homeland to film a colonial-era period drama set in Western Sahara. Opening with a slow-burning but emotionally intense 20-minute meeting between Esteban and his estranged daughter Emilia (Victoria Luengo), director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s quietly bubbling drama finds its meaning in looks, pauses and Hitchcockian power games. Though he hasn’t seen her in over a decade, Esteban hopes that his genuine offer to his now adult, actress daughter will help them to reconnect and rebuild their relationship. When Emilia, not without reservations, agrees to her father’s request - they soon find themselves in the desert, cautiously watching, learning about and frustrating each other as they head towards an inevitable confrontation that will unleash years of pain and trauma on everyone around them.
Cannes Première – Official Selection, Festival de Cannes 2026. World premiere at the Festival de Cannes on 16 May 2026.