Cannes 2026 Reviews: ‘The Unknown,’ ‘A Man of His Time,’ ‘The Samurai and the Prisoner’
When coming to the Cannes Film Festival, a number of factors go into selecting films to fill your viewing schedule for the two-week celebration of cinema. One that is primary for most is seeing the films that are in the main competition for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize honoring the best of the best within the lineup. Other factors include the discovery of new voices within film, the newest projects from masters of the form whom are looking to excite or intrigue audiences yet again, or personal projects that have taken years to get to the big screen and now are using the festival as a spotlight of their artist’s hard work to get their labor of love onto the big screen. In this dispatch, we explore three films that fit one, if not two or more, of those criteria, as The Unknown, A Man of His Time are new films in competition from directors Arthur Harari and Emmanuel Marre, while the other is the latest film from acclaimed filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, The Samurai and the Prisoner, which premiered with heightened anticipation within the Cannes Premiere section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival lineup.
The Unknown (Dir. Arthur Harari)
Hyped as being the most controversial title with the 2026 Cannes main competition, director Arthur Harari’s latest film (and follow-up project to co-writing the Oscar winning screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall with his partner in life and cinema, Justine Triet) finds himself loosely adapting the French graphic novel Le cas David Zimmerman, which he co-wrote with his brother Lucas Harari. With a fascinating premise, The Unknown starts with us meeting David (Niels Schneider), a Parisian photographer, who’s become a bit aimless within his day to day life. His life changes when working a photoshoot and he becomes fascinated with a beautiful hostess, Eva (Léa Seydoux); and follows her after her shift is over, taking photos of her; as a memento, keepsake or for a larger point of inspiration, we don’t know nor ever find out. Some time passes, and as David is invited to a party, he sees Eva from across the room, and their eyes lock, much like when David took her photo the last time they encountered each other. As David makes his way across the room, Eva guides him to a backroom, where the two of them find a place alone between the two of them, and have sex, leaving David both confused and satisfied in the process. But that one-night stand takes a turn for the worst when David wakes up the next day, and comes to find himself trapped within Eva’s body, as the effect of their intercourse caused them two parties to switch places. From this moment on, David (in Eva’s body) has to try to figure out who he is, while also find his body, which in the time of finding it, hooks up with a young woman named Malia (Lilith Grasmug), causing the entity to move into her body and forcing the real Malia into David’s body.
If it seems like a lot to take in as a premise to a film, you’d be right, as one paper, the Harari’s build an interesting device to hook the audience in once the body switches start happening. The problem is, that’s all they have as they waste this brilliant concept on a Michelangelo Antonioni rip-off that is neither as interesting as it should be or as topical as one would think or as bold of filmmaking as the director thinks he’s doing. In interviews leading up to this, Arthur Harari made it clear that The Unknown is about “identity,” but shied away from any connection to trans-identity or female identity, instead just simply looking at what it would be like to have people switch bodies within our modern world. The problem with this train of thought is what he makes is so simple, misguided, and prosperous that it actually loses any form of trying to make sense and can’t find what it is trying to say in the end because it abandons its original idea for misguided adventures our two characters go on for an agonizing 139-minute runtime. Seydoux and Schneider, fine actors within the own right, are completely wasted, and are window dressing for one of the ineptest films made of the decade so far, that also borderlines on offensive as it wastes not only these actor’s talents, but the time of the audience watching them go through the motions for Harari’s satisfaction. As a film critic, I’ve never once walked out of a screening in my life, but The Unknown almost became that first title for me to do so as it became as pointless of an exercise I’ve seen in recent memory.
Grade: D-
A Man of His Time (Dir. Emmanuel Marre)
In looking to the past, one can always take the lessons of a time long ago and relate or make peace with the times they live in, and find a sense of comfort in knowing that the struggles of today have always been there. In the case of Emmanuel Marre’s latest film A Man of His Time, the director explores the life of his great-grandfather Henri Marre (Swann Arlaud), through a bit of auto-fiction to put together an account of the man that inspired him, and whose life was taken away from his family because of the work he did within WWII for the French as the Nazi’s were taking over his country. But before he worked for the government, Henri was an idealist writer, whose book ‘Notre Salut’ (the French title of the film) was to be a rally cry for the country to read and form a new way of thinking post-WWI. But instead of becoming the great novelist or mind of his era, Henri was given a chance to run the department of unemployment, and slowly moved up the rank with the French government, using his influence to help his fellow country land jobs and drive his thriving nation forward. But as Emmanuel Marre suggests, his grandfather, who was an ultimate negotiator and was of the highest respect, became a shell of a man once the Nazi’s came in, and he, alongside his family, were left to flee once the bombs starting fall and the people they once shared a life with (their friends from around the world) were being rounded up and disappearing.
A Man of His Time is a pretty standard bio-pic that is elevated by Arlaud’s excellent, subtle performance as the director’s past relative. Arlaud’s calm demeanor and presence cares the shoulders of his internal pain of a man who is slowly becoming helpless in not being able to save the people he loves. It’s great work masked within a storyline that feels very by the book, and holds back some punches from the type of man that Marre is, given that his family is the one telling the story. But the film is mostly held back not because of its pacing, tone, or look (which is stellar work by cinematographer Olivier Boonjing) but the fact that the image we see is always within a steady camera shot that feels like, no matter how beautiful the image, is stuck looking like a period piece episode of The Office. It might’ve worked for a few segments of the film, but not for the full 155-minute runtime. It’s a shame because there is a promise within this piece, and could’ve landed a big emotional moment given how personal this film is for Marre. Instead, A Man of His Time is more educational than emotional, making it no different than any other WWII bio-pic we constantly see.
Grade: C
The Samurai and the Prisoner (Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Deep within the walls of the Arioka Castle in the Azuchi era of Japan during the late 16th century, Lord Murashige (Masahiro Motoki), alongside his wife and a few of his most loyal meant to their family name, have barricaded themselves in waiting for the aftermath of their decision to rebel against the Oda army. They are either expecting to fight the army they once swore an oath to and defeat them, or suffer a glorious death that is fitting of a samurai. But as they lay waiting in their castle, Kuroda Kanbei (Masaki Suda), a master strategist and one of the country’s most brilliant minds, breaches the wall to plea Murashige to surrender, with the hope that he can let leader’s men live and not have to suffer the punishment he will be receiving from Oda. Threatened by the request, Murashige orders his men to lock Kanbei up in the dungeons, to use a bargaining chip if things go south with Oda; which is against custom as a samurai normally would kill their enemy, but Murashige ignores such a request. As Kanbei is locked away, the death of a rival samurai’s child happens inside the walls of the castle, and without being able to figure out who caused this murder, alongside three other small mysteries, the samurai must consult his prisoner, in what turns into a “Sherlock Holmes”-esque historical mystery that dabbles into far more than just a simple whodunit.
Kurosawa, a director who has made a name for himself in the thriller, horror genre over the last couple of decades, takes his talents to the past to explore the lingering effects of how mysteries, truth, lies are the foundation that builds and tears down the powerful from within. As each mystery is unfolded throughout the film (some better than others), we not only get to see the brilliance of Motoki and Suda as actors on full display within these rich, thematically complex characters, but we get to see a master of the craft flex his muscles as a writer, with his most dialogue-focused film of his career, one that does include a few effective deaths within a battle sequence towards the end, but really shines as a chamber piece where the philosophy and history of the period is on full display within its main characters and their conflicts. While not his finest film of his career (or even this year, that would be Chime), Kurosawa continues to prove himself as a vital contemporary master of the craft that explores the essential fabric of his past and present in order to understand the future that is coming.
Grade: B+
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