The curtain went up on the 58th edition of the Festival de Cannes at the bidding of the mistress of ceremony Cécile de France and Jury President Emir Kusturica; the latter was of course in the company of the other Jury members: directors Agnès Varda, John Woo, Benoît Jacquot & Fatih Aki, actors Nandita Das, Javier Bardem & Salma Hayek as well as writer Toni Morrison. The Jury has the task of bestowing the Palme d'Or to one of the 21 feature films in the Official Selection.

Following the Opening Ceremony was the opening film Lemming from French director Dominik Moll, one of the three French films presented in competition this year, along with Peindre ou faire l'amour by Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu and Caché from Michael Haneke. This was Moll's second visit to the Croisette; he presented Harry's He's Here to Help in the year 2000. At his side on the red carpet were the stars from the film: Laurent Lucas, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling & André Dussollier

Lemming tells the story of Alain Getty, a brilliant young home automation engineer, and his wife Bénédicte having recently arrived in a new town, invite Alain's boss Richard Pollock and his wife Alice to dinner.

The encounter does not leave the young couple's harmony unscathed.

The discovery of a mysterious rodent's corpse blocking the waste pipe of their kitchen sink does nothing to help and portends the bursting of irrationality into a hitherto orderly life.
Bruno Chatelin