Greek director's competing film "The Lobster" screened at Cannes

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster was screened Friday for the official competition of the ongoing 68th Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival).

The movie is a love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of The City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.

The aim of the movie, according to the director, is to show different and various worlds, within which different groups had to follow very specific rules in certain ways like we do in our society.

Life for single people in our world can be tough after a certain age, said the director, adding that "there is always an awkwardness in social relationships between single people and couples."

"It's very subversive and funny and honest about relationships in a very stylized way, I like the absurd," said American actor John C. Reilly about the script, who is also in another movie selected for the main competition of this year's festival, Il Racconto Dei Racconti (Tale of Tales).

For Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, it was a great experience to have Lantimos "conduct and hypnotize" all the actors into his imagination world.

As the leading role in the movie, Irish actor Colin Farrell said the incredible detailed script helped him to get into the character in the movie where everybody lied and never said their minds.

This is the first time Yorgos Lanthimos competes in the main competition, but he won the Un Certain Regard prize in 2009 for his movie Dogtooth.

A total of 19 films were selected to compete for the top prize Palme d'Or. The 68th Festival de Cannes runs from May 13 to 24. Enditem