SERGEI LOZNITSA

The war in Ukraine took a starring role on the opening night of the 75th Cannes Film Festival and it has rarely been far out of frame since.

After a canceled 2020 edition and a scaled back gathering last year, the Cannes Film Festival kicked off Tuesday which what organizers hope will be a fully resuscitated French Riviera spectacular.

After the 2020 Cannes Film Festival was canceled by the pandemic and the 2021 edition was scaled back — even kisses were forbade on the red carpet — the lavish French Riviera cinema soiree is set to return with a festival that promises to be something like normal.

With tensions around the war in Ukraine as a backdrop, the Cannes Film Festival plans to host some 35,000 people as the movie industry looks to reclaim its pre-pandemic glamour.

Sergei Loznitsa, the director of Donbass, charges headlong at Ukrainian history’s sensitive topics.