Caesarized for Timbuktu, loyal to Sissako, Amine Bouhafa gives the Sacem music lesson this Tuesday. A choice that contrasts with habits, and which says a lot.
It has become an unmissable event of the festival. Every year, Sacem organizes the Music Lesson, Buñuel room, where a great composer comes to talk about his profession, his scores, his relationship with image. Howard Shore with Scorsese, Philippe Rombi with Ozone, Alexandre Desplat with Del Toro… The lineage is prestigious, rather Hollywood, rather established. But this year, 180 degree turn: it’s Amine Bouhafa who takes the stage tomorrow at 2 p.m.
Franco-Tunisian, 39 years old, Caesarized forTimbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako in 2015, the composer has established himself as one of the most unique signatures of contemporary auteur cinema. Faithful to Sissakocollaborator of Kaouther Ben Hania (The Voice of Hind Rajab), of Philippe Faucon or from Katell Quillévéréit evolves light years away from the panzers of the Oscar-winning blockbuster which until now occupied the seat of the Buñuel room.
Bouhafa makes sensory cinema. He is a painter of sound, a goldsmith whose orchestra dialogues with the image and to whom, without folklore or cheap exoticism, the instruments of the world invite themselves. His music breathes, takes time, leaves room for silence – exactly what the cinema it accompanies demands.
In 2026, entrusting him with this lesson is not trivial. At a time when the Festival is under close political scrutiny, Cannes will not be able to just pretend. Inviting Bouhafa means taking a stand. His melodies, subtle, committed, crossed by the fractures of the world, often say more than long speeches. We hear Africa, the Mediterranean, exile, resistance – without pathos, without flag.
By offering him the Buñuel room, Sacem is doing more than renewing its casting: it is choosing a certain idea of cinema. Open, porous, contemporary. An idea that looks at the world as it is, and puts it to music.
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