Italian film about Mideast conflict wins Locarno film festival
Italian film about Mideast conflict wins Locarno film festival
Sat Aug 14, 8:53 PM ET
LOCARNO, Switzerland (AFP) - An Italian film, "Private", depicting the absurdities of life for a Palestinian family in the Israeli occupied territories, won the top Golden Leopard award at the Locarno film festival in Switzerland.
Twenty-nine year-old director Saverio Costanzo's first fiction film won over the whole seven member jury, which included French director Olivier Assayas, British critic David Robinson and Hong Kong director Yu Lik Wai.
The best actor prize went to Mohammad Bakri for his lead role in "Private", at a ceremony in the lakeside southern Swiss town.
The film focuses on Mohamed, whose home is wedged in between a Palestinian village and an Israeli military base.
When a Israeli army unit takes over the house, Mohamed and his family refuse to budge. The family end up in the living room, while the soldiers set up camp on the first floor.
Inspired by a real story, Costanzo betrays the vivid documentary style he has been used to so far in his observation of the Palestinian family's frustration, fear and resistance towards the Israeli intrusion.
With US documentary maker Michael Moore's surprise win at the Cannes Film festival with "Fahrenheit 9/11" in May still fresh in people's minds, the jury was asked if it had rewarded "Private's" subject matter or its artistic merits.
"We are looking for good films, it could be a good film because it has a strong story, a strong political message," Robinson said.
Assayas told AFP that "Private" was rewarded for its "formal qualities, in view of its original style".
"The selection was strongly coloured by films dealing with political subjects in a somewhat unconventional way, we are obliged to choose from the films that have been selected," he added.
Japanese director Jun Ichikawa's "Tony Takitani", was given the Special Jury Prize.
Fifty-six-year-old Ichikawa's fifteenth feature-length movie plunges into sadness as it watches Tony meet and marry Eiko, a young woman who is obsessed with clothes.
After she commits suicide, Tony puts out a newspaper advert looking for a woman who will accept to wear the hundreds of clothes Eiko had collected in her wardrobe.
Demonstrating meticulous care in its choice of scenery and costumes, "Tony Takitani" casts a stark eye on the solitary life of a lonely and haunted man.
Maria Kwiatowsky and Pinar Ercin won a joint best actress award for their role in the German director Ayse Polat's "En garde", which tells the story of Alice, a 16 year-old girl with a hearing disorder that amplifies sounds.
After being discarded by her mother, she is placed in a Roman Catholic home, where she befriends other girls.
The German film was awarded the Silver Leopard along with the Iranian movie "Dastan Natamam" (Story Undone) by Hassan Yektapanah, about a film-maker who protects the group of illegal migrants he was filming.
The 57th Locarno film festival -- which cannot match the size of Cannes, Berlin and Venice but thrives on a global outlook and a talent-spotting focus on young works -- was deliberately turned towards current affairs this year.
Festival Director Irene Bignardi said the films selected for the official competition sought to "unravel our era, to understand the reasons for, and the mysteries of the unstable world we are living in".
Locarno's annual film fest is also renowned for its night time, open air showing of new big-screen movies and re-edited oldies on the southern Swiss town's Italianate old square, which is watched by thousands.
