The 72nd Festival international of the Berlin film awarded son golden bear prize on wednesday in spanish director At Carla Simon’s semi-autobiographical drama “Alcarras”, about a family of peach producers fight for their future.
This yearThe Berlinale was in-anybody for the first time in two years but lasted less competition than usual, with strict regulations for public just as COVID-19 infections peaked in Germany.
There were 18 films of 15 countries competetion for golden bear, with the jury headed by an American of Indian origin director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”).
Simon, 35, dedicated the prize to her familysaying that “without them and my closeness to this world I couldn’t have told story.”
The Berlinale is now the third grand european film festival in a row to award son Mountain peak prize to a female director after Cannes and Venice last year.
German-Turkish comedian Meltem Kaptan, 41, won that of the festival second always gender neutral acting prize for her performance in “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”.
german movie director Andreas Dresen tells true story of a mother is battle to bring it son back of Guantanamo Bay.
Kaptan dedicated the award “to all mothers whose love is stronger than borders.”
“Sneaky Humor”
On a big night for French womenla Claire Denis landed best director for “On both sides of the Blade”, a tense love story Who met starred Juliette Binoche as a woman caught in the middle men – son longtime partner Jean and son elusive ex Francois.
The Hollywood Reporter called it a “clever, brooding and superbly acted melodrama”, while Britain’s Screen Daily said Binoche and his co-star Vincent Lindon, who plays Jean, were “on top of their game.”
“The Novelist’s Film”, a low-key South Korean drama director Hong Sang-so with a small to throw of characters who reconnect by chance in the suburbs of Seoul, bagged second prize.
Variety called him a “gently devious, conversation-focused charmer,” while The Hollywood Reporter praised son “sneaky humor and his ideas about insecurities of the artistic process.”
Third prize went to “Dress of Gems”, a serious Mexican crime writer’s drama-director Natalia Lopez Gallardo exploring the trauma inflicted on families in Mexico when loved ones go missing.
the award for best screenplay went to Laila Stieler for her work on “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush.”
“Everything will be fine”, the exploration of Cambodian Rithy Panh of a dystopian future where animals have enslaved humans and taken over the world, won a silver bear for artistic contribution.
And Michael Koch’s meditation on death and the loss set in the Alps, “A Piece of Heaven”, received a special citation.
“Vulnerable Childhood”
Together in Catalonia, “Alcarras” follows the story of the Sole clan, a grand welded group family who spend their summers picking peaches in their orchard in a small town.
But when they are threatened with deportation due to new plans for the land, which includes cutting down peach trees and the installation of solar panels, the family members start walk away.
Variety called it a “charming and bittersweet farm drama”, praising “the warm affinity of Simon for this landscape alternately parched and verdant.”
“I think that way of agriculture does not have grand thing of a future”, Simon told Agence France-Presse (AFP) before of the first one of the film on Tuesday.
” There is very little price regulations, there are more and more big companies that cultivate … Only in organic farming do I see some hope, because it’s kind of of farming difficult to do in a big way,” she said.
Simon also says she likes to work with children for the film.
“It’s natural for me, I think it should do with the fact that I had a somewhat vulnerable childhood, I identify with them,” she said.
