’Milk of Sorrow’ captures Berlinale film fest top prize
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 17, 2009 00:00
BERLIN - This year’s top prize of Berlin Film Festival, Golden Bear, went to a Peruvian director Claudia Llosa for ’The Milk of Sorrow.’ The moving drama was the first competition entry from Peru in the 59-year history of the Berlinale festival and director’s second feature.
The Berlin Film Festival wrapped up Sunday after handing its Golden Bear top prize to a Peruvian director for "The Milk of Sorrow," a film about the scars left by two decades of civil strife in Peru.
The moving drama by Claudia Llosa, 32, was the first competition entry from Peru in the 59-year history of the Berlinale festival.
"This is for Peru. This is for our country," she said, hoisting the statue in the air and joined on stage by her lead actress, Magaly Solier.
The Spanish-Peruvian production is Llosa's second feature. She later told reporters that she hoped the prize would ensure its distribution in cinemas around the world. "We need this prize," Llosa said. "It is important for us that people get to know our film."
The picture tells the story of Fausta, who drinks "the milk of sorrow" as an infant after her mother's brutal rape during the 1980 to 2000 war between the Peruvian army and Shining Path guerrillas.
As a grown woman, Fausta must face the fears that bloody period left behind, symbolized by her struggle to give her mother a proper burial after she died early in the film.
"I have to thank my mother to no end, all the women, and all of you. I dedicate this prize to my mother and all of Peru," Solier said, before singing a song from the movie in her native Quechua language.
Political dimension
The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established in 2001, recorded nearly 70,000 murders and countless rapes and abductions during the government's battle with the Maoist rebels.
Oscar-winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton said the jury's decision had been unanimous. The German press hailed the choice.
"They not only honored explorations of the human soul that were as sensual as they were painful, but also their unostentatious social relevance," the daily Tagesspiegel said Sunday.
"The Milk of Sorrow" beat out favorites including "The Messenger" starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster as GIs tasked with notifying loved ones of soldiers who had fallen in battle in Iraq.
The film picked up a screenwriting prize for its directors, Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon.
Silver Bear for ’London River’
The Silver Bear prize for best actor went to Sotigui Kouyate of Mali for his role in "London River" as a Muslim father searching for his son in the wake of the July 2005 public transport bombings in the British capital.
The 72-year-old thanked the festival and said, "Every organization like the Berlinale that allows people to meet and encounter each other's cultures does a good deed for the world today."
Austria's Birgit Minichmayr captured the prize for best actress, playing a woman in a doomed relationship in the German drama "Everyone Else," which also shared a runner-up prize for best picture with "Gigante" by Argentina's Adrian Biniez. Iran's Asghar Farhadi won the Silver Bear for best director for his drama "About Elly" about a woman who vanishes on a beach getaway with friends. In an incisive look at relations between the sexes in the Islamic republic, the disappearance leaves a group of chic urbanites weaving an intricate web of lies to keep up the appearance of maintaining traditional social mores.
Eighteen pictures competed for the Golden and Silver Bear prizes in what critics said was a lackluster year at the festival.
Swedish art house hero Lukas Moodysson garnered boos with his flat, incoherent "Mammoth" starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, and critics savaged British director Sally Potter's "Rage," a satire of the fashion industry featuring Jude Law in drag as a supermodel called Minx.
Festival Director Dieter Kosslick, who just extended his contract until 2013, defended his choices against the howling critics.
"One of the duties of a film festival is to follow a director on his or her career. They don't only make masterpieces, " Kosslick told the Hollywood Reporter this week.
The 11-day festival ranks second only to Cannes in size and prestige. Last year the Golden Bear also went to a Latin American film, "Elite Squad," a Brazilian drama about police brutality.
The moving drama by Claudia Llosa, 32, was the first competition entry from Peru in the 59-year history of the Berlinale festival.
"This is for Peru. This is for our country," she said, hoisting the statue in the air and joined on stage by her lead actress, Magaly Solier.
The Spanish-Peruvian production is Llosa's second feature. She later told reporters that she hoped the prize would ensure its distribution in cinemas around the world. "We need this prize," Llosa said. "It is important for us that people get to know our film."
The picture tells the story of Fausta, who drinks "the milk of sorrow" as an infant after her mother's brutal rape during the 1980 to 2000 war between the Peruvian army and Shining Path guerrillas.
As a grown woman, Fausta must face the fears that bloody period left behind, symbolized by her struggle to give her mother a proper burial after she died early in the film.
"I have to thank my mother to no end, all the women, and all of you. I dedicate this prize to my mother and all of Peru," Solier said, before singing a song from the movie in her native Quechua language.
Political dimension
The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established in 2001, recorded nearly 70,000 murders and countless rapes and abductions during the government's battle with the Maoist rebels.
Oscar-winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton said the jury's decision had been unanimous. The German press hailed the choice.
"They not only honored explorations of the human soul that were as sensual as they were painful, but also their unostentatious social relevance," the daily Tagesspiegel said Sunday.
"The Milk of Sorrow" beat out favorites including "The Messenger" starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster as GIs tasked with notifying loved ones of soldiers who had fallen in battle in Iraq.
The film picked up a screenwriting prize for its directors, Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon.
Silver Bear for ’London River’
The Silver Bear prize for best actor went to Sotigui Kouyate of Mali for his role in "London River" as a Muslim father searching for his son in the wake of the July 2005 public transport bombings in the British capital.
The 72-year-old thanked the festival and said, "Every organization like the Berlinale that allows people to meet and encounter each other's cultures does a good deed for the world today."
Austria's Birgit Minichmayr captured the prize for best actress, playing a woman in a doomed relationship in the German drama "Everyone Else," which also shared a runner-up prize for best picture with "Gigante" by Argentina's Adrian Biniez. Iran's Asghar Farhadi won the Silver Bear for best director for his drama "About Elly" about a woman who vanishes on a beach getaway with friends. In an incisive look at relations between the sexes in the Islamic republic, the disappearance leaves a group of chic urbanites weaving an intricate web of lies to keep up the appearance of maintaining traditional social mores.
Eighteen pictures competed for the Golden and Silver Bear prizes in what critics said was a lackluster year at the festival.
Swedish art house hero Lukas Moodysson garnered boos with his flat, incoherent "Mammoth" starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, and critics savaged British director Sally Potter's "Rage," a satire of the fashion industry featuring Jude Law in drag as a supermodel called Minx.
Festival Director Dieter Kosslick, who just extended his contract until 2013, defended his choices against the howling critics.
"One of the duties of a film festival is to follow a director on his or her career. They don't only make masterpieces, " Kosslick told the Hollywood Reporter this week.
The 11-day festival ranks second only to Cannes in size and prestige. Last year the Golden Bear also went to a Latin American film, "Elite Squad," a Brazilian drama about police brutality.