Entertainment Desk, Delhi Magazine: The film “Regra 34”, the third feature film by Brazilian director Júlia Murat, won the Golden Leopard, the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival, the jury of the main competition announced today at the closing ceremony.
With an appeal to the defense of democracy, difference and dialogue, and a criticism of the “fascist government” of Jair Bolsonaro, Júlia Murat thanked the award, recalling that the previous and only Golden Leopard won by a feature film in Brazilian cinema it dates from 1967, when he distinguished “Terra em Transe”, by Glauber Rocha, and the country was under a military dictatorship (1964-1984).
“A dictatorship that lasted another 17 years”, recalled Murat, wishing “sincerely that we now have a different story”. “I hope that we are able to stop the madness of this fascist government”, said Júlia Murat, already distinguished at the Berlin festival for her previous film, “Pendular”.
Without prizes for “Nação Valente”, by Carlos Conceição, selected for the official competition, this is how “Gigi la Legge”, by the Italian Alessandro Comodin, Special Jury Prize, which somehow guarantees a Portuguese presence in the main achievements: the film it was edited by the director João Nicolau, to whom Comodin also thanked him.
The largest number of awards, however, was collected by “Tengo Sueños Eléctricos”, from Costa Rican Valentina Maurel, with three Leopards: Best Director, Best Actress (Daniela Marín Navarro) and Best Actor (Amien Gutiérrez).
In the competition dedicated to Filmmakers of the Present, the Golden Leopard distinguished “Nightsiren”, by the Slovak director Tereza Nvotová, while the Special Jury Prize and the Leopard for Best Actress went to the film “How Is Katia?”, by the Ukrainian filmmaker Christina Tynkevych, and its protagonist, Anastasia Karpenko, who left an appeal for their country: “Pray for Ukraine! ‘Slavia’ Ukraine!”
In this section, Croatian Juraj Lerotic won the Leopard for Best Achievement and the Best First Work Award, for “Safe Place”.
View this post on Instagram
In the short films, from the Pardi di Domani section, the Cuban “Soberane”, by Wara, and the Franco-Brazilian production “Big Bang”, by Carlos Segundo, were distinguished.
The Critics’ Week Grand Prize went to the documentary “The Hamlet Syndrome”, by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski, a German-Polish co-production that took Ukraine back to the closing session, with the story of a Kiev company that tries to mount Shakespeare’s tragedy.
“Stone Turtle” by Ming Jin Woo from Malaysia won the FIPRESCI award from the International Federation of Film Critics.
Portuguese cinema was represented in Locarno with “Nação Valente”, by Carlos Conceição, in the official competition, and with the extra-competition premiere of the documentaries “Where is this street? Or without before or after”, by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, and “Objects of Light”, by Acácio de Almeida.
Director Daniel Soares premiered the ‘short’ “Please make it work”, which resulted from an academic residency at the festival.
The feature film “Our Lady of the Chinese Shop”, by Ery Claver, an Angolan production by the independent film collective Geração 80, was also premiered in Locarno.
The jury of the main Locarno competition – international competition – was composed of producers and directors Michel Merkt, Prano Bailey-Bond, Alain Guiraudie, William Horberg and Laura Samani. The 75th edition of the Locarno Film Festival began on the 3rd and ends today.