Mustang wins the Heart of Sarajevo
- Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s movie has emerged triumphant at the Bosnian festival, where Son of Saul and Chevalier were also honoured with awards, while Superworld was handed the Cineuropa Prize
The 21st Sarajevo Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday, after seven days celebrating cinema in the heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It crowned Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile] by young Turkish director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, one of the real sensations of the festival, as Best Film. The movie, which recounts the trials and tribulations of a group of teenage sisters who are shut away in the conservatism of deepest Turkey, went home with the Heart of Sarajevo, the main prize, which was given out by a jury chaired by Romanian filmmaker Călin Peter Netzer. In addition to this trophy, the Best Actress Award was bestowed upon the entire main cast, comprising young actresses Güneş Şensoy, Doga Doğuşlu, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, Elit İşcan and Ilayda Akdoğan. The gathering’s second most important award, the Special Jury Prize, ended up going to Son of Saul [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: László Nemes
interview: László Rajk
film profile], the frantic and merciless examination of the horrors of the Holocaust by László Nemes. The third most important, the Special Mention of the Jury, went to Chevalier [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the witty film by Athina Rachel Tsangari that plays around with the norms of masculinity (and society) by means of a boat trip taken by a group of friends, the entire cast of which (Yorgos Kéntros, Vangelis Mouríkis, Panos Kóronis, Makis Papadimitríou, Yorgos Pyrpassópoulos and Sakis Rouvás) also received the Best Actor Award.
The competitive Documentaries section celebrated the triumph of Toto and His Sisters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Romanian director Alexander Nanau, while the Hungarian title Tititá by Tamás Almási and Flotel Europa [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Vladimir Tomić pocketed the Special Jury Prize and the Special Mention of the Jury, respectively. The Human Rights Award, granted to the best documentary in the competition that deals with human rights-related topics, was given to One Day in Sarajevo [+see also:
film review
interview: Jasmila Žbanić
film profile], by Bosnia’s Jasmila Žbanić. The Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award, which was given out this year by US actor Danny Huston (read more), went to Chinese artist and director Ran Huang, who took part in the short-film competition at Cannes in 2014.
As for the parallel prizes, Cineuropa bestowed its prize upon Superworld [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karl Markovics
film profile], a portrait of the spiritual journey undertaken by a woman trapped within her everyday life, by Austrian director Karl Markovics. Meanwhile, the CICAE Award was handed to The High Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dalibor Matanic
interview: Tihana Lazovic
film profile], a depiction of love in (three) times of war, as seen by Croatian director Dalibor Matanić. The Audience Awards were given to the big winner, Mustang, in the main competition, and to Chasing a Dream, by Mladen Mitrović, in the documentary competition.
Lastly, Dušan Kasalica’s Montenegrin film A Matter of Will stood out in the short-film section, snagging the Heart of Sarajevo. Nermin Hamzagić, with Damaged Goods, and Ziya Demirel, with Tuesday, also got a mention in the list of award winners, together with Translator by Emre Kayiş, which received the nomination for Best Short Film at the next edition of the European Film Awards.
For more information, visit the festival’s website.
(Translated from Spanish)
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