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| Diego Céspedes, centre, and his team from The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo, winner of the top award in Cannes Un Certain Regard Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
The jury of the Cannes Film Festival’s edgy Un Certain Regard strand, headed by British director Molly Manning Walker, have given their top award the Prix Un Certain Regard to first-time Chilean director Diego Céspedes for The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo, a study of a transgender community at the time of the Aids epidemic in the 1980s.
The film by no means attracted rave reviews from the critics but the jury praised it as being “raw and powerful and yet funny and wild”. In his own notes on the film Céspedes said: "I grew up with a terrifying idea of what AIDS was. But as I grew older, and also as I came to understand myself as gay, the world began to open up.
"I met dissident people who changed my perspective: people I see as deeply luminous beings. And I think that’s one of the most important aspects of this film: how these people survive – and help others survive – through love and the creation of chosen, non-biological families."
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| British director/writer Harry Lighton, flanked by actors Harry Melling, left, and Alexander Skarsgård awarded for best screenplay for Pillion Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
The runner-up Jury Prize also went to a Latin American film, A Poet, by Simón Mesa Soto, a black comedy about a poetry teacher trying to a coach a working class teen talent. The jury liked its “authenticity and subtle handling of morally questionable characters”.
The Best Director accolade was won by Palestinian twin brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser for Once Upon A Time In Gaza, about two young men drug peddling on the Gaza Strip in 2007. It was a popular choice with the Un Certain Regard audience who applauded their acceptance speech: “You have to tell them to stop the genocide. We regift this award to every single Palestinian.”
The brothers state film stemmed from "the constant inspiration we draw from our city, Gaza. It is the human essence that despite the occupation, siege, and inhumane conditions people endure there, their humanity remains at the core of their existence".
First-time British director Harry Lighton took Best Screenplay Award for his queer drama Pillion, with Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, which tells of an unremarkable young man who through the leader of a biker club, discovers the queer community. Cape Verdean actor Cléo Tiara was named best performer for her his work in I Only Rest In The Storm while the other acting gong went to British Frank Dillane for his turn as a homeless addict in Harris Dickinson’s Urchin.
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| Panda in The Love That Remains Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
Besides Manning Walker, the Jury included French-Swiss director and screenwriter Louise Courvoisier, Croatian director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam Vanja Kaludjercic, Italian director, producer and screenwriter Roberto Minervini and Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.
Elsewhere on the awards front the Palme Dog award for the best performance by a canine at the Festival (now in its 25th year) was given to Panda, an Icelandic sheepdog who stars in the family drama The Love That Remains by director Hlynur Palmason which played Out of Competition. The dog is the director’s own family pet.
The full list of awards:
- Prix Un Certain Regard: The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo (Diego Céspedes)
- Jury Prize: A Poet (Simón Mesa Soto)
- Best Screenplay: Harry Lighton (Pillion)
- Best Performances: Cléo Diara (I Only Rest In The Storm) and Frank Dillane (Urchin)
- Best Director: Tarzan and Arab Nasser (Once Upon A Time In Gaza)
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| One Upon a Time in Gaza scored Best Director award for brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
