Barbarians victorious at Karlovy Vary

Radu Jude takes home Crystal Globe.

by Amber Wilkinson

"I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians" takes top prize in Karlovy Vary
"I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians" takes top prize in Karlovy Vary Photo: Courtesy of KVIFF
Radu Jude's “’I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians’” („Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari”) took home the top prize Crystal Globe at the 53rd Karlovy Vary Film Festival last night.

Rain Man director Barry Levinson, Czech character actor Jaromir Hanzlik and British star Robert Pattinson also picked up honorary Crystal Globes. Tim Robbins also received an honorary award earlier in the week.

Barbarians, which considers a Romanian war atrocity, had earlier won Europa Cinemas Label Award for best European film. Ana Katz's Sueño Florianópolis - which had taken home the FIPRESCI prize earlier in the day - also won a Special Prize from the main jury, while Olmo Omerzu won the directing prize for his teen road trip film Winter Flies (Vsechno bude).

The acting awards went to Mercedes Morán for Sueño Florianópolis and Moshe Folkenflik for Redemption.

Jury special mentions went to Ivan I Tverdovskiy's crime drama Jumpman and Sonja Prosenc's coming-of-ager History of Love.

Suleiman Mountain (Suleiman gora) took home the top prize in the East of the West parallel section. Directed by Elizaveta Stishova, the Kyrgystan/Russian co-production tells the story of a scheming ex-con, his two wives and the young son he thought he’d lost. A special jury prize went to László Csuja's Blossom Valley (Virágvölgy).

The best documentary went to Vitaly Mansky for his reconsideration of Russian president Vladimir Putin's rise to power in Putin’s Witnesses (Svideteli Putina), with Daniel Zimmermann taking home a special jury prize for Walden.

Rain Man won the Audience Award.

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