DEBUT DIRECTOR RALITZA PETROVA WINS LOCARNO GOLDEN LEOPARD

Eight of the 17 films receiving their respective world premieres as the official Concorso Internazionale at Locarno 2016 were from female directors, so it's fitting that one of them should take the top prize from such an inclusive festival. Bulgarian filmmaker Ralitza Petrova's debut feature film Godless won both the Pardo d'Oro and the prize for Best Actress; the film is also competing for the Heart of Sarajevo at the Sarajevo Film Festival this month. The film also took home the Ecumenical Prize. There were no awards for critics' fave Matias Pineiro and his film Hermia & Helena, with other main awards going to directors Radu Jude and Joao Pedro Rodrigues. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel's Mister Universo was a top pick for many juries, claiming four mentions. And Cannes Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake won the audience award. Congratulations to all the winners! Check out the films that competed at this link, and the films that succeeded below:

Concorso Internazionale

Golden Leopard

Godless (Ralitza Petrova)

Special Jury Prize

Scarred Hearts (Radu Jude)

Special Mention

Mister Universo (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel)

Leopard for Best Direction

Joao Pedro Rodrigues (The Ornithologist)

Leopard for Best Actor

Andrzej Seweryn (The Last Family)

Leopard for Best Actress

Irena Ivanova (Godless)

Awards from seven other sections of the festival after the cut.

REVIEW - AFERIM! (RADU JUDE)

A caustic picture of the past, all faux-nostalgic artifice stripped away by screenwriters Radu Jude and Florin Lazarescu's dedication to honesty and accuracy. Hard times in Aferim!, neither blankly nor romantically so, merely times which one muddles through, making the most as much one can. No-one today can truly say just how honest and accurate Jude is in his modest recreation, but the mask never slips, and a sense of simplicity and truthfulness sings through every moment and every scene. Aferim! is a typically non-flashy Romanian production, its principal virtue being its refusal to draw unnecessary attention to itself. Egregious prejudices are laid bare, acts of extraordinary cruelty are committed, and Jude's tightly-controlled yet resolutely objective touch never sensationalises. It's unsettling rather than shocking, an internal feeling of unease that is eventually revealed to be objectivity itself; Aferim! courts sympathy as much as disdain for the same characters, a curious conflict engendered by Jude's incisive inquiry into the effects of prejudice. 1826 Romania is a country beset by threats on all sides, its inhabitants retreating into senseless, dogmatic self-identification and outward objectification; their attitudes are loathsome, though only until tested. Aferim! slowly builds to a sequence where basic humanity and sympathy swiftly expunge all suggestion of enmity between oppressed peoples, and squares the blame solely on abusive authority. For all that it may cause discomfort, inescapably so, this is a distinctly humanistic film, and a singularly perceptive one too.