Cannes festival: in anticipation of gala awards ceremony

 May 22, 2011 - 14:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - South Korean director Kim Ki-Duk's wrenching cinematic self-portrait and a German drama about the final days of a dying man shared a coveted sidebar prize at Cannes on May 21, as the festival cruised toward its awards climax.

Iranian dissident Mohammad Rasoulof, 37, won the Un Certain Regard section's best director prize for "Goodbye", but authorities at home kept him from attending the world's top film festival, AFP reported.

The section's jury president, Serbian director Emir Kusturica, announced the winners for best picture, Kim's "Arirang" and "Stopped On Track" by Germany's Andreas Dresen, at a glittering ceremony. The runner-up award went to Russian film-maker Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Elena" about a docile woman in a relationship with an colder, wealthier man who learns he does not have long to live.

The Cannes Film Festival closes on May 22, and it has been an especially strong year. Even so, it's taken till this final weekend for critics to start muttering the M-word – "masterpiece". The longest, and arguably the slowest, film in the competition, the Turkish entry Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, is also the most substantial offering here, and a definite front-runner for the Palme d'Or.

The latest from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the film recounts a shambling police investigation, with the first hour cloaked in darkness and the crime scene reached only 90mins in – raising some sarcastic cheers. But this complex, beautifully crafted film has it all – laced with black humor, it's a character piece, a landscape study, a police procedural thriller and a philosophical contemplation, The Independent reported.

According to Screen, “The Kid with the Bike” by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, “The Tree of Life” – Terrence Malick, “Le Havre” – Aki Kaurismaki, “The Artist” – Michel Hazanavicius, as well as “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” – Nuri Bilge Ceylan are likely to win the Palme d'Or.