November 26, 2015 - 13:18 AMT
Jerzy Sladkowski doc “Don Juan” wins top prize at IDFA

Polish director Jerzy Sladkowski won the VPRO IDFA Award for best feature-length documentary (€12,500) for his film “Don Juan”, Variety reports. Described by the festival programmers as raising questions “about the distinction between introversion and autism,” the Swedish-Finnish co-production offers a seriocomic portrait of a 22-year-old student and his mother’s attempts, via therapy and psychiatry, to cure him of his slacker tendencies.

The Special Jury Award (€2,500), meanwhile, went to “Ukrainian Sheriffs” by Roman Bondarchuk. The Ukrainian/Latvian/German co-production puts the spotlight on a small Ukrainian village that hires two local men to be their police force, dealing with drunkenness, petty turf wars and stolen ducks as they patrol the area in their customized yellow Lada.