'Genç Pehlivanlar' wins Special Mention Award at Berlinale
by Daily Sabah with Reuters
ISTANBULFeb 22, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah with Reuters
Feb 22, 2016 12:00 am
Mete Gümürhan's "Genç Pehlivanlar" (Young Wrestlers), which has become the very first Turkish documentary to be chosen for the "Generation" section won the "Special Mention" award at the Berlin Film Festival. Despite the fact that the film focuses on the journey of young wrestlers, the film is not a sports documentary but a documentary about young boys' journeys to manhood. Apart from Berlinale, Gümürhan's documentary was chosen for film festivals around the world, such as the Cinekid Film Festival, Thessaloniki Film Festival and Antalya Film Festival Forum, as a part of the International Antalya Film Festival in 2015.
Gianfranco Rosi's documentary film "Fuocoammare" (Fire at Sea), about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa, won the Golden Bear prize for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.
It was a fitting end for a festival which went out of its way to make refugees welcome by giving them free tickets. Rosi paid tribute to those who risked their lives to escape war and poverty, and to the people of Lampedusa who welcomed them. "Of course now at this moment my deeper thoughts go to all the people that never arrived to Lampudusa on these journeys of hope," Rosi said in his acceptance speech on stage at Berlin's cinema palace for the glittering awards ceremony. "I want to dedicate this award to the people of Lampedusa who were always extremely open to accept people arriving there," Rosi said.
He noted that the flood of refugees that has made headlines recently began some 30 years ago for the island just off the coast of North Africa. Rosi said he had asked Dr. Pietro Bartolo, a physician on Lampedusa who treats refugees and appears in the film, why the island welcomes the tens of thousands of people who land there. "He told me Lampedusa is a place of fishermen, we are fishermen, and fishermen, they all accept always, anything that comes from the sea. So this may be a lesson that (we) should learn to accept anything that comes from the sea," Rosi said. The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to "Smrt u Sarajevu" (Death in Sarajevo) and its director Danis Tanovic. The Best Director award went to France's Mia Hansen-Love for her film "L'Avenir" (Things to Come).
The Best Actor award went to Majd Mastoura for his role in the Tunisian film "Inhebbek Hedi" while Trine Dyrholm took Best Actress for her role in the Danish film "Kollektivet" (The Commune). The best script award went to Polish director and screenwriter Tomasz Wasilewski for "Zjednoczone Stany Milosci" (United States of Love) while the cinematography award went to Mark Lee Ping-Bing for the camerawork in the Chinese film "Chang Jiang Tu" (Crosscurrent) directed by Yang Chao. An award for a film that opens new perspectives was given to the eight-hour-long Filipino film "Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis" (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery), directed by Lav Diaz.
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