RUSSIAN SHAKESPEARE ADAPTATION WINS IN ROME

RTE.ie, Ireland
23 October 2006

Russian film ‘Playing The Victim’, a modern-day adaptation of
Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, has won the best film award at Rome’s first
international film festival.

The nine-day movie marathon finished on Saturday with the awards
ceremony.

‘Playing The Victim’s director, Kirill Serebrennikov, accepted the
award with an emotional speech, saying: "This film is a film for
Russia and for Russians. Because we still believe that cinema can
change people’s way of thinking and consciences."

British film director Shane Meadows (‘Once Upon a Time in the
Midlands’, ‘A Room for Romeo Brass’) won the special jury prize for
‘This Is England’, a film about an impressionable young boy who
becomes involved with a gang of skinheads in the early 1980s.

The films were judged by a popular jury of 50 film fans chosen from
the public.

France’s Ariane Ascaride won the best actress award for her role in
Robert Guediguian’s drama ‘Armenia’ and Italy’s Giorgio Colangeli
was named best actor in the film ‘L’Aria Salata (The Salt Air)’
by Alessandro Angelini.