RUSSIA’S ‘PLAYING THE VICTIM’ VOTED ROME’S FIRST BEST FILM
by Gina Doggett

Agence France Presse — English
October 21, 2006 Saturday 3:53 PM GMT

RomeFilmFest, a cinema extravaganza that featured a string of
high-wattage world premieres, wrapped up its first edition Saturday
with awards for Russian, British, Italian and Franco-Armenian entries.

"Playing the Victim," a dark comedy based on Shakespeare’s "Hamlet"
by Russian director Kiril Serebrennikov, was named Best Film.

France’s Ariane Ascaride was named best actress for her role in
French-Armenian director Robert Guediguian’s "Armenia," and Italy’s
Giorgio Colangeli was judged best actor in the film "L’Aria Salata"
by Alessandro Angelini.

A previously unannounced Special Jury Award went to "This Is England"
by Shane Meadows, a powerful film focusing on Thatcher-era skinheads
through the eyes of an impressionable boy.

The popular jury of 50 moviegoers created the award on the spot because
it was torn between the Russian and British entries, Georgio Gosetti,
general director of RomeFilmFest, told AFP.

"It’s amusing that you have to change the rules of the game," he
said. "In the end a large part of the jury fights for one title
and the other fights for a second one. (Jury director Ettore Scola)
tried to respect democracy. They had a very, very long discussion
and part of the jury agreed only with the assurance of recognition
of Shane Meadow’s film."

On accepting the award Meadows said: "I thank the jury because the
subject matter of the film is not something easy to vote for. It’s
about racial hatred… I applaud them for being brave and voting
for it."

In "Playing the Victim", Yuri Chursin, as Valya, has the odd job of
playing the victim in police reconstructions at crime scenes.

Just as the morbidity and absurdity of it all starts to get to him,
he has a vision in which his late father reveals to him that he was
poisoned by his own wife and her lover.

Colangeli, who played the father in "L’Aria Salata", about a prison
social worker who comes across his estranged father behind bars,
said his award for best actor was meant for the entire crew. "This
award is shared with the director and all the cast. It’s a good sign
for new talent."

Ascaride, for her part, said in halting Italian: "You can’t imagine
how happy I feel … to have an award in Rome, in Italy, because my
father’s parents are Italian. It feels like coming home."

"Armenia" relates the story of a voyage of initiation for Anna, a
young woman from Marseille, France, who travels to the Caucasus in
search of her ailing, elderly father who wanted to see his native
Armenia before he died.

"It’s a role and a personality that I invented personally, since I
wrote the script with (French writer) Marie Desplechin," Ascaride
told AFP. "I had a very strong desire to talk about this country,
Armenia, and I also wanted to confront this issue or roots … that
you haven’t yet gone to look for."

Rome’s first film festival, a nine-day, 10-million-euro
(12.5-million-dollar) event created by Mayor Walter Veltroni, had 16
films in competition, several world premieres and dozens more films
shown out of competition.

"It is a great, great, great success to achieve in the first edition a
real professional level and such a strong reaction from the audience,"
Gosetti said. "It’s a great success because of the general quality
of the movies, according to the press in any case, especially the
foreign press."

Some 56,000 tickets were sold to the public and nearly as many were
given out to journalists and other guests. The media corps consisted
of about 1,700 reporters, including nearly 600 from the foreign press,
and 200 photographers and camera crew. The total audience was estimated
at 150,000, attending 650 screenings.

Star power helped attract the crowds, with world premieres of Steven
Shainberg’s "Fur" starring Nicole Kidman, "The Departed" with Leonardo
Di Caprio and Jack Nicholson, "The Namesake" by Indian director Mira
Nair, "The Hoax" with Richard Gere and "Napoleon and Me" starring
Monica Bellucci.

Added glitter came with Scottish actor Sean Connery, who was honored
with the inaugural Acting Award and US star Harrison Ford, who bestowed
the PMQ award for actor’s agent on Jim Berkus.

Saturday US director and actor Robert de Niro was to present part of
his film "The Good Shepherd" starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie,
to underscore a partnership between the Tribeca Film Festival, of
which he is a cofounder, and the RomeFilmFest.

Veltroni, speaking after the award ceremony, again defended his
brainchild against critics who say it competes with the venerable
Mostra in Venice.

"Italy will have two great moments of cinema, Venice and Rome,"
he said. "There will always be so many films."

For his part, Gosetti said: "I was born in Venice. If I thought that
this kind of event could be dangerous for Venice, I don’t think I
could accept to be part of it."

He added: "Our goal is to try to define and then impose a different way
to promote films, and to celebrate directors, actors and actresses."