Agence France Presse
Jan 20 2010
French-Israeli film wins Serbian festival
BELGRADE, Jan 20 2010
The French-Israeli short film "Lost Paradise" won the top prize at a
film festival hosted by Serbian director Emir Kusturica in Drvengrad,
western Serbia, organisers said Wednesday.
The ten-minute long feature, directed by Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnum,
is a modern day interpretation of the classic Adam and Eve theme.
It was awarded the Golden Egg prize by an international jury chaired
by French-Iranian comic book author and director Marjane Satrapi, who
judged 28 short films entries.
The second prize, the Silver Egg, went to "Baba," by Czech director
Zuzana Kirchnerova-Spidlova. Her film won accolades at last years
Cannes film festival for its touching treatement of the farewell
between a young woman and her dying grandmother.
The Bronze Egg was awarded to Lithuanian film "Lernavan," directed by
the Armenian director Marat Sargsyan who also won the film critics’
award.
This year marked the third time Kusturica organised his Kuestendorf
International Film and Music Festival in the mountain village of
Drvengrad, built in 2004 as a set for Kusturica’s film "Life Is A
Miracle".
Among the guests this year were Hollywood star Johnny Depp and Russian
director Pavel Lungin.
The festival is aimed at providing film students with an alternative
perspective on the Hollywood-dominated industry.
Bosnian-born Kusturica has won two Golden Palm awards at the Cannes
film festival for "Underground" (1995) and "When Father Was Away on
Business" (1985).
Kusturica recently announced he would make film about Mexico’s
19th-century bandit-turned-revolutionary Pancho Villa, to be played by
Depp.