Hailed for its “excellent originality” and “powerful storyline”, Columbian adventure drama “Embrace of the Serpent” was today adjudged the best film at IFFI, which was attended by music maestro AR Rahman and other film personalities.
The film, directed by Ciro Guerra, is about the friendship between Amazonian shaman Karamakate and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
The film’s art director Ramses Benjumea accepted the award on behalf of the director and producer at the 46th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
“I thank IFFI. It has been a wonderful journey to bring the film all the way to India. Long life to good Columbian films and long live IFFI,” Ramses said.
The only Indian name in the winner’s list was that of Bengali filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly, who was given the inaugural ICFT – UNESCO Fellini Medal for his movie “Cinemawala” about the sad state of single screen cinema halls in West Bengal.
The best director award went to Peter Greenaway for the film “Eisenstein in Guanajuato”, about a Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein who travels to a new place and culture and is forced by the experiences he has there to question his assumptions about himself and Stalinist Russia.
Greeway, who is currently shooting his next film in Switzerland, send his message via the producer of the film. He said he was sad that he could not attend the award ceremony and would have loved to come and accept it by himself.
For his portrayal of a laid off factory worker Thierry Taogourdeau in the film “The Measure of a Man”, Vincent Lindon was adjudged best actor.
The best actress trophy, however, was shared by the five female stars — Gunes Sensoy, Doga Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan and Ilyada Akdogan — of Turkish film “Mustang”. The jury, headed by Shekhar Kapur, were blown by their cumulative performance. Their trophy was accepted by counsel general of Turkey.
The Special Jury Award went to the Spanish film “Sealed Cargo” (Carga Sellada) directed by Julia Vargas.
Director Goran Radovanovic’s Serbian film “Enclave”, based on the life of Kosovo Serbs in small isolated communities, got the special mention award.
Rahman, the chief guest at the ceremony, said films play an important role in uniting cultures all over the world.
“It is such a great honour. I have been fascinated by how IFFI is being conducted in Goa. The other day I was watching an interview of one director from Pakistan who said he had never had such a reception. Thank you for hosting so beautifully.
“As a big fan of cinema of around the world, I can say that a cinema theatre is a modern shrine of unity. I hope better things happen and more films are made to unite cultures,” Rahman said while addressing the gathering.
Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred to Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, who was also paid tribute during the 10-day festival with the screening of his films “Sunstroke”, “the Barber of Siberia” and “Burnt by the Sun”.
Minister of State, I&B, Rajyavardhan Rathore along with Governor of Goa, Mridula Sinha, Chief Minister Goa Laxmikant Parsekar and Secretary I&B, Sunil Arora inaugurated the closing ceremony at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium here.
“Goa is the ultimate destination. The I&B Ministry and the central government is proud to be associated with the state. When state and centre try to conduct an event it can be a three legged race. But past 10 days have been very smooth,” Rathore said.
Keeping in mind the chief guest, internationally-acclaimed ‘Shillong Chamber Choir’ took the audience through the musical journey of Indian cinema.
Famous sand artist, Rahul Arya, presented homage to the Indian cinema movement by creating iconic movie images.
The evening was hosted by actors Lillete Dubey and Kabir Bedi but was low on Bollywood presence with only Divya Dutta, Shreyas Talpade, Satish Shah and Sudhir Mishra in attendance.
The closing ceremony was followed by the screening of Argentinian film “El Clan”, which is the country’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
The movie was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival where director Pablo Trapero won the Silver Lion.