Golden Girl sparkles in silver
2004-02-14 19:04
Berlin - Gegen die Wand (Head On), a story of a young Turkish-German woman who marries a man she doesn't love to escape her conservative Islamic family, won the Golden Bear top prize at the 54th annual Berlin Film Festival on Saturday.
Directed by Fatih Akin - himself a German of Turkish parents - the film chronicles the life of Sibel, played by Sibel Kekilla, who marries a beer-guzzling, middle-aged Turkish-German punk. As the two revel in their party lifestyles and separate sexual affairs, they unwittingly fall in love - a situation that ends when the husband kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage.
Born to Turkish parents in Hamburg, Akin said he lives in "loyal opposition" to the traditions of Turkish culture, and the film reflects his version of immigrant life.
"I hope that this will finally blow away the label of the exotic immigrant," Akin told reporters. "I think the prize will help that."
Sexually explicit
The sexually explicit and often violent film is sure to spark discussion in Germany's Turkish community as well as among Germans themselves, who have struggled in finding an effective integration policy for the two million Turks living in Germany.
Another tale of a child from an immigrant family searching for identity, Daniel Burman's El abrazo partido (Lost Embrace) won the runner-up Silver Bear film award.
The film follows Ariel, a young Argentinian Jew, whose attempts to gain a Polish passport through his grandmother's original citizenship, leads him to explore his father's decision to fight for Israel.
The best actor award went to the film's star, Daniel Hendler.
Best directing honours went to South Korean director Kim Ki-Duk for Samaria (Samaritan Girl), the tragic account of a teenage girl's sexual exploitation and her father's murderous rampage it triggers.
Silver Bear for Charlize
For the second year in a row, the jury recognised more than one actress for leading performance, granting Silver Bears to both Charlize Theron, for her role in Monster, and Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria, llena eres de gracia (Maria Full of Grace).
Theron, who is also up for an Oscar for the part, went through a remarkable transformation in the film, putting on 13.5kg and wearing false teeth to portray Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos. But Theron said it was her research into the executed killer's life that provided the foundation for her performance.
"If you do those things without any kind of core it becomes meaningless," Theron told reporters after the film screened at the festival. "Everything about her physically was a mirror or a map to what she had gone through emotionally."
The episodic, day-in-the-life film Om Jag Vaender Mig Om (Daybreak) from Swedish director Bjoern Runge received the Blue Angel award for the best European film.
Banda Osiris picked up a Silver Bear for best score in Primo Amore (First Love), by Italian director Matteo Garrone.
The prizes were announced by the head of the festival's seven-member jury, US actress Frances McDormand, and her fellow juror German producer Peter Rommel.
- AP