‘The Donor’ wins Golden Star – Marrakech fest wraps up with strong world cinema imprint

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LOS ANGELES, Dec 11, (RTRS): In a near repeat of October’s Busan Festival which throws the light on two up-and-coming Chinese directors, kidney organ donation drama “The Donor” topped the 16th Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday, winning its Golden Star Festival Grand Prize, while Wang Xuebo’s “Knife In The Clear Water”, a measured portrait of life in a remote Chinese Muslim mountain village, took directing.

The Marrakech Festival’s Jury Prize was awarded to circus docu-fiction “Mister Universo”. Best Actor went to Baldur Finarsson and Blaer Hinricksson for their roles in Icelandic coming of age drama “Heartstone”, by Gumundur Arnar Gumundsson. Best Actress was awarded to Fereshteh Hosseini for Afghan-Iranian drama “Parting”, by Navid Mahmoudi.

Fourteen competition films competed this year at Marrakech, including five freshman titles and two sophomore outings.

The jury was presided by Hungarian director, Bela Tarr, accompanied by Lisandro Alonso, Bille August, Jason Clarke, Suzanne Clement, Bruno Dumont, Kalki Koechlin, Fatima Harandi and Jasmine Trinca.

“The Donor” director Xang Qiwu, who film is a critique of the lengths to which the poor in Chuina are willing to go to advance their material prosperity, picked the award up in person at Marrakech saying that “being shown in such a festival for such a young director was a great honour”.

On the red carpet, jury prexy Tarr admitted that he was deeply moved by the winning films. Jury member Bille August added that he saw excellent films from different parts of the word and described his experience on the jury as a great education.

Fellow jury member Jason Clarke concurred: “It reminded me of who I am and where I come from. They are all very heartfelt personal stories, wherever they came from, they are wonderful films that really touched me”.

Frimmel dedicated his award to his uncle who fled Nazi Germany and was given asylum in Morocco. “I would like to thank Morocco”, he said on stage.

* Golden Star Festival Grand Prize: “The Donor”, (Zang Qiwu, China)

* Jury prize: “Mister Universo”, (Reiner Frimmel, Tizza Covi, Austria, Italy)

* Best directing prize: “Knife in the Clear Water”, (Wamg Xuebo, China)

* Best performance by an actress: Fereshteh Hosseini (“Parting”, Navid Mahmoudi, Iran, Afghanistan)

* Best performance by an actor: Baldur Einarsson, Blaer Hinriksson (“Heartstone”, Gumundur Arnar Gumundsson, Denmark, Iceland).

The 16th Marrakech film fest wraps Saturday, with the closing ceremony featuring Fatih Akin’s “Goodbye Berlin” and announcement of the films that will win the Golden Star for best film and the best actor and best actress.

This year’s edition had a very strong world cinema imprint, highly influenced by the country tribute to Russian cinema and the choice of iconoclastic Hungarian filmmaker, Bela Tara, as jury prexy.

The career tributes and masterclasses featured outspoken filmmakers, who have provoked controversy in their home countries and in several cases have moved abroad to maintain their creative independence.

Tarr proudly described himself as one Hungary’s “top five black sheep” and has spent the last five years running his Film Factory school in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where he encourages his students to hunt in order to “capture life” in their films.

Paul Verhoeven, who this week was confirmed as jury president for Berlin 2017, has touted controversy throughout his career. The success and polemics generated by films such as “Spetters” in his native Holland led him to move to Hollywood in the late 1980s. But US pictures such as “Starship Troopers” also generated criticism, and Verhoeven recently revived his career by lensing his first French-language pic, “Elle”, starring Isabelle Huppert.

Paul Haggis is no stranger to controversy, including films such as “In the Valley of Elah” which provided a jaundiced view of the Iraq war at a time when in some parts it was still very popular. Haggis also sees himself as partly an emigre, a Canadian working in the US and now spends an increasing amount of his time in New York. During the festival, he spoke about his forthcoming projects — “Ship Breaker and “Ranger’s Apprentice”, his first major feature film directing gigs since 2007.

Pavel Lungin, one of Russia’s best-known directors, moved to Paris many years ago and his productions have received criticism from both the left and right. He now plans a major production about the gulag labor camp during the Stalin dictatorship.

Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto, who recently starred in Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” explained how his provocative genre films have been deeply inspired by Scorsese’s work, commencing with the portrayal of the anti-hero in “Taxi Driver”.

Scorsese is seen by many as the godfather of the Marrakech Fest, and he also played a pivotal role in setting up the new ESAV film school in Marrakech. Scorsese is a close friend of Festival director Melita Toscan du Plantier and she explained that he takes a strong interest in each year’s edition, and encourages people to go and helps her contact several potential guests.

Scorsese last visited the fest in 2013 as jury president, but his commitment to world cinema has helped shape Marrakech’s unique atmosphere.

Morocco has been viewed by centuries as a cultural crossroads, that links North and South, East and West. The western kingdom provides access to the Arab world, which stretches out to Asia, and also to the African continent, while providing many bridges to Europe.

Choosing Russia for the country tribute also created a bridge between Europe and Asia in this year’s edition, which was emphasized during the tribute ceremony.

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