Icelandic film on sheepfarmer brothers wins Cannes ‘Regard’
An Icelandic movie about two sheepfarming brothers who have not spoken in 40 years but are brought together by an outbreak of a disease that threatens their flocks won the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
"Hrutar" (Rams) by director Grimur Hakonarson took the top prize in the grouping of 19 films in the festival's second most important competition. The films are chosen to display filmmaking techniques and trends in a variety of cultures and countries around the world.
Iceland's #Rams won the #Cannes Un Certain Regard prize today http://t.co/qDJ0Rzctzp pic.twitter.com/FP9tLMJa8v
— Variety (@Variety) May 24, 2015
Hakonarson said winning was a surprise, but he was delighted.
"There are very good films in this programme and very big directors," he said. "I didn't expect this. I'm in heaven."
The film is set in remote northern Iceland, among sheepfarmers whose livelihood is threatened by an outbreak of scrapie that is fatal to sheep and requires all their flocks to be put down, but the director thought it would strike a chord with anyone.
"I think it's a universal story, it's a story about family conflicts, even though it's an Icelandic film, it seems to touch the hearts of the audience, you know, but the film, it's also entertaining, it's also funny," he said.
"It's a mixture of drama and comedy and we seem to have, maybe, profited from that a little."
Un Certain Regard welcomes #Croatia with Zvizdan 'The High Sun' @Kinorama_CRO Co-production with #Slovenia #Serbia pic.twitter.com/QL1h6sPYBs
— Creative Europe (@europe_creative) May 17, 2015
Dalibor Matanic's #zvizdan is the 2ND Croatian film ever to be selected at #Cannes2015 (FOLLOW US FOR 24/7 COVERAGE) pic.twitter.com/BNn8CrPoeV
— Screen Comment (@SCREENCOMMENT) April 26, 2015
The Jury Prize went to Croatian director Dalibor Matanic for "Zvizdan" and the Un Certain Talent prize was awarded to Romanian Corneliu Porumboiu's "Comoara" (The Treasure).
'The Treasure' ('Comoara'): Cannes Review http://t.co/cRb6iBmbfA pic.twitter.com/0nnOdLBQxP
— Movie Reviews (@THRCritics) May 21, 2015
The special jury prizes for debut films (Prix de l'avenir) went to "Nahid" by Iran's Ida Panahandeh and "Masaan" by Neeraj Ghaywan of India.
The Hindi film that charmed the pants off #Cannes2015 http://t.co/11UNGZFeol #MasaanAtCannes #Masaan @Festival_Cannes pic.twitter.com/KVNTYnEaXt
— India Abroad (@indiaabroad) May 22, 2015
Indian debut movie 'Masaan' sparkles at Cannes Film Festival, gets two awards.http://t.co/zEk1SbjJtL pic.twitter.com/MLQ7gWbMIf
— scroll.in (@scroll_in) May 24, 2015
The main competition winners will be announced on Sunday.
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