Published: 5 October, 2009, 15:57
Edited: 6 October, 2009, 12:01
The Russian contribution to the program of the Fifth Zurich Film Festival has won the International Feature Film Competition.
The jury, headed by three-time Oscar nominee Debra Winger, chose the film for “its haunting and single-minded vision, extraordinary lead performance and imaginative use of cinematic language.”
The film tells the story of frayed relations between a provincial mother and daughter. The mother fiercely hates her daughter, even though she once gave her a toy humming top. The daughter, however, loves her mom and suffers greatly from her hatred. The mother abandons her daughter, but she runs after her. Their relationship is an infinite series of recurring errors, represented by the daughter’s toy.
Earlier, the film “Wolfy” won some other prestigious domestic film awards: it scooped the main prize at 20th “Kinotavr” film fest in Sochi, and also the “White Elephant” prize given by Russia's powerful film critics’ guild. In addition, it also was best in festival at the Douro Film Harvest festival in Portugal.
Other awards were given in “German-Language Feature Film” and “International Documentary Film” competition categories. The winners were “66/67 – Fairplay is over” by Carsten Ludwig and Jan-Christoph Glaser, and the German/Swiss co-production “The Sound After the Storm” by Patrik Soergel, Ryan Fenson-Hood and Sven O. Hill.
At the festival, director Roman Polanski should have received a lifetime achievement award, but he couldn’t be present at the ceremony since he was arrested by the Swiss authorities under a US warrant issued in 1978.