Italian documentary “Caesar Must Die,” showing inmates of a high-security prison staging Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” was awarded the Berlin film festival’s top award Saturday.
Directors Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani received the Golden Bear award out of 18 contenders at what is the first of the year’s major European film festivals.
The Taviani brothers, both in their early 80s, thanked the international jury led by British director Mike Leigh and sent their greetings to the inmates of Rome’s Rebibbia prison, including former mafia leaders, who starred in the film.
“I hope that someone, going home, after seeing ‘Caesar Must Die’ will think that even an inmate, on whose head is a terrible punishment, is, and remains, a man. And this thanks to the sublime words of Shakespeare,” Vittorio Taviani said.
The two filmmakers spent six months following the rehearsals for the play. The documentary does not dwell on the crimes the inmates have committed, but shows the actors immerse themselves in the play’s web of friendship and betrayal, power, dishonesty and violence. But after the premiere, the cell doors slam shut behind Caesar, Brutus and the others, leaving them to return to their lives behind bars.
“We chose ‘Julius Caesar’ for one clear reason. We were working in a prison, that meant it was easy to get the message across with this play where actors are talking about freedom, about tyranny, about assasinations, and murder,” Paolo Taviani said through a translator.
The festival’s runner-up Silver Bear went to Hungarian director Bence Fliegauf for “Just the Wind,” which focuses on the lives of a family of Roma as their community faces a series of deadly attacks.
The film features an amateur Roma, or Gypsies, cast and depicts the long-suffering, grimly silent mother Mari (Katalin Toldi), her elderly invalid father and two children who struggle to make ends meet and dream of emigrating one day to Canada — against the quietly menacing backdrop of a series of killings in their out-of-the-way neighborhood.
The film takes its cue from true-life murders that happened in 2008-9, though Fliegauf has stressed that it does not document those killings.
Roma, who make up an estimated 5-8 percent of Hungary’s 10 million people, battle deep prejudice and have been deeply affected by the loss of guaranteed jobs after the end of communism more than 20 years ago.
The Silver Bear for best actor went to Mikkel Boe Folsgaard for his role in “Royal Affair,” and the award for the best actress went to Rachel Mwanza, 14, for her role as a Congolese child soldier in “War Witch.”
The Silver Bear for the best director went to German filmmaker Christian Petzold for “Barbara,” which depicts the life of a young physician in the 1980s who wants to escape from then communist East Germany to join her lover in West Germany.
The festival’s eight-member jury also included actor Jake Gyllenhaal and Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director of last year’s Golden Bear-winning film, “A Separation.”
Farhadi’s film won best foreign language film honors at the Golden Globes last month and is competing for the same award at this year’s Oscars.
Outside the main competition, about 400 films were screened, and the Berlinale festival’s highlights included Meryl Streep being honored for her lifetime achievement and Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, the Bosnian war movie “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”
Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease; Hantavirus Claimed His Wife’s Life About One Week Prior
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. "Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease," Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death." Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said. Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life. "You are talking about very severe Alzheimer's disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care... Read More