“Fruit Gathering” won the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Saturday.
Directed by Aung Phyoe, it “begins as a lush and meditative portrait of work and friendship before morphing, unexpectedly and organically, into a harrowing drama of obsession and queer desire.”
Set in contemporary Myanmar, it follows the friendship and connection that forms between two young women working at a textile factory.
“I wanted to make a film that was very atmospheric, maybe, and also very restrained because it was a world I knew,” he told Variety.
“We are trying to achieve our own national language of cinema. We are very behind, and for most of the things we don’t have support; it’s very difficult to make films in this country,” he admitted.
“We also have to be very careful that political things have to be very subtle. For me personally, I try to achieve the rhythm in the film, which will hopefully resonate with my own lived experience.”
Jurors Justin Chang, Amanda Nell Eu, Pavel Rejholec, Nadia Turincev and Eskil Vogt also awarded Trine Dyrholm-starrer “The Guest,” calling it “a squirmingly funny yet precisely modulated drama that subtly raises questions about motherhood, filial duty and mental illness.”
It received the Special Jury Prize and $15,000 – as well as the best director award for Mads Mengel.
“What fascinated me wasn’t telling my own story, but exploring something many people can recognize: how our understanding of our parents changes as we grow older, especially when we start our own families. I was interested in that moment when certainty begins to crack. When the people we’ve spent years judging slowly become more complicated and human,” noted Mengel.
“Life rarely gives us perfect endings, but it does occasionally give us the chance to begin again.”
The best actress award went to Anna Schinz for “A Happy Family” by Jan-Eric Mack and her “gripping, hauntingly restrained performance as a mother driven to desperate extremes.” Ghassan Saad was named best actor for “Pipes,” directed by Karim Kassem.
In the Proxima Competition, Martina Buchelová’s “Lover, Not a Fighter” walked away with the Grand Prix and $15,000.
“The jury was refreshed by the film’s extraordinary lightness [and by] how it refuses to take itself too seriously while also portraying essential themes: the absurdity of family, the delirium of young love, the apprehensions of aging – all with luminous sincerity,” it was stated.
Their Jury Prize was given to “Incinerator” by Shuntaro Uchida – “a film of deceptive simplicity” – while Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis was named best director for “A Whole Person Almost.”
Finally, the Special Mention went to “33 Steps.”
“Instead of reducing those who bear the brunt of racism to mere symbols, it goes deep into their inner lives and confronts hard truths: about the nonlinearity of trauma, the nature of inherited fear and the difficulty of closure in a broken society, argued the jurors.
During the ceremony, Juliette Binoche picked up the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.
Jeffrey Wright – who earlier this week surprised the audience by remembering Karlovy Vary’s late president Jiří Bartoška and saying “he taught him how to laugh” when promoting “Basquiat” – was given the Festival President’s Award.
Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis for “A Whole Person Almost”
Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema
The FIPRESCI award for the best film in the Crystal Globe Competition
The FIPRESCI award for the best film in the Proxima Competition
Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (20,000 EUR)
Eurimages Special Co-Production Development Award (20,000 EUR)
Monika Matuszewska, producer of the film “Confirmation”
Tomáš Hrubý, producer of “Cowgirl,” Czech Republic
Eva Váchová, producer of “A Few Branches Off,” Czech Republic
Feature Pool (120,000 CZK for further development):
Creative Pool (50,000 CZK for further development):
Scriptwriter: Martina Babišová and Věra Starečková