The Mother Of All Lies from Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir has scooped the top prize at the 70th Sydney Film Festival (SFF).
The documentary drama won the Sydney Film Prize, which includes a cash award of A$60,000 ($41,000) and was praised by jury head Anurag Kashyap for “the courage of choosing a theme perhaps wilfully obliterated from public memory”.
The film explores a 1981 massacre in Casablanca through interviews and interactions with the director’s family and former neighbours, using tiny models of them and a miniature set of their former street made by her father. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, winning best director for El Moudir.
A series of prizes were presented on Sunday (18 June) at The State Theatre, the official closing night of the SFF, with further screenings of popular films, set to be shown on Monday.
Against The Tide, a documentary directed by India’s Sarvnik Kaur about two indigenous Mumbai fishermen affected by declining fish numbers despite very different approaches to their trade, won the A$40,000 ($27,400) Sustainable Future Award. The money is donated by five environmental activists.
Rachel’s Farm, a documentary about soil health and regenerative farming directed by actor Rachel Ward, and Power to the Country, a portrait of life in the face of energy insecurity directed by Josef Jakamarra Egger, were commended.
The shortest film in a field of 10, the 24-minute Marungka Tjalatjunu (aka Dipped In Black) from writer/directors Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorne, won the A$20,000 ($13,700) Documentary Australia Award, which is restricted to local films. Lynch is an artist and the film follows his journey from the city to the desert country where he grew up.
Kindred, the story of directors – and friends – Adrian Russell Wills and Gillian Moody finding their Black families after being brought up in white homes, was commended.
Overall, ticket sales at the festival were said to be up 25% on last year, close to a record figure. Recently appointed CEO Frances Wallace said that more than 100 sessions were sold out.
More than 240 films screened at the festival, which ran June 7-18.
No comments yet