Cannes Film Fest 2009–Yorgos Lanthimos’ unsettling Greek family drama “Dogtooth” took the top Un Certain Regard Prize Saturday at Cannes Fest.
Turning on three teen children who are kept almost completely cut-off from the world by their parents, “Dogtooth,” a dysfunctional family tale which flares into violence, drew positive reviews.
This year’s Un Certain Regard displayed from many international auteurs – Korea’s Bong Joon-ho, Iran’s Bahman Ghobadi, Romania’s Cristian Mungiu and Corneliu Porumboiu, Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose films received deserved attention.
Porumboui’s much-admired “Police, Adjective,” about a cop’s reluctant surveillance of a pot-smoking teen, won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, adding to a Fipresci award earlier Saturday as best film in the sidebar.
Two other praised films shared a Special Prize: French director Mia Hansen-Love’s “Father of My Children,” a painful record of the suicide of an indie producer; and Bahman Ghobadi’s section opener “No One Knows About The Persian Cats,” a shot-on-the-hoof tale of two budding musicians in Iran’s rebellious, repressed but vibrant underground rock-music scene, a film which marks a change of direction for the helmer.
UN CERTAIN REGARD PRIZE
“Dogtooth,” Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece)
UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY PRIZE
“Police, Adjective,” Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania)
SPECIAL PRIZE UN CERTAIN REGARD 2009
“No One Knows About The Persian Cats,” Bahman Ghobadi (Iran) and “Father of My Children,” Mia Hansen-Love (France).