Story of Poverty and Sibling Love Wins Top Prize at Tokyo Festival, 204 Films Screened in 10 Days
It began on a rain-soaked red carpet and ended on a rainy evening. After a 10-day film journey, the curtain fell on the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival on 4 November. A total of 204 films were screened at venues including Hibiya, Marunouchi, Yurakucho and Ginza.
Ignoring the rain on the closing evening, filmmakers, actors and guests from different countries gathered at Hulic Hall in Yurakucho. The awards were announced one by one. The festival's highest honour, the Tokyo Grand Prix, the Governor of Tokyo Award, went to North Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski's 'Sister Brother Manhole Cover'.
At the centre of the film are two poor siblings, Malina and Viktor. In Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, they make a living stealing manhole covers and bronze busts and selling them as scrap. One day a heavy statue of a national hero falls on Viktor's leg, seriously injuring him. Arranging treatment for her brother makes Malina's struggle for life even harder. Through the siblings' relationship, the film brings out social neglect, poverty and wealth inequality.
Made as a co-production of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Italy and the United Kingdom, the film's blend of humour, tragedy and drama won over the judges.
Director Milcho Manchevski said the idea for the story came from statues of national heroes disappearing from a park near his home. Later, replicas of those statues also disappeared. Looking into it, he learned bronze fetched only three euros per kilogram at scrap shops. That was when he thought of seeing the incident from the thieves' point of view.
Sara Klimovska, who played Malina, said she had prior experience working with Filip Trajkovic in film and theatre. They rehearsed for three weeks for the film, giving special importance to the comedy scenes. Trajkovic said responding spontaneously to a co-actor's performance is the basis for building a believable pairing. Producer Jane Kortoshev accepted the award on the director's behalf. Joking on stage, he said they had come to Tokyo with a manhole cover and were returning to Macedonia with this beautiful award.
The Special Jury Prize went to Sun Shun's Singaporean film 'Magic Atlas'. Through woodcut animation, the director blended reality and fantasy, history and myth. The award recognised nearly a decade of work.
Lisandro Alonso won Best Director for 'Double Freedom'. The judges praised his restrained filmmaking style and his skill in capturing the flow of time on film. Narita Ryo won Best Actor for 'Two Cigarettes, Three Nights', with the film's director Mishima Yukiko accepting on his behalf. Chinese actress Hu Ling won Best Actress for 'The Night That Binds Us', playing a middle-aged woman in an unequal love story.
The award for Best Artistic Contribution went to the cinematography of Jelena Maksimovic's 'Until The Day Ends'. The film is about the relationship between two young people who grew up in the same social and political environment in Serbia but received different opportunities. The Audience Award went to Teodora Ana Mihai's 'Heysel 85', made about a heartbreaking incident at a football stadium.
Best Film in the Asian Future section was 'Sherife Tavsan', a co-production of Switzerland and Turkey. Elated at the award, Afghan director Tarek Daud said it was the first award of his life. The director said he and his Turkish co-writer drew inspiration for the story from the lives of their grandmothers, many of whose dreams remained unfulfilled.
In the newly launched 'Nippon Cinema Now' section, Best Film was Tanaka Miki's 'Silver Express'. The Germany-Ukraine co-production 'I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming' received the TF Ethical Film Award. O Mipo and Mohammad Rasoulof were honoured with the Kurosawa Akira Award.
For the first time, a Bangladeshi feature film made it into the competition section of the Tokyo festival this year. Rubaiyat Hossain's 'The Difficult Bride' created audience interest but ultimately won no award.
After the closing ceremony, competition jury head Rolf de Heer took part in a press conference at Yurakucho Asahi Square. With him were the other four jury members, Alex Lo, O Jungwan, Watanabe Makiko and Yov Mur. Rolf de Heer said choosing the best works from 15 different kinds of films was not easy, but through discussion they reached decisions with which all jury members were satisfied.
The festival's closing film was South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho's 'Colony'. The director and actor Ku Gyo-fan were present at the event. According to the festival authorities' preliminary count, audience attendance at the screenings this year was 69,072, higher than the previous year.
Festival director Hisamatsu Takeo came on stage to declare the 10-day event closed. Next year will be the 40th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, and he expressed resolve to make that event even more diverse and vibrant.
