By Andrew McCathie May 27, 2007, 23:35 GMT
Cannes, France - Individuals struggling with death and enormous moral questions dominated the story lines of films shown in the world's leading movie-industry fair, as the 60th annual Cannes Film Festival closed Sunday.
Japanese director Naomi Kawase poses for photographers after receiving the Grand Prix award for her film "Mogari No Mori" ('The Mourning Forest') at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, 27 May 2007, in Cannes, France. EPA/DANIEL DEME
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's 4 Luni, 3 Saptamini si 2 Zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), won Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for his powerful depiction of a young woman's attempt to arrange an illegal abortion during the final days of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule.
'People have a tendency of avoiding ... thinking about what they don't like,' said Mungiu at a press conference following his film's screening in Cannes. 'People have to think of their consequences.'
In Hungarian director Bela Tarr's black-and-white The Man From London, which was also in the race for the Palme d'Or, the main character faced the dilemma of what to do with a stash of money he had acquired and his possible complicity in a crime.
Likewise, the young skateboard rider in American director Gus van Sant's Paranoid Park feels himself coming under growing moral pressure after he accidentally kills a security guard during a visit to a legendary skateboarding venue.
After being told by his wife during a family vacation that she is expecting a child by another man, the husband in Russian director Andre Zvyagintsev's Izgnanie (The Banishment) tells his unfaithful spouse that the price of his forgiveness is for her to dispose of the baby.
But his plan goes tragically wrong, leaving the husband, played by Russian actor Konstantin Lavronenko, who won the festival's best- actor award, battling to cope with the consequences.
Zviaguintsev said that the house where the family was vacationing had to feel like the centre of the world. 'Because everything begins again,' he said. 'It had to be at that point that everything had to be decided.'
Coping with loss and grieving was another major theme at this year's festival, with Korea's Jeon Do-yeon named best actress for her role in Secret Sunshine by leading Korean director Lee Chang-dong, in which she played a woman attempting to find peace after suffering a terrible personal tragedy.
While she grieves the death of her husband in a traffic accident, her young son is kidnapped and murdered.
'I wanted to show suffering and how it is overcome and how we can find hope again,' Lee said at a press conference following the film's screening in Cannes.
Jeon, who is in almost every frame in the movie, told the press conference: 'I was not able to prepare for the film. These are feelings I could never imagine.'
The Cannes jury, presided over by British director Stephen Frears, awarded Japanese director Naomi Kawase the prestigious Grand Prix for Mogari no mori (The Mourning Forest).
Mogari no mori is about the relationship between senile 70-year- old Shigeki, portrayed by leading Japanese actor Shigeki Uda, and 27- year-old caretaker Machiko, played by Machiko Ono.
Shigeki's longing for his deceased wife and Machiko's guilt at losing her son take them on a mourning journey through the serene forest of Mogari, where Shigeki's wife is buried. Mogari means 'the time or act of mourning.'
Also shown at the festival was A Mighty Heart, which starred Angelina Jolie as the widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by Islamic militants in Pakistan.
In Russian director Alexander Sokurov's Alexandria, about an elderly Russia woman's visit to her grandson on the Chechen war front, the grandmother tells the young man about her grief following the loss of her husband.
Estonian director Kadri Kousaar's Magnus delved into a father-and- son relationship based on the son's wish to kill himself.
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