Hunger wins RIFF, Stranger in Me awarded at Alba

by Camillo de Marco

27/03/2009 - After picking up the Caméra d'Or (for Best Debut Feature) in the Un Certain Regard section of the latest Cannes Film Festival and European Discovery of the Year at the 2008 European Film Awards, Steve McQueen’s Hunger [trailer, film focus] has picked up yet another award, this time at the Rome Independent Film Festival.

The jury – comprising Valentina Cervi, Paul Zonderland, Ahmad Rafat, Rachid Benhadj and the Manetti Bros – chose as Best Feature Film the dramatic reconstruction of the hunger strike at the Long Kash prison of Bobby Sands, the 27-year-old Irish Republican of the IRA who protested against the British government for not acknowledging his and others’ status as political prisoners (see Focus).

At the Alba International Film Festival , the popular jury awarded The Stranger in Me [trailer] by German director Emily Atef (see interview). The motivation read: "The visual language, the original way the story unfolds and above all the unforgettable performance of Susanne Wolff moved the entire jury and we hope the film will have the widest possible audience in the future".

(Translated from Italian)