12/08/2002

The announcement that this year’s winner of the Golden Leopard for best film was Das Verlagen directed by a young Scotsman called Iain Dilthey was greeted with a mixture of applause and catcalls by the critics at the 55th Locarno Film Festival. The German production got six of the seven votes of the jury, beating some tough opposition that included Alain Cavalier’s René and Gus Van Sant’s Gerry.
This was Dilthy’s second time at Locarno where he presented his first-ever feature film Ich werde dich auf Handen tragen last year. A trilogy about love and passion that includes two earlier short films, L’estate a Horlachan and Das Verlagen. The Scotsman won the hearts of this year’s jury president, the Franco-Serbian producer, Cedomir Kolar’s and his fellow jurors who also assigned a Special award to an Iranian film entitled Man, Taraneh, Panzdah Sal Daran - I am Taraneh, aged 15. Hungary’s Kornel Mundruczo with Pleasant Days and Argentinian Diego Lerman with Suddenly won two Silver Leopards with the Argentine film also receiving a special mention for the excellence of the cast. Best actor was Greece’s Giorgios Karayannis for his work in Penny Panayotopulu’s Difficult Farewells while Iran’s Taraneh Allidousti won best actress for Taraneh Panzdah Sal Daran .