Berlin Festival’s Golden Bear awarded to film from Hungary

BERLIN — A Hungarian love story about two slaughterhouse workers who connect in shared dreams has won the top award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

On Body and Soul by writerdirector Ildiko Enyedi contrasts the harsh reality of the abattoir with the magical world of slumber.

Enyedi was previously best known for her 1989 debut film, My 20th Century, which won the Golden Camera award in Cannes that year.

The Golden Bear had been expected to go Saturday to the comedy The Other Side of Hope, which instead earned veteran filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki a Silver Bear for best director.

The film sees a young Syrian refugee befriending a grouchy Finn, with Kaurismaki’s deadpan humour delivering poignant messages about the horrors of war and the refugee crisis in Europe.

The jury award went to Felicite, a film by French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis about a singer in a Congolese night club.

South Korea’s Kim Min-hee received the best actress award for her role in On the Beach at Night Alone, about a woman coming to terms with the end of an affair.

Georg Friedrich from Austria was named best actor for Bright Nights, in which he portrays a father trying to reconnect with his teenage son.

A Fantastic Woman by Chilean director Sebastian Lelio received a Silver Bear for best screenplay, shared with Gonzalo Maza.

It tells the tale of a transgender woman mourning for her dead lover even as most of those around her remain unwilling to empathize.

The jury also awarded Dana Bunescu a prize for outstanding artistic contribution for her editing of Ana, mon amour, about a Romanian couple struggling to make their relationship work despite mental illness.

A final Silver Bear award for features that “open new perspective” went to movie Spoor, a murder mystery set in rural Poland.