Chinese film ‘The Wrath of Silence’ is big winner at Macau Film Festival
CHINESE filmmaker Xin Yukun won the jury prize with his mystery thriller ‘ The Wrath of Silence,’ at the just concluded Macau International Film Festival. The film’s male lead, Song Yang, nabbed best actor honours.
‘ The Wrath of Silence’ is a would-be revenge thriller, or Chinese Western, about a poor miner searching for his missing son in the corrupt hinterlands of the Middle Kingdom’s far north.
The jury praised ‘Wrath’ for “its capacity to navigate between a brutal realism and the conventions of genre film.”
Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen was presented with the international star of the year honour while the NETPAC award for the best Asian film in the festival went to Vivian Qu’s much-buzzed- about Chinese child sex abuse drama ‘Angels Wear White’.
Meanwhile, ‘Hunting Season’, the debut feature of Argentinian filmmaker Natalia Garagiola, took home the best film prize.
French filmmaker Xavier Legrand won the best director prize for his acclaimed family divorce drama ‘Custody’. Legrand also received the best director award at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year for the film.
Best actress honours went to Jessie Buckley for ‘ Beast’, a British serial killer mystery. The film’s cinematographer, Benjamin Kracun, also claimed Macau’s award for technical contribution.
Samuel Moaz, writer- director of the Israeli terrorism-aftermath drama ‘Foxtrot’, won the best screenplay prize. The film is just now beginning its North American release.
Assisting French director Laurent Cantet, chair of the event’s competition, in the selection of this year’s Macau fest winners were fellow jurists actress Joan Chen, writerdirector Jessica Hausner, novelist Lawrence Osborne and director Royston Tan.
“We couldn’t be happier with the response of Macau audiences to our program, and I thank all the filmmakers who came here to present their films,” said Mike Goodridge, the event’s artistic director. “It’s been a great week and a wonderful celebration of the big-screen experience.”