‘Roma’ strikes gold in Venice

Alfonso Cuaron’s story about an indigenous maid working for a middle-class family in Mexico City in 1971 has been hailed as his most personal film

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron won the Golden Lion top prize at the Venice film festival on Saturday for Roma, which critics called not merely a movie but “a vision”.

With its highly emotional story centred on an indigenous maid working for a middle-class family in Mexico City in 1971, it has been hailed as Cuaron’s most personal film — and also his best.

Cuaron told reporters that in an incredible coincidence “today is the birthday of Libo, the woman the movie is based on. What a present!”

The film industry bible Variety said

Roma is likely to go down as a “masterpiece”.

“It is no mere movie — it’s a vision... where every image and every emotion is perfectly set in place,” said critic Owen Gleiberman.

Cuaron “dunks us, moment by moment, image by luminously composed image, into a panorama of the hurlyburly of Mexico City.”

Venice has become the launchpad for the Oscars race with Hollywood heavyweights jostling for attention in a line-up director Alberto Barbera called “the best in 30 years”.

Cuaron, 56, reconstructed his childhood home for the Netflix-backed film, borrowing furniture back from relatives to recreate how it was when he was 10.

But the heart of the film is the “luminous” performance of first-time actor Yalitza Aparicio, who plays Cleo, a young live-in maid of Mixteco heritage who looked after the director as a boy.

“Cleo is based on my babysitter when I was young. We were a family together,” Cuaron said.

“But when you grow up with someone you love you don’t discuss their identity. So for this film I was forced to see myself as this woman, a member of the lower classes, from the indigenous population. This is a point of view I had never had before.”

The second prize Silver Lion went to France’s Jacques Audiard for his hugely enjoyable Western The Sisters Brothers starring Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reilly.

Another Wild West tale, The Ballad of

Buster Scruggs by the Coen brothers, won best script. —

Photos by Reuters and AP Alfonso Cuaron holds aloft the Golden Lion Best Film award for ‘Roma’.

Actor Baykali Ganambarr, winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor, with jury member Naomi Watts.

Actor Willem Dafoe holds the Coppa Volpi Best Actor award for ‘At Eternity’s Gate’.

Director Chuck Chae, winner of the Award for Best VR Experience.

Director Soudade Kaadan, winner of the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film for ‘The Day I Lost My Shadow’.

Actress Olivia Colman with the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress in the movie ‘The Favourite’.

Director Aditya Ahmad, winner of the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film for ‘Kado’.

Director Jennifer Kent holds the Special Jury Prize award for ‘The Nightingale’.

Director and screenwriter Pema Tseden after he received the Orizzonti award for Best Screenplay for the film ‘Jinpa’.