45th IFFI - Russian Film ‘Leviathan’ adjudged as best film and awarded the Golden Peacock

The Russian Film ‘Leviathan’ has been awarded the Golden Peacock at the 45th International Film Festival of India (IFFI).. Mrs Mridula Sinha, Governor of Goa and Waheeda Rehman, actress of yester years jointly presented the award to the director Andrey Zvyagintsev at a glittering closing ceremony of the 45th IFFI at Goa "Leviathan" is a modern day retelling of the Biblical story of Jobs set in contemporary Russia. Kolia lives in a small town near the Barents Sea, in North Russia. He has his own auto-repair shop. His shop stands right next to the house where he lives with his young wife Lilya and his son from a previous marriage Romka. Vadim Sergeyich, the Mayor of the town, wants to take away his business, his house and his land. First he tries buying off Kolia but Kolia isn’t interested in money, he doesn’t want to lose everything he has: not only the land, but also all the beauty that has surrounded him from the day of his birth. As Vadim Sergeyich starts being more aggressive, Kolia asks his best friend Dmitri, a lawyer from Moscow, to help him, unaware that this would change his life forever. “Andrei Zvyagintsev's Leviathan is a sober and compelling tragic drama of corruption and intimidation in contemporary Russia, set in a desolate widescreen panorama. This is a movie which seems to be influenced by the Old Testament and Elia Kazan; it starts off looking like a reasonably scaled drama about a little guy taking on big government. Then it escalates to a new plane in which man is taking on the biggest, most cruel and implacable government of all, and the final sequence of devastation must surely be influenced by the final moments of Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice.”(The Guardian) The best director award was given to Nadav Lapid for the Israeli film ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ for an impressive portrayal of a prodigy poet and enigmatic teacher. The best actor (Female) award was shared by two actors, both for their roles as teachers in two different films. Alina Rodriguez was awarded with Best Actor (Female) for her portrayal of a teacher in a Cuban film ‘Behaviour’. Sarit Larry also got the best actor (Female) award for her outstanding performance as a teacher in the film ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’. The Best Actor (Male) award was also shared by two actors. Alexey Serebryakov, who won the best actor award for his role in the film ‘Leviathan’ and Dular Sarkar, a dwarf actor won the best actor award for his lead role in the Bengali film, Chhotober Chhobi. His acting depicts the struggle for survival of a community in a socially hostile environment. The Marathi film, Ek Hajarachi Note had the distinction of getting two awards. It was given the Special Jury Award and the Centenary Award for best film. The director of the film, Shrihari Sathe received the awards. The Lifetime Achievement award was given to Wong Kar-Wai ,the  Chinese film maker.. Wong Kar-Wai said that he is very much moved as well as honoured by the award. He appreciated the hospitality extended to him and the support to Chinese Cinema at IFFI.  Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting appreciated the effort by the social-media team of Information and Broadcasting Ministry which created a special programme ’Talkathon’ which served as a platform for interaction between the audience and film experts/personalities on social media at IFFI . Earlier, Laxmikant Parsekar , Chief Minister of Goa, announced that efforts would be made to enhance infrastructure in Goa as the number of the delegates at IFFI is growing phenomenally and this year the number of delegates reached a record high of 13 thousand. Artistes from the North-East gave scintillating performances encapsulating various dance forms from the region.