(Cannes) The Critics’ Week Grand Prize, dedicated to young talent, was awarded Wednesday in Cannes to Colombian Andrès Ramirez Pulido for The Juria (The pack), on the vicious cycle of violence in this South American country.
Posted at 2:00 p.m.
The Juria depicts the daily life of young delinquents and criminals to whom an educator, Alvaro, tries to give a second chance via group therapy in an abandoned house in the heart of the tropical forest.
In the moist and asphyxiating atmosphere of the Colombian forest, the “re-education” of young people is more like imprisonment than a way out into the future.
Andrès Ramirez Pulido, 32, has already seen his two short films selected and awarded at several international festivals.
“I wanted to rely a lot on the image, in cinematographic language, to show the violence,” he explained to AFP during an interview in Cannes.
In all his films, the director questions the figure of the father: his absence or his harmful presence, from which the characters suffer constantly.
In addition, the “French Touch” prize was awarded to aftersunby the British Charlotte Wells, on the relationship between a daughter and her father.
The Rising Star Prize of the Louis Roederer Foundation was awarded to Zelda Samson, young heroine of Dalva, by Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Nicot. At 12, Alva was suddenly taken away from her father, who had always held her in his grip.
Finally, the Leitz Ciné discovery prize for short films was awarded to Ice Merchants by Portuguese Joao Gonzalez, a film without dialogue.