Alcarras, the Spanish-Italian drama directed by Carla Simon, bagged the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday, and it was among the many top prizes won by women at this year’s edition.
Like her debut film, Summer 1993, which premiered in the 67th edition of the festival, Simon’s Alcarras is also set in the Catalan countryside. It revolves around a family of peach farmers in the titular village in Spain’s Catalonia region who face eviction and risk losing more than their orchard. Alcarras is the first film in the Catalan language to win the Golden Bear at Berlinale.
The evening also saw women winning in many of the other primary categories. France’s Claire Denis won the Silver Bear for Best Director for her film Both Sides of the Blade and Bolivian-Mexican filmmaker Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s Robe of Gems bagged the Silver Bear Jury Prize. German actor and comedian Meltem Kaptan won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance in Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W Bush, and Laila Stieler won for her screenplay for the same film. Indonesian actor Laura Basuki nabbed the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance in Nana (Before, Now, and Then).
The second-highest honour, the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, went to South Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film.
The 72nd edition of the Berlinale kickstarted on February 10, and while the winners were announced on Wednesday, the festival itself continues until Sunday.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, headlined by Alia Bhatt, had its world premiere at the festival on Wednesday, as part of the Berlinale Special section. The biographical crime drama film is loosely based on one of the chapters in Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges’ book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, a collection of stories about women who were part of the city’s underworld. Bhatt plays Gangubai Kathiawadi, who was one of the most influential women in Kamathipura, a red-light district in Mumbai, and the owner of many brothels in the area.
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Ahead of the film’s word premiere, Bhansali and Bhatt took part in a press conference in Berlinale, during which the former disclosed that Bhatt had run out of his office after hearing the story. “The first time she heard the narration, she took her bag and ran out of my office, literally. And she was wondering what on earth had hit her, and what kind of role I had offered to her.”
The filmmaker added that he thought that he would have to look for another actor. However, he had received a call from Bhatt the next day, confirming that she was on board for the film.
Gangubai Kathiawadi marks the director and actor’s first collaboration. It is set to hit Indian screens on February 25.