Too many surprises, contends Samir Farid from France If not for Xavier Beauvois's winning the Grand Prix, next only to the Palme d'Or, the announcement of the 63rd Cannes Festival awards on Sunday would have been a travesty. This is because of the wildly unexpected choices of the jury, headed by Tim Burton. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is the sixth film by the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weersaetjakul (known to foreigners as "Joe") who won not only the Un Certain Regard Award for Sud Sanaeha in 2002 but also the Jury Award for Sud Pralad in 2004. Joe is no doubt to be credited with placing Thailand on the cinematic map of the world for the first time during the last decade. In a personal, purely cinematic way, he expresses his culture. From a genre film perspective, the present offering is a horror -- more specifically, a ghost -- film, but it also expresses belief in the supernatural as it manifests in Thai culture, in which concepts of reincarnation and transmigration are not restricted to human souls but involve exchanges across species and among ghosts. This takes place through the story of Uncle Boonmee, who after being afflicted with kidney failure decides to spend the rest of his life in the countryside in the company of those he loves, where he is visited by the ghost of his deceased wife in human form, as well as the soul of his lost son in the form of a monkey. Whoever happens to be familiar with the world of Tim Burton will have no difficulty realising the Joe's offering belongs in the same world. What is surprising, rather, is that all nine judges should have agreed with Burton that this is the winning film. The second Asian to receive a prize this year at Cannes, Lee Chang-dong, for the screenplay of Poetry (which he also directed) is his fifth offering since 1996. The South Korean filmmaker has won the best director prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2002 for Oasis, and has been minister of culture in South Korea since 2007. Few will know that collections of poems in South Korea routinely make the best-seller lists, and in this film Chang-dong expresses concern over lack of interest in poetry among the younger generations. At the centre of the story is a 36-year-old woman living with her grandson who starts learning to write poetry after falling in love with her neighbour, who is her age but seriously ill. Yet she is shocked when she finds out that her grandson has gang raped a girl causing her to kill herself in shame. This year Juliette Binoche was the star of the festival weeks before it opened, with the release of the 63rd Cannes publicity poster showing her writing the word "Cannes" in translucent white. She was also the star of the closing ceremony when she received the best actress award, and used the opportunity of being on stage to call for the release of the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been under arrest since 1 March for no reason other than making a film which the authorities fear might challenge their dictatorship. Binoche is among the biggest film stars in the world, yet Copie Conforme -- for which she received the award -- is only her 26th film since Jean-Luc Godard introduced her in Je Vous Salue, Marie in 1984: she is meticulous about her choices of role, and tends to work with the world's most serious filmmakers. Binoche, who grew up in a creative atmosphere with a sculptor father and an actress mother, won the American Academy Award Best Actress in Supporting Role for her role in Anthony Minghella's The English Patient in 1995 -- the second Frenchwoman to receive an Oscar, 37 years after Simone Signoret. In this film she plays a nameless role, portraying a French gallery owner in Tuscany, Italy, surrounded by jaw-dropping nature. There she meets a British writer and they have discussions about the original and the copy in life and art. The role allows Binoche to act in French, English and Italian all at the same time: an intellectual playing an intellectual. Like Binoche, Javier Bardem -- who won the best actor award for his role in Alejandro Gonzàlez Iñàrritu's Biutiful -- grew up in a family of artists. His grandparents and his mother were all the actors (the grandmother was present at Cannes) and his uncle is the great filmmaker Juan-Antonio Bardem. Javier too has worked with major directors all over the world: Almodovar, Woody Allen, Michael Mann. I had the pleasure of watching him emerge on the scene, together with Penelope Cruz -- another great Spanish talent -- when I saw Bigas Luna's Jamon, jamon at the Venice Film Festival in 1992. Bardem was nominated for the best actor Goya award (the Spanish Oscars) seven times; he won it four times. He also received the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for his role in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, which also got him an Oscar nomination, as well as winning the Venice prize for the second time for his role in Alejandro Amenabar's Mar adentro in 2004 -- the first actor in the history of the Venice Film Festival to win the prize twice. Of Gods and Men is a work of truly remarkable standard, the kind of film that only happens once every so often in film history, evidence of how far the art of film has come and how much it can express our age. It is also a genuine suprise from Xavier Beauvois, who started his career as an actor in 1991, turning to directing in 1992; he has not since stopped doing both at the same time. This is his fifth feature film to date, and it deals with the massacre, in 1996, of seven French monks kidnapped by the Jama'a Islamiya in Algeria on 26 March. On 18 April the militants declared they were holding the monks and would release them in return for some of their own number under arrest in France; a failure of negotiations between the Algerian and French governments led to the monks' death, which the Jama'a announced on 21 May; the severed heads were found on 30 May. On 20 November 2009, however, evidence materialised suggesting strongly that the monks were actually killed by mistake by the Algerian army, kicking off a series of investigations and court suits that are still ongoing. The film depicts the real-life events of the life of these monks living in a monastery on the Atlas Mountains from 1993 until their death, and their misfortune could have credibly expressed an idea that has been current since September 11, to the effect that Islam is a religion of violence which despises all life. Had the director shown the severed heads or other graphic scenes, he could not have been accused of bias against Islam. It could also have been a political film about current issues and doubts regarding the performance or sense of responsibility of the Algerian army. Yet Of Gods and Men shows neither the massacre nor the severed heads, nor does it make any reference to the legal case. Beauvois chose, instead, to defend humanity. By concentrating on the intimate relations connecting the monks with the Muslim villagers, the message becomes much more powerful. In one scene, for example, verses from the Quran dictating that there should be no discrimination between God's messengers are read in the course of a local celebration; sadly the verses were not translated in this copy. The sentiment pervades the action of the film. Likewise the monks' refusal to be protected by the (corrupt) Algerian government expresses genuine Christian values. They also refuse to leave for France so long as the villagers are in danger. The film, which is perfectly based and beautifully shot, ends with one of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema: the last supper of the monks, which can only be compared to Da Vinci's painting and other such great depictions of the Biblical event. There is no dialogue, and only music is heard. In a series of moving close-ups, the brilliant actors who played the monks express both surrender to the will of God and fear of the destiny that awaits them. Beauvois never uses close-ups or music except in this scene, making it exceptionally powerful. The last scenes are of the monks being held hostage, the entrance to the monastery where the two monks who were not kidnapped embrace, and the cemetary at the monastery, implying that is where they were buried. Yet by the time the film ends we see the monks alive in captivity. Feature films Palme d'Or LUNG BOONMEE RALUEK CHAT (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) directed by Grand Prix DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX (OF GODS AND MEN) directed by Xavier BEAUVOIS Award for Best Director Mathieu AMALRIC for TOURNEE (ON TOUR) Award for Best Screenplay LEE Chang-dong for POETRY Award for Best Actress Juliette BINOCHE in COPIE CONFORME (CERTIFIED COPY) directed by Abbas KIAROSTAMI Award for Best Actor Ex-aequo Javier BARDEM in BIUTIFUL directed by Alejandro GONZ�LEZ I��RRITU Elio GERMANO in LA NOSTRA VITA (OUR LIFE) directed by Daniele LUCHETTI Jury Prize UN HOMME QUI CRIE (A screaming man) directed by Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN Short Films Palme d'Or - Short Film CHIENNE D'HISTOIRE (BARKING ISLAND) directed by Serge AVEDIKIAN Jury Prize - Short Film MICKY BADER (BATHING MICKY) directed by Frida KEMPFF
