Andrei Zvyagintsevs film Elena, which premiered and won the Jurys Prize at the Cannes competition Special View, has also taken three prizes at the 32nd Durban International Film Festival (Republic of South Africa) held from 21st to 31st July.
Elena has won in three nominations: Andrei Zvyagintsev, who envelops an outwardly simple story in an improbably powerful emotional glow and meaning as the jury put it, got the Best Direction Prize; Mikhail Krichman was awarded the Best Camerawork Prize for special visual beauty which contrasts with the quiet and cool narration of the film, and Nadezhda Markina, who makes viewers sympathize with her, even though we cannot approve her behavior from the point of view of standard morals took the Best Actress Prize.
Being busy, nobody of the film crew could be present at the festival, therefore the films producer Aleksandr Rodnyanskiy and director Andrei Zvyagintsev learned about the victory pretty late.
Source: newsru.com
Author: Vera Ivanova