A Harmony Lessons screenshot
Young Kazakhstan director Emir Baigazin won the Special Jury Prize for his début film Harmony Lessons at the Tokyo FILMeX 2013, Tengrinews reports. Harmony Lessons tells a story of an outsider Aslan whose actions affect the brutal microcosm of a rural school. The 120-minute film depicts the boy’s struggle with his latent personality disorder and the obsession to control everything in his life. The Iranian Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf was the Chairperson of the Filmex jury. Other jury members were: Japanese actress Makiko Watanabe, French Producer Isabelle Glachant and Japanese Producer Hiroko Matsuda. Mohsen Makhmalbaf said that Baigazin’s “talented vision (took) us into a male world through a metaphor where harmony of politics and cultures combine to create a systematic violent society”. The Grand Prize went to the Georgian director Nana Ekvtimishvili and her co-director Simon Gross for their In Bloom film and “energetic recreation of reality in cinema”. The International Film Festival FILMeX was established by Takeshi Kitano’s Kitano Office in 2000. Its 14th edition took place from November 23rd to December 1st at the Yurakucho Asahi Hall in Tokyo. This year has been extremely fruitful for the young Kazakhstan director. He won the Best New Director Grand Jury Prize at Seattle IFF, the Award for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Silver Bear) at Berlinale IFF and the NETPAC Award at Abu Dhabi FF.
Young Kazakhstan director Emir Baigazin won the Special Jury Prize for his début film Harmony Lessons at the Tokyo FILMeX 2013, Tengrinews reports.
Harmony Lessons tells a story of an outsider Aslan whose actions affect the brutal microcosm of a rural school. The 120-minute film depicts the boy’s struggle with his latent personality disorder and the obsession to control everything in his life.
The Iranian Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf was the Chairperson of the Filmex jury. Other jury members were: Japanese actress Makiko Watanabe, French Producer Isabelle Glachant and Japanese Producer Hiroko Matsuda. Mohsen Makhmalbaf said that Baigazin’s “talented vision (took) us into a male world through a metaphor where harmony of politics and cultures combine to create a systematic violent society”.
The Grand Prize went to the Georgian director Nana Ekvtimishvili and her co-director Simon Gross for their In Bloom film and “energetic recreation of reality in cinema”.
The International Film Festival FILMeX was established by Takeshi Kitano’s Kitano Office in 2000. Its 14th edition took place from November 23rd to December 1st at the Yurakucho Asahi Hall in Tokyo.
This year has been extremely fruitful for the young Kazakhstan director. He won the Best New Director Grand Jury Prize at Seattle IFF, the Award for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Silver Bear) at Berlinale IFF and the NETPAC Award at Abu Dhabi FF.