“Toxic” by Lithuanian director Saulé Bliuvaité wins the Golden Leopard in Locarno

It's raining awards for female directors, a downpour that was eagerly awaited throughout the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, which took place in sweltering heat from Wednesday, August 7, to Saturday, August 17. At the end of the 77th^th The Golden Leopard went to Akipleša (Poisonousinternational title), the first feature film by Lithuanian director Saulé Bliuvaité, chaired by Austrian director Jessica Hausner.

Presented on the last day of the competition, Poisonous is about teenagers who dream of escaping their village in the middle of nowhere. A local modeling agency promising careers in Paris or New York becomes the center of attention, and the tall, thin girls seem to do anything to lose a few extra inches from their waist (including vomiting), reviving practices that were considered relics of the past.

The camera follows two 13-year-olds (Vesta Matulytė and Ieva Rupeikaité) in a bluish, minimalist aesthetic. This dark teen film, with its critique of societal pressure to be thin, corresponds to themes that Hausner deals with, especially in her latest film, Club Zero (2023), which examines eating disorders within a group of college students.

Balanced programming

This year, the jury’s special prize went to moon (moon) by Kurdish-Austrian director Kurdwin Ayub, one of the most stimulating thrillers in the competition, dealing with the clash of cultures (Western and Middle Eastern), with nerves of steel from performance artist Florentina Holzinger, known for her radical performance art shows. In the film, she plays an MMA (mixed martial arts) trainer who agrees to go to Jordan to train three sisters from a wealthy family. Once there, she becomes disillusioned.

Another Lithuanian filmmaker (and cinematographer), Laurynas Bareiša, won the award for Best Director for Seses (Dry drowning). In a rare case, the four actors of this drama won one of the acting awards, as their performances were particularly virtuosic and complementary. They play two couples who struggle with gender stereotypes before the director decides to “break” his story to take it into a morbid but suspenseful zone – by observing his actors with a magnifying glass, having them repeat scenes and work on redundancy – the director gives this feature film, which is just under an hour and a half long, an unexpected breadth.

Hong Sang-soo’s South Korean star and favorite actress, Kim Min-hee, received the other acting award for her role in Suyoocheon (At the stream) by the South Korean master. In this work, the filmmaker proves that he can address current events while maintaining his stylistic elegance. The brilliant actress had already won the Golden Bear for Best Actress in Berlin in 2017 for her performance in Alone on the beach at nightalso by Hong Sang-soo.

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