Bulgarian Film 'Aga' Wins Top Prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival

LOS ANGELES, Aug 18, (RTRS): The 24th Sarajevo Film Festival has awarded its top prize to Bulgarian director Milko Lazarov's 'Aga'. The Yakut-language movie, which saw its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, tells the story of a troubled Inuit family.

'Aga' won the Heart of Sarajevo, the festival's prize for best feature film, which includes a EUR16,000 ($18,200) award. The movie, a co-production between Bulgaria, Germany and France, was co-written by Lazarov and Simeon Ventsislavov.

'Aga' centers on an isolated Inuit couple who hold on to their traditions while global warming and the modern world encroach. When the wife's health deteriorates, the husband decides to fulfill her last wish by embarking on a long journey to find their daughter, Aga, who deserted the couple long ago. Variety's Jay Weissberg called the film a 'handsome paean to a dying culture.'

For the second year running, the festival's best director prize went to a Romanian filmmaker. Director Ioana Uricaru took home the award for her sophomore feature, 'Lemonade', which also made its debut in Berlin.

Hungarian actress Zsofia Szamosi won the best actress award for 'One Day', and the best actor prize went to Croatian Leon Lucev for 'The Load'. Both titles saw their debuts in Cannes in May.

Headed

The festival's jury was headed by two-time Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi and included Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze, whose 'Scary Mother' won the Heart of Sarajevo in 2017; Croatian actress Judita Frankovic Brdar; French photographer Brigitte Lacombe; and Mike Goodridge, artistic director of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao.

A special Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award was presented to Turkish filmmaker...