Recently, actress Arian Askarid won the golden Marcos Avrelius statuette for her role in Rober Gedikyan’s film “Return to Armenia” as the main character during an international film festival in Rome. The film, which has already been shown in Armenia during the “Golden Apricot” international film festival, is about going back to one’s roots and getting rich by remembering one’s identity. The film was shot in Armenia and presents the not too distant dark yet beautiful past of Armenia. Arian Askarid plays her role perfectly.
“I play a woman who understands the meaning of happiness by going into the minor details and remembering things,” says Askarid, who is also the co-author of the film’s screenplay.
Russian film director Kiril Serebrenikov won in the best film category with his film “Playing a Victim”. The hero of the film is a 30-year old man from Moscow, who earns a living by playing the victim in car accidents and forensic experiments. Howeve,r his life turns around when his father’s phantom visits him and tells him the secret about his death just like Hamlet’s father. The impossibility of escaping one’s desiny and the comic scenes are also present in Rober Gedikyan’s film.
This is the first international film festival in Rome and the event organizers have added something new: the audience picks the best films instead of the professional jury. The 50-member “popular jury” picked the winners and the head of the jury was well-known Italian film director Etore Schola. In contrast to the Venetian and Canne film festivals, the Rome film festival tries to appreciate the production of “popular” films more than the grand films. As the event organizers say, “This isn’t a festival; it’s a celebration of film”. That approach differs from the principle of being politically correct by which other film festivals organizers move forward. The “best film” is the one that the audience likes the most.