‘Caesar Must Die’ wins Golden Bear

Documentary shows inmates of a prison staging Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Italian directors Vittorio (R) and Paolo Taviani celebrate with the Golden Bear prize awarded for their film "Caesar Must Die" (Cesare deve morire) on February 18, 2012 in Berlin as they leave the Berlinale Palast after the awards ceremony of the 62nd Berlinale International Film Festival. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL

Italian documentary Caesar Must Die ( Cesare deve morire ), showing inmates of a high-security prison staging Shakespeare's “Julius Caesar”, was awarded the Berlin film festival's top award on Saturday.

Directors Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani received the Golden Bear award out of 18 contenders at what is the first of the year's major European film festivals. The Taviani brothers, both in their early 80s, thanked the international jury led by British director Mike Leigh and sent their greetings to the inmates of Rome's Rebibbia prison, including former mafia leaders, who starred in the film.

“I hope that someone, going home, after seeing

Caesar Must Die will think that even an inmate, on whose head is a terrible punishment, is, and remains, a man. And this thanks to the sublime words of Shakespeare,” said Mr. Vittorio Taviani.

The two filmmakers spent six months following the rehearsals for the play. The documentary does not dwell on the crimes the inmates have committed, but shows the actors immerse themselves in the play's web of friendship and betrayal, power, dishonesty and violence. But after the premiere, the cell doors slam shut behind Caesar, Brutus and the others, leaving them to return to their lives behind bars.

“We chose ‘Julius Caesar' for one clear reason. We were working in a prison, that meant it was easy to get the message across with this play where actors are talking about freedom, about tyranny, about assassinations, and murder,” said Mr. Paolo Taviani through a translator.

The festival's runner-up Silver Bear went to Hungarian director Bence Fliegauf for

Just the Wind , which focuses on the lives of a family of Roma as their community faces a series of deadly attacks.

The film features an amateur Roma or Gypsies cast and depicts the long-suffering, grimly silent mother Mari (Katalin Toldi), her elderly invalid father and two children who struggle to make ends meet and dream of emigrating one day to Canada against the quietly menacing backdrop of a series of killings in their out-of-the-way neighbourhood.

The film takes its cue from true-life murders that happened in 2008-9, though Mr. Fliegauf has stressed that it does not document those killings.

Roma, who make up an estimated 5-8 per cent of Hungary's 10 million people, battle deep prejudice and have been deeply affected by the loss of guaranteed jobs after the end of communism more than 20 years ago.

The Silver Bear for Best Actor went to Mikkel Boe Folsgaard for his role in Royal Affair , and the award for the Best Actress went to Rachel Mwanza (14), for her role as a Congolese child soldier in War Witch .

The Silver Bear for the Best Director went to German filmmaker Christian Petzold for Barbara which depicts the life of a young physician in the 1980s who wants to escape from then communist East Germany to join her lover in West Germany.