Venezuela’s Marcel Rasquin’s Brother (Hermano) was presented with the Golden St George Grand Prix at this year’s Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), which closed on Saturday evening [26] with jury president Luc Besson’s latest film The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec.

Rasquin’s feature debut about two brothers in the slums of Caracas dreaming of becoming footballers had its world premiere in Moscow.

A double triumph was scored by another feature debutant, Germany’s Johannes Naber, with his immigration drama The Albanian. It picked up the Special Jury Prize and the Silver St George for best actor for Albanian actor Nik Xhelilaj.

Following its world premiere at MIFF, The Albanian will now screen at next week’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the East Of The West competition.

In addition, the Silver St George prize for best director went to Poland’s Jan Kidawa-Blonski’s Little Rose, and Czech actress Vilma Cibulkova was named best actress for her role in Irena Pavlaskova’s An Earthly Paradise For The Eyes.

Meanwhile, the jury of the Perspectives competition headed by veteran UK director John Irvin awarded its Silver St George for best film to Polish filmmaker Borys Lankosz for his black comedy Reverse.

At the same time, the pronounced French flavour of this year’s MIFF edition – the festival programme included retrospectives of Claude Chabrol and Luc Besson as well as films by Godard and Resnais – was underscored at the end of the festival by the awarding of a special prize to Emmanuelle Beart, who appeared in the competition film It Begins With The End (Ca Commence Par La Fin) by her husband Michael Cohen for “outstanding achievement in her acting career and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky’s school.”

The 10-day event posted more than 25,000 admissions. For more information about the festival programme visit www.moscowfilmfestival.ru.

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