Mullan wins Golden Lion in Venice

[Celyn]

This is taken from today's Herald website at http://www.theherald.co.uk/


Mullan wins Golden Lion in Venice


Film looking at abuse in convent wins prestigious accolade for Scottish actor-director
VICKY COLLINS

PETER Mullan, the Scottish actor-director, last night won the Venice Film Festival's prestigious Golden Lion for his film The Magdalene Sisters, an unflinching look at abuse and cruelty inside a Catholic convent in Ireland.

The movie, which has been denounced by the Vatican, beat 20 other nominees including Dirty Pretty Things by Stephen Frears, and Far From Heaven, which features Holywood stars Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid.

It tells the true story of four supposedly promiscuous girls interned in the Magdalene Asylums in the 1960s, who the film claims were forced to work as virtual slaves in laundries and abused by the Sisters of Mercy.

Sporting a blue kilt and purple velvet jacket, Mullan last night accepted the trophy for his second movie, and said it was a great honour that his film was chosen.

"The film is not just about the Catholic Church and how they repress young women in Ireland, it's about all faiths, all fundamentalist faiths, that believe they have the right to oppress young women," he said.

"But if they can free themselves in their minds, they can start to fight back."

Mullan, who won a best actor award at Cannes in 1998 for his lead role in My Name Is Joe, landed four awards at the Venice festival in the same year for his directorial debut film, Orphans.

His latest film was enthusiastically received by audiences at the festival, but slated by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano as an "angry and rancorous provocation" that misrepresented religious leaders. The film was produced by PFP Films, a Glasgow-based company.

Frances Higson, who produced the Magdalene Sisters, last night said that everyone at PFP was "absolutely thrilled" with the award, but expressed more serious hopes for the film than recognition by the world's oldest festivals.

"The Vatican has condemned this film, and it will probably be quite controversial, but I hope it will force the Catholic Church to pay compensation to these women that were so badly damaged by their experience," she said.

"At the very least I hope it makes more people aware of what happened at this convent.

"Peter would not use any big names in the film and it was a real struggle to get the finance together for it, so this award has made it all worthwhile."

Mullan was the only British nominee to win an award last night. Best actress went to Julianne Moore for her role as a perfect 1950s American housewife whose life falls apart in Far from Heaven, and Stefano Accorsi, the Italian heart-throb, took home the prize for best actor for his portrayal of poet Dino Campana in Un Viaggio Chiamato Amore (A Journey Called Love).

The runner-up Jury Grand Prix prize went to Dom Durakov (House of Fools), by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky, which focuses on the inmates in a psychiatric hospital in Chechnya who are completely unaware of the looming war with Russia.

South Korea's "Oasis", about a man who falls in love with a young woman with cerebral palsy, took home two prizes: a special director's award for Lee Chang-dong and the award for best young actor or actress to Moon So-ri.

Tian Zhuangzhuang's Chinese-language "Xiaocheng Zhi Chun" (Springtime In A Small Town) beat 18 other nominees to win the San Marco prize for cutting-edge works.