Wang’s film wins top San Sebastian award
Virginie Grognou

SAN SEBASTIAN—Hong Kong-born director Wayne Wang’s “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” won the best film and best actor awards at the 55th annual San Sebastian film festival in Spain on Saturday. Based on a short story by the same name by award-winning author Yiyun Li, the movie depicts the tensions that follow when a widower from Beijing, Mr Shi, goes to the US to visit his recently divorced daughter Yilan. “It was a small film that needed a lot of time to be done because I think films need to breathe, like us,” said Wang who was named after his father’s favourite actor, John Wayne.
“Not every story has to have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,” he added. The movie marked a return to low-budget filmmaking for Wang, 58, whose recent films include “Maid in Manhattan” (2002) staring US singer Jennifer Lopez and “The Last Holiday” (2006) featuring Queen Latifah.
It was one of 16 movies competing for the Golden Shell prize for best film at festival, the oldest and most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world. The jury was presided by US author and director Paul Auster who Wang worked with on the 1995 independent film “Smoke” and its sequel “Blue in the Face”.
The two men stopped speaking to each other several years later after having a falling out while working on another project. Chinese-American character actor Henry O, 79, who won the best actor award for his portrayal of Mr Shi, has appeared in several US television series including “The Sopranos”, “ER” and “The West Wing” as well as in movies such as “The Last Emperor”. Spain’s Blanca Portillo won the prize for best actress for her role as Charo in Gracia Querejeta’s film “Seven Billiards Tables”. Britain’s Nick Broomfield took the prize for best director for his “Battle for Haditha” about the killing in Iraq in 2005 of 24 civilians by US marines. “Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame”, by 18-year-old Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf, won the jury’s special prize.
Set in central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan valley, where the Taliban blew up the two giant Buddhas in 2001, the movie depicts a young Afghan girl’s harrowing struggle to get an education. “Thank you very much. I was just thinking that if cinema and poetry didn’t exist the world would only be violence,” said Makhmalbaf. The 10-day festival opened with the screening of Canadian director David Cronenberg’s “Eastern Promises” about the Russian mafia in London starring Australian actress Naomi Watts and US actor Viggo Mortensen.
Among the other films in competition for the best picture prize were Paolo Barzman’s “Emotional Arithmetic” depicting a reunion of three survivors of World War II and Iciar Bollain’s “Mataharis” about three private detectives. The festival wrapped up on Saturday with the screening out of competition of British director Michael Radford’s “Flawless” starring US actress Demi Moore. In the movie, set in 1960s London, Moore plays a diamond company executive who joins forces with an elderly maintenance man to stage an audacious robbery.
“It’s an interesting observation of a woman trying to be an example in a time period when there was no place for women in business,” said Moore. US actor Richard Gere and Swedish actress Liv Ullmann were honoured with “Donostia” lifetime achievement awards at the festival.