CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2021 : ‘Unclenching the Fists’ wins Un Certain Regard Top Prize

TBP Desk

‘Unclenching the Fists’, Kira Kovalenko’s Russian drama about a young woman struggling to escape the stifling hold of her family, has claimed the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s 2021 Un Certain Regard competition, reports Hollywood Reporter.

The winners were revealed in an awards ceremony held in the Debussy Theatre on Friday, where other honourees included Sebastian Meise’s ‘Great Freedom’, which earned the Jury Prize, and ‘Lamb’, the Icelandic drama starring Noomi Rapace (which A24 picked up during the festival), which was awarded the Prize of Originality (one of several new entry awards this year). In the last Un Certain Regard competition in 2019, the top prize went to Karim Ainouz’s ‘The Invisible Life’ of Euridice Gusmao.

‘Rehana Maryam Noor’, a film directed by Bangladeshi filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad, also screened at the prestigious Un Certain Regard section.

This year’s Un Certain Regard competition opened with Arthur Hariri’s Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, about a Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after the end of WWII. Other films in the 20-strong lineup featured a major assortment of on-screen talent, including Justin Chon’s immigration drama for Focus Features, ‘Blue Bayou’, starring Alicia Vikander; Kogonada’s science-fiction ‘After Yang’, starring Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith (also with A24); and ‘Women Do Cry’, starring Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout Maria Bakalova.

British filmmaker Andrea Arnold, who presented her documentary Cow out of competition, headed up the 2021 jury, which also included Franco-Algerian director Mounia Meddour, Cesar-winning French actress Elsa Zyblerstein, Argentine filmmaker Daniel Burman and Michael Covino, whose comedy-drama The Climb (which he wrote, produced and starred in), won the Un Certain Regard Heart prize in 2019.