AP News, February 17th, 2007
Director Wang Quan'an's "Tuya's Marriage," which follows the troubles of a young farming woman in fast-changing China, won the top Golden Bear award at the annual Berlin film festival on Saturday.
The movie stars Yu Nan as Tuya, a herdswoman in Inner Mongolia trying to resist pressure to leave her pastures and move to the city as China's industry expands.
"Tuya's Marriage" was chosen from among 22 competitors at the festival by a seven-member jury led by "Taxi Driver" screenwriter Paul Schrader.
They gave the best actor award to Argentina's Julio Chavez for his role in director Ariel Rotter's "El Otro" ("The Other") as Juan, a man who decides to take on a new identity amid a crisis triggered by his wife's pregnancy and his father's illness.
Best actress was Germany's Nina Hoss for her role in "Yella," directed by Christian Petzold. Hoss plays the heroine of the film's title, a young woman who quits her job and broken marriage and moves from eastern Germany to the west, and is increasingly haunted by voices and sounds from the past.
U.S.-born Israeli director Joseph Cedar won the best director award for "Beaufort," a portrait of fear and futility that depicts the lives of soldiers in a famed military outpost in southern Lebanon ahead of Israel's withdrawal from that country in 2000.
The top prize has often gone to less heralded productions such as "Tuya's Marriage," which was one of two Chinese entries at this year's festival. Last year's Golden Bear went to "Grbavica," a film by Jasmila Zbanic about the aftermath of the Bosnian war.
On Saturday, the cast of Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd" _ which traces the origins of the CIA through the eyes of one of its earliest agents, played by Matt Damon _ won the festival's award for an outstanding artistic contribution, but missed out on the major prizes.
Other U.S. entries _ including Steven Soderbergh's "The Good German" and Gregory Nava's "Bordertown," starring Gregory Nava _ also missed out, as did a strong contingent of four films by French directors _ including Olivier Dahan's "La Vie en Rose" and Francois Ozon's English-language "Angel."
The 57th Berlin festival opened on Feb. 8 and was to end Sunday.
