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Abortion pic tops Cannes prizes
By Sherna Noah, This Is London 29.05.07
...and the Palme d'Or goes to...
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A Romanian film has won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival - while a British film about Joy Division star Ian Curtis got a special mention at the ceremony.
Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days, a Romanian illegal abortion story set in the final days of Communism, was a favourite to beat the 21 other films to the title.
There was a dose of good news for Britain - which has no films in the official competition - when the acclaimed small-budget film Control got a special mention.
The film, starring an unknown, Sam Riley, as well as Samantha Morton as Curtis's wife, has been taking Cannes by storm.
The director had to plough his own money into the black-and-white film because he was refused UK public cash for his first feature film.
US director Gus Van Sant won a prize for his new film Paranoid Park to celebrate Cannes 60th anniversary.
He previously won the Palme d'Or for Elephant in 2003.
Another US filmmaker, Julian Schnabel, won best director for The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a French film about the editor of French Elle who overcame odds by managing to communicate with just his left eye after suffering a massive stroke.
Two films won jury prizes, including Persepolis, an animated French film about a rebellious eight-year-old in Tehran's Islamic Republic directed by French Iranian Marjane Satrapi.
The other film to take the award was Silent Light, about Mennonites by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas.
Russian Konstantin Lavronenko won best actor for his role in the Russian film The Banishment.
There were 22 films competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 60th Cannes Film Festival.
The international jury was headed by British director Stephen Frears.
Last year, Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley took the big prize. But this year no British films were in competition.
The 12-day event in the South of France has seen the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and Jude Law on the red carpet promoting their films.
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