Swedish director Andersson with the Golden Lion Award for his movie En duva satt pa en gren och funderade pa tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence).

 

DPA/Venice

 

A surreal Swedish film with an eccentric title won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival yesterday, after emerging as the critics’ favourite among 20 contenders.

Directed by Roy Andersson, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch While Reflecting on Existence consists of deadpan sketches built around two central characters – a couple of sad-faced salesmen who peddle cheap party tricks.

In his acceptance speech, Andersson paid tribute to Italian neo-realist master Vittorio De Sica, and in particular to his film Bicycle Thieves, which he hailed as “humanist and full of empathy”.

“I think that is what cinema should be,” he said. “I will go on and try to make as good films as Vittorio De Sica’s,” the 71-year-old director added.

Mocking the absurdity of the human condition, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch While Reflecting on Existence evoked comparisons with the work of Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki and Andersson’s more famous compatriot Ingmar Bergman.

Its beautifully constructed scenes, which took at least one month each to shoot, were inspired by the painters Edward Hopper and Bruegel the Elder.

“I think that today’s films concentrate too much on narrative and not enough on visual quality,” Andersson said after the film’s premiere on Tuesday.

Reviews have been enthusiastic. The Daily Telegraph said the movie was “heaven”, while Variety described it as “a mournfully riotous joy, pockets of devastation amid aching laughs”.

The Silver Lion for the best director went to Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky for The Postman’s White Nights, a naturalistic look at a remote rural village that used non-professional actors.

The Look of Silence, a documentary by US-born Joshua Oppenheimer on anti-Communist purges in 1960s Indonesia, picked up a Grand Jury Prize.

It was a follow-up to Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing, from 2012.

The stars of Italian movie Hungry Hearts – Adam Driver and Alba Rohrwacher – won the Volpi Cup for best actor and best actress; Turkey’s Sivas, by Kaan Mujdeci got a Special Jury Prize; the award for best script went to Iran’s Tales.

Thirteen-year-old Romain Paul, who was in the French coming-of-age drama Le Dernier Coup de Marteau, won the Mastroianni Cup for best upcoming acting talent.

Mexican-born director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman, seen as a strong Golden Lion contender, went away empty-handed.

It was a black comedy about a washed-up actor from a superhero franchise, played with self-irony by former Batman star Michael Keaton.

The nine-member jury was headed by French film composer Alexandre Desplat.

He said that after “very animated discussions”, the panel picked films that left a mark for their “philosophical, political, humanistic and poetic content”.

“Long live music, long live cinema,” he said before reading out the winners.

The festival closed with a screening of The Golden Era, a biopic of radical Chinese female writer Xiao Hong, directed by Hong Kong director Ann Hui.

She also led the jury for Orizzonti, a festival side section that screened more experimental movies. It gave its top prize to an Indian film, Court by Chaitanya Tamhane.