TOKYO, Oct. 25, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- ''Eastern Plays,'' a Bulgarian movie about two brothers who go through various problems in their lives, won the top prize at the 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival as the event came to a close Sunday.
The movie's director Kamen Kalev was also given the best director award, and the best actor award went to Christo Christov, who played himself as the main character. Kalev received the latter prize on behalf of Christov, who died from drug addiction toward the end of the film's shooting.
''Eastern Plays,'' Kalev's first feature film which made its Asian premiere in Tokyo, was among 15 works entered in the main competition section for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix, the top award which comes with prize money of $50,000.
The 89-minute movie depicts events that occur after two brothers who had lost contact were suddenly reunited in Sofia. Kalev said many elements of the movie were based on the real life of Christov, an artist who suffered from alcoholism.
''I was really almost shocked that Christo received the award for best actor,'' Kalev said at a press conference following the film festival's award ceremony. ''I was thinking that an award should be something that encourages people to keep going (but realized) it's also a memory that you create.''
Kalev said he used many nonprofessional actors, including Christov, so the film would be ''more realistic,'' adding, ''It's really close to what Christo was experiencing and the way he was suffering and the way he was looking at the world. And that is something that we human beings all kind of confront every day.''
Mexican-born director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who headed the six-member international jury for the competition section, praised Kalev for a work that ''stands out'' from the others.
''It's a film that, in a few words, in a subtle way, captures the essence of young people in a very dramatic and complex social, economic situation with racist problems, surrounded and trapped in the world we're living in. And there's a note at the end, which is hope,'' Inarritu said.
''I was really moved by the main character Christo Christov and wherever he is, he has to be very happy and very proud,'' he added.
The Special Jury Prize went to ''Rabia,'' a Spanish-Colombian joint production about the intricate relationship between a man on the run who hides in a mansion in Spain and a live-in maid there, directed by Ecuador's Sebastian Cordero.
The best actress award was presented to Julie Gayet, who plays a woman who loses her job and her apartment but still struggles to carry on with her life in ''Eight Times Up,'' a French work directed by Xabi Molia.
The film of choice among members of the audience was a Canadian film, ''The Trotsky,'' directed by Jacob Tierney portraying with comedic touch a high school student who believes he is a reincarnation of Soviet iconoclast Leon Trotsky.
About 270 films from around the world were screened using green energy in Tokyo's Roppongi district, as the film festival was in its second year of promoting environmental preservation. More than 40,000 people watched the films presented this year, organizers said.
