by Crispian Balmer
VENICE, September 10 (Reuters) – The documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by American director Laura Poitras was crowned with a Golden Lion on Saturday at the end of the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival, which also rewarded “Saint-Omer”, by the French Alice Diop, winner of the Grand Jury Prize.
“All The Beauty And The Bloodshed” narrates the fight of photographer Nan Goldin against the Sackler family, owners of the pharmaceutical group Purdue and accused of having fueled the opiate crisis in the United States.
The Silver Lion rewards “Saint-Omer”, the first feature film by Alice Diop which is inspired by a real case, that of Fabienne Kabou, sentenced in 2016 to twenty years in prison by the Assize Court of Saint -Omer for murdering his daughter, Adlade, on the beach at Berck (Pas-de-Calais).
The prize for female interpretation goes to Australian Cate Blanchett for “TR”, the prize for male interpretation goes to Irishman Colin Farrell in the tragicomic film “The Banshees Of Inisherin”. (Report Roberto Mignucci and Crispian Balmer, French version Sophie Louet)