Peruvian film bags IFFK award

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 17 (IANS): Curtains came down Friday on the ninth International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) with "Days of Santiago", a Peruvian movie, bagging the best film award.

Two hundred and twenty two films from 62 countries were screened at the festival that began Dec 10 here.

Directed by Josue Mendez, the 83-minute "Days Of Santiago" tells the tale of a marine who is back in Lima after fighting terrorists and drug traffickers. But life becomes difficult for the marine as he finds Lima a chaotic city.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs.1 million.

The Best Director's Award, carrying a cash prize or Rs.3 million, went to the Filipino director Mark Meily who directed the film "Crying Ladies".

Lebanese director Bahj Hojeij was selected as the best debut director for his film "Ring Of Fire" and was awarded Rs.100,000.

"Album", an Iranian film directed by Reza Heydarnejad bagged the best audience film while the Chinese film "Endless Way", directed by Shen Wensheng, bagged the second best audience film.

Kerala ministers K.C.Venugopal and A.P.Anilkumar presented the awards at a function.

The jury consisted of award winning Mexican director Paul Leduc, Simon Field from England, Mama Keita and Nadine Tarbouriech from France and Farhan Akhtar from India.