Rebel, a terrifying drama about the war in Syria and its consequences for European Arab youth directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, has won the award for best film at the BCN Film Fest, which has concluded its seventh edition with the screening of Sica, by Carla Subirana, and a resounding success with more than 18,000 spectators.

The film, which could be seen in the official section out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year, tells the story of some brothers who go to Syria forced to fight for ISIS and everything that happens there is a challenge for the senses of the spectator, since the camera of the filmmakers shows with all the harshness and with an unbridled rhythm the horror of jihadism at the hands of characters turned into antiheroes.

At the closing ceremony held at the Verdi cinemas, the Danish Bille August won best director for The Impatience of the Heart, an adaptation of the famous novel by Stefan Zweig. “It is the story of a man who has too much compassion, who feels sorry for a woman and that makes him promise things that he cannot fulfill,” he said in a Zoom conversation with this newspaper. August’s film has also triumphed as best film for its historical values ​​and the Castell de Peralada Festival award for best music by Henry Skram.

Steve Coogan, Michael Jones and Philippa Langley have been crowned in the category of best screenplay for The lost king, by Stephen Frears, a tragicomedy based on real events in which Sally Hawkins gets into the shoes of a television writer in low hours who becomes obsessed with the figure of Richard III and ends up dismantling the version of the usurper and sinister character represented by Shakespeare, while at the same time managing to find the remains of the King of England in 2012, hidden under a car park in the city of Leicester.

Omar Sy, awarded the Honor Award at the RNE Sant Jordi Cinematography Awards gala, has been awarded the best actor recognition for Father and Soldier, where he plays a man who enlists in the French army to try to protect his 17-year-old son, recruited against his will in the French colony of Senegal during World War I. The film, directed by Mathieu Vadepied, will be released in theaters on May 26.

As best actress, the jury chaired by Cesc Gay has chosen Fiorella Bottaioli for her work in La Uruguaya, by Argentine Ana Garcia Blaya. The film has also received the critics’ award (ACCEC) and is based on the best-selling novel by Pedro Mairal that recounts the journey of a writer who travels to Montevideo to look for money and meets Guerra, a 25-year-old girl. free spirit. For her part, Adriana Arratia won the nous talents award for best short film for Death in Torrevieja, a portrait of a stagnant Spain that lives from day to day and seeks easy money.

The festival directed by Conxita Casanovas has screened a total of 71 films this year, of which 22 have been world premieres, two international, 17 Spanish and eleven Catalan. “The festival has shone like never before. The BCN Film Fest has been a storm of nine days of cinema and emotions, filling theaters and prolonging discussions. This seventh edition, in which we have had the presence of great international figures and we have been on everyone’s lips, projects us towards new challenges for the future and consolidates us as the Barcelona film festival that many people demand”, Conxita declared. Casanovas, director of the contest.

Among these international figures, it is worth highlighting the German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who was honored with the festival’s Honor Award and a retrospective of his extensive filmography. The BCN Film Fest, which raised the curtain on April 20 with the comedy My crime, by François Ozon, has screened a total of 71 films, of which 22 have been world premieres, two international, 17 Spanish and eleven Catalan . The eighth edition already has a date: from April 18 to 26, 2024.