Cristian Mungiu takes Palme d’Or

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's “Fior” won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, at the festival’s closing ceremony Friday in Cannes, France.

The victory marked Mungiu’s fourth major award at Cannes. He previously won the Palme d’Or for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and later received the festival’s best director and best screenplay awards.

“Fior” tells the story of a Norwegian-Romanian couple who move to a remote village and clash with their neighbors over religious differences.

Accepting the Palme d’Or at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, Mungiu said films should address the issues shaping contemporary society. “Films should talk about the important questions that help us understand where the world is heading,” he said. “Those stories begin with paying attention to the people around us and the people we love.”

He said the film was intended as a rejection of extremism and a call for tolerance, inclusion and empathy in an increasingly polarized world.

Park Chan-wook, who served as president of the competition jury and became the first Korean filmmaker to hold the role, drew laughter at a post-ceremony news conference. “To be honest, I didn't want to give the Palme d’Or to anyone,” Park said. “It's an award I've never won.” He then joked that the jury had little choice because one film stood out above the rest, a remark that playfully echoed the title of his recent film, “No Other Choice.”

The Grand Prix, Cannes’ second-highest honor, went to “Minotaur” by Andrey Zvyagintsev. The best director prize was shared by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo for “La Bola Negra” and Paweł Pawlikowski for “Fatherland.”

Emmanuel Marquia and Valentin Campagne shared the best actor award for “Coward,” while Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto jointly received the best actress prize for “All of a Sudden.”

South Korea’s sole competition entry, Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” did not receive an award.

Yeon Sang-ho’s “Colony,” screened in the Midnight Screenings section, surpassed 1 million admissions in South Korea within four days of its May 21 release.


김태언 기자 beborn@donga.com