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NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Turkish-German drama "When We Leave" and the Down syndrome romance documentary "Monica & David" (pictured) have won top honors at the ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival.
"When We Leave," which stars Sibel Kekilli as a mother who flees her abusive husband by moving with her 5-year-old son from Istanbul to Berlin, won best narrative feature. Kekilli also won best actress.
The jury that decided the category, which included actors Hope Davis and Aaron Eckhart, said in a statement that "When We Leave" ''examines one woman's struggle for personal freedom. It's a theme that is often explored — but rarely told with such humanity, subtlety, craftsmanship or immediacy."
"Monica & David," which won best documentary, chronicles the love between two people with Down syndrome. It was directed by Alexandra Codina, Monica's cousin.
Best actor in a narrative feature film went to Eric Elmosnino, who plays the French musician Serge Gainsbourg in "Gainsbourg, Je t'Aime ... Moi Non Plus."
The festival also singled out two new filmmakers: Kim Chapiron, the director of the youth correctional facility drama "Dog Pound," and Clio Barnard, the director of the British documentary-fiction hybrid "The Arbor."
Jane Rosenthal, who co-founded the festival with Robert De Niro and her husband, entrepreneur Craig Hatkoff, said: "The award-winning films selected by the jury each features strong characters and subjects; these films challenge you to see the world from another perspective."
The awards were handed out April 29 at a ceremony in New York. Tribeca, which finishes May 2, will screen "Freakonomics" on April 30 as its closing film.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From The Associated Press:
