World Premiere and First Award for Naberšnik’s Shanghai Gypsy
Naberšnik’s script for Shanghai Gypsy is based on the novel Nedotakljivi (The Untouchables) by Feri Lainšček. The film was produced by Arsmedia, which also produced Naberšnik’s debut Rooster’s Breakfast.
The main award of the festival went to the Turkish film Atesin dustugu yer (Where the Fire Burns) by Ismail Gunes, while the award for best direction went to the Swedish director Jan Troell (for his biographical drama Dom över död man or The Last Sentence).
Shanghai Gypsy focuses on the members of a Roma family. It is a story of four generations, told from the viewpoint of the head of the family, a Roma king who decided to found his own Roma village and call it Shanghai. The film is a story about the eternal yearning for happiness, a tale of love, family ties, set into the time of Yugoslavia’s demise, when many people have already forgotten that life’s wonders hide in little things.
The best films of the festivals were selected by an international jury consisting of president Greta Scacchi, French producer and director Vera Blemont, Canadian actor Michel Cote, South Korean actor Kim Dong Ho, Russian film critic and writer Andrej Plakhov, Spanish actress Goja Toledo, and Chinese actor Wang Xueqi.
Shanghai Gypsy was co‑financed by the Slovenian Film Centre. Its Slovenian premiere is going to take place on 27 September 2012 at the opening of the 15th Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož.
