Two Lithuanian films picked up three of the top awards on the final day of the Locarno Film Festival Saturday. "Toxic", a film about the bond between two teenage aspiring models seeking to escape their bleak home town, won the top prize. The debut feature-length movie by Lithuania's Saule Bliuvaite saw off competition from 16 other films to win the Golden Leopard at Switzerland's largest film event.
Bliuvaite, at 30, was the youngest director competing for the Golden Leopard. She said her film was about an age when people are in transition between childhood and adulthood, fitting in neither role. "The sense of being stuck between two worlds and looking for direction is universal," the Lithuanian said.
The runner-up Special Jury Prize went to the Austrian movie "Mond", directed by Kurdwin Ayub. And a second Lithuanian film "Drowning Dry", about sisters dealing with trauma, picked up two major awards. Laurynas Bareisa won the best director's award while actors Gelmine Glemzaite, Agne Kaktaite, Giedrius Kiela, Paulius Markevicius picked up a collective best performance award.
"It's a huge thing for Lithuania," said Glemzaite. "It's the first time in history that we got so lucky: two movies in one competition -- and three prizes," she said. Kim Min-hee won the other best performance award, for her role in the South Korean movie "By The Stream", a drama set in a school.
"I find the film incredibly beautiful, and strangely touching my heart in a way that I can't explain," she said..