Riverrun Fest is a Barrel of "Monkeys"
by Brian Brooks
Indie Wire
April 29, 2009

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s "Three Monkeys"
topped out with the best narrative feature prize
at the Riverrun International Film Festival, with
the film’s Hatice Aslan taking a jury prize for
best actress. “Monkeys” portrays a family that
suffers from a communication breakdown when the
father takes the blame for a crime he didn’t
commit. Canada’s "Mommy is at the Hairdresser’s"
by Lea Pool, meanwhile won the audience prize for
best feature. Italian Paolo Sorrentino won the
best director nod for his Italian politician
biopic, “Il Divo,” while the film also won best
actor (Toni Servillo) and best cinematography (Luca Bigazzi).

The jury award for best documentary went to Nati
Baratz’s "Unmistaken Child" (Israel). The film
follows a young monk on a trek through Nepal and
Tibet to find the reincarnation of his spiritual
master, providing a rare glimpse into a spiritual
world rarely seen by outsiders. “Food Inc.” by
Robert Kenner, meanwhile, took the audience prize
for best doc. The feature film shatters the
illusions of what we eat and examines the global
food supply and how unhealthy it has become.

Also receiving Riverrun accolades were "Tulpan,"
which took best screenplay (Sergey Dvortsevoy &
Gennady Ostrovskiy) for their story of an eager
young man in Kazakhstan who tries to get his own
flock of sheep and win the heart of the only
eligible bachelorette around. Best narrative
short and best documentary short went to “Pop
Art" by Amanda Boyle (UK) and "The Witness: From
the Balcony of Room 206" by Adam Pertofsky respetively.