Director Ira Sachs' Keep The Lights
On has won the Teddy Award at the 62nd Berlin
International Film Festival, also known as Berlinale.
The film traces the relationship of two
men – documentary filmmaker Erik (played by Thure Lindhardt, Flame
and Citron) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth, Damages)
– from a casual encounter in
1977 New York City through all its highs and lows over the the next
many years. Each is haunted by his own compulsions and addictions.
(A trailer for the film is embedded in the right panel of this page.
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In an
interview conducted during the festival, Sachs said his film, which
premiered at Sundance, was inspired by events in his own life.
“I
ended a relationship in 2007. And really on the last day of the
relationship I was aware that there was a last day and there was a
first day ten years before, and there was a really compelling story
somewhere in between those two dates,” Sachs said.
The
Teddy, now in its 26th
year, recognizes the best gay and lesbian cinema at the festival. In
2010, American director Lisa Cholodenko took home the prize with the
lesbian moms movie The Kids Are All Right.