El Principe by Chilean director
Sebastián Muñoz
has won the thirteenth annual Queer Lion prize at the 76th
annual Venice Film Festival in Italy.
The three-person jury announced the
winner on Thursday. Nine films competed for the prize which
recognizes films with queer elements playing at the festival.
This is the first time a Chilean film
has won the prize.
“El Príncipe is a passionate
portrait of life in a Chilean prison on the eve of [Salvador]
Allende’s rise to power in 1970,” the judges wrote. “The savage
brutality of prison life is contrasted by [the] intensely emotional
relationships between prisoners. Led by a towering Alfredo Castro,
the excellent ensemble cast give stirring performances of a powerful
script which conveys the paradoxical acceptance of gay attachments in
prison at a time when it was not socially acceptable. Sebastián
Muñoz’s directorial debut is a bold and erotically charged
exploration of recent history which reveals an unexpected tenderness
at its heart.”
The film, based on a novel written by
Mario Cruz in the early 70s, is Muñoz's
directorial debut.
The Venice Film Festival concluded on
Saturday.