At your service triumphs at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz festival

The German film by Kilian Armando Friedrich wins the Grand Prix in a list which also rewards two magnificent actors: Stefan Crepon and Ella Benoît

End clap this evening for the Saint-Jean de Luz international festival with the revelation of the winners concocted by the jury chaired by Zar Amir. The quality of the selection concocted by Patrick Fabre means that certain films are obviously left behind. We think of three of our favorites. Tell me everything by Moshe Rosenthal on a father-son relationship hit by the discovery of the former’s homosexuality in Israel in the 1980s against a backdrop of the growing AIDS epidemic. Fief by Thomas Vernay, chronicle of a group of friends stuck in their lives and their fears of leaving the place where they grew up. Green Eyes (in theaters November 11) by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh (Gagarin) which captures the despair of young refugees on the verge of being expelled from France to create a work where poetry and politics interact with rare harmony.

But choices had to be made. And the Zar Amir jury decided in favor ofHAS your servicethe first feature film by German director Kilian Armando Friedrich. A film on the borders of the cinema of the Dardenne brothers and Stéphane Brizé which features the customer service manager of an understaffed cleaning company caught between a rock and a hard place, between the increasingly demanding demands of her customers and the – legitimate – demands of employees on the verge of exhaustion

The directing prize was awarded to A faithful heart by the Spanish Julia de Paz Solvas, a powerful portrait of a teenager, the daughter of a divorced couple, who refuses to see her father’s violence before she ends up experiencing it at his expense. Stefan Crepon won the male performance prize for the quality of his composition in Researchers (in theaters January 6) by Aurélien Peilloux (also awarded a special mention from the jury for his director of photography Jeanne Lapoirie), a fascinating dive into the competitive world of young chemists. And, for her debut on the big screen, the astonishing Ella Benoît was crowned best performer for Beautiful lords by Maxime Roy (which she co-wrote), new ode to the damaged of life, to the magnificent broken arms with the noticed The Heroics. A film to discover on February 7

Finally, the Media jury prize and the Youth Jury prize agreed on Kairos by Canadian Jennifer Alleyn, portrait of a once-famous actor adrift who finds meaning in his life by becoming host of a nightly radio show giving voice to refugees, exiles for whom she becomes the only strong link with the world. Finally, the Audience Award crowned Journey to the land of white people by the Spanish Dani Sancho, adaptation of the autobiographical book by Ousman Umar recounting the perilous journey he undertook at the age of 14 from his small Ghanaian village to Europe.