Venice Days Winners: Argentinian Director Maria Aparicio’s ‘Sadness Sometimes, Sometimes Rebellion’ Claims Top Prize

Argentinian director Maria Aparicio’s drama “Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion” — which mixes personal and political elements — has scored the Venice Days director’s award, the section’s top prize.

“Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion,” which marks Aparicio’s fourth feature, follows a woman named Eva who is passing through Madrid. “She spends her days there alone: she doesn’t know anyone and isn’t particularly interested in getting to know new people,” says the official synopsis. “The city is therefore an unfamiliar place where she wanders aimlessly, her curiosity somewhat dampened. But one afternoon, at the Reina Sofía Museum, a man approaches her. His name is Dante and he is an Argentinian historian researching labor struggles in his country and the career of Juan Bialet Massé” [who was a pioneer of labor law and public health in Argentina].”

Eva Bianco stars as Eva, while Roger Koza plays Dante.

The jury, headed by Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón, said in a statement: “A woman. A man. Encounters and missed encounters. A possible love story. Two great actors. A film that portrays the solitude of the present, holding together an intimate dimension and a political charge, inviting us to think about labor, immigration and privilege through a delicate mise en scène built on small gestures rather than big events.”

The statement continued, “The personal and the collective, fiction and documentary, history and present time merge into a single breath. We left the cinema deeply moved, by a sadness and a spirit of rebellion that do not oppose one another, but coexist, as two faces of the same disorientation.”

The section’s top award comes with a cash prize of €20,000 ($23,000). This is to be split equally between the filmmaker and the film’s international distributor, which is Spain’s Paper Moon.

“Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion” is lead produced by Argentina’s La Buena Hora Cine.

The Europa Cinemas Label for best European film in the section, awarded by a separate jury, went to French filmmaker Robert Guèdiguian’s “A Woman Today,” about a young woman named Juliette who holds a top job in finance and whose world collapses when she is assaulted by a colleague at a company event. “A Woman Today” will benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas, the EU-funded entity that provides support to movie theaters that show European films.

The Venice Days People’s Choice Award, based on preferences expressed at the end of the screenings, went to Italian director Nicola Sorcinelli’s “Balcanica,” about Afghan musicians traveling along the Balcan route after music has been banned in their country, starring Matilda De Angelis (“Citadel: Diana”) who is also a co-producer on the film. “Balcanica” scored 76% of the audience votes.