Girl From Nowhere wins Swiss festival jackpot

Get short URL

Published time: August 13, 2012 15:09
Edited time: August 13, 2012 19:09

Hollywood movies may boast multi-million dollar budgets, but European filmmakers have learnt to survive on half a shoestring. A French drama made "with nothing" but the director’s own savings, has won top honors at a festival in Switzerland.

­The Girl From Nowhere from Jean-Claude Brisseau has picked up the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. The jury described it as "bold and entertaining".

It cost the director $76,000 to create his Girl, and it paid off straight away with the top prize giving Brisseau over $90,000.

The film was set in the director’s own apartment in Paris, with just one camera used during the shooting. Brisseau also played one of the leading roles in the movie.

"I wanted to make a little film with nothing," he explained noting that it is possible to convey emotions with modest means at disposal.

The Girl From Nowhere depicts a lonely widower, a retired maths teacher, whose life alters after a homeless girl Dora shows up on his doorstep injured.