Oscar Hopeful Feo Aladag’s ‘When We Leave’ Wins Lux Prize

Currently making the rounds for a Foreign Oscar bid, Feo Aladag’s Die Fremde (When We Leave) has just won the European Parliament’s Lux prize beating out fellow nominees in Olivier Masset-Depasse “Illegal” and “Akadimia Platonos” by Greek helmer Filippos Tsitos. In previous years was awarded to: Fatih Akın’s The Edge of Heaven, Dardenne Bros.’ Lorna’s Silence and last year’s Philippe Lioret’s Welcome. Olive Films will release When We Leave in January of next year. This win perhaps adds to the film’s cred as an ideal dark horse pic for the first Foreign nom category shortlist.

Gist: This examines one woman’s struggle for personal freedom. It is a riveting and heartbreaking story of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship, who must not only free herself from that marriage, but also the cultural prejudices and judgments that would keep her there. Feo Aladag built the nuances of her film over a six year period. She rehearsed her actors for seven months. She immersed herself in every detail of a culture that is revealed to us in remarkable detail. The result is a film that balances complex social issues with honest human yearnings.

Worth Noting: Film fest circuit wise, this picked up one award in Berlin (Label Europa Cinemas), this won a pair of awards at Tribeca and was shown at the Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days section.

Do We Care?: We still look forward in seeing the film, perhaps an Olive Films rep can get into contact with us, but as far as this prize is concerned, we find this let’s “promote unification” prize to be an odd annual kudo.