Romanian and Hungarian films win prizes at Cannes

Films from Romania and Hungary were awarded prizes in the Main Competition and Un Certain Regard category at Cannes film festival last weekend. Hungarian director László Nemes’s Son of Saul won a runner-up prize in the main competition, while Romanian film The Treasure, directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, won the Prix Un Certain Talent prize.

Nemes’s debut film, which lost out to Jacques Audiard’s drama Dheepan, follows the story of Saul Auslander, a man imprisoned in Auschwitz who shuns attempts at rebellion to give his adopted son a proper burial.

In The Treasure, Romanian new wave director Corneliu Porumboiu pushes the boundaries of the social-realist genre in his story about a family man, Kosti, who searches for lost treasure in the garden.