Cannes Film Festival: “Les Bonnes étoiles” awarded the 2022 Ecumenical Jury Prize

The 2022 Ecumenical Jury has awarded its prize to the film “Les Bonnes étoiles” by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. "The film shows in a very intimate way how a family can exist without blood ties," the jurors said in a statement.

The six jurors for the 2022 Ecumenical Prize have chosen to reward the film “Les Bonnes étoiles” (“Broker” in English Ed).

It is a Korean-language drama from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda that captures the “baby box” phenomenon, baby boxes in South Korea allowing women to give up their infants.

“When a baby is abandoned in a church 'baby box', two men first try to sell it, girls being worth less than boys! But when the mother returns, a whole different story unfolds,” reads the communicated published by the jury chaired by the French Waltraud Verlaguet.

He salutes a film which “shows in a very intimate way how a family can exist without blood ties”.

“Lives and souls are protected in a safe environment created by three adults and an orphan boy around the baby, despite the difficult past lived by the protagonists. All must face their guilt with all their vulnerability. During a touching conversation between two adults, one of whom was abandoned at birth and the other having abandoned his child, a new form of 'forgiveness by proxy' emerges. »

Since 1974, the Ecumenical Jury, made up of members of the Christian film organizations Interfilm (Protestant) and Signis (Catholic), is invited by the Cannes Film Festival to award a prize to a film in the official competition. Each year, it distinguishes works with “both artistic and human qualities” that highlight “Gospel values”.

In 2021, the jurors had awarded their prize to the Japanese film "Drive my car" by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi for "a poetic meditation on the healing power of art and speech, through a long journey of forgiveness and acceptance".

Hirokazu Kore-eda had won him the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 with "A Family Affair" ("Shoplifters" in English Ed).

Camille Westphal Perrier

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Stephane Legrand