Russian director Alexander Sokurov tops Venice Fest with his Faust.
The pic scripted by Sokurov took home the Golden Lion award. Faust stars Jonannes Zeiler, Hanna Schygulla, Isolda Dychauk and Georg Friedrich and tells is a version of the German legend where a man sells his soul to the devil, exchanged for knowledge.
Variety reports that Jury president Darren Aronofsky stated that all of the seven jurors were unanimous in their praise of the difficult pic which showed late in the fest.
Concerning Faust, Aronofsky said that "There are some films that make you cry, there are some films that make you laugh, there are some films that change you forever after you see them; and this is one of them."