Lesbian road movie honored at Istanbul festival

Suddenly (Tan De Repente), Argentinian director Diego Lerman's debut film--a road movie about a lesbian couple who try to lure a plump lingerie shop assistant into a romantic adventure--won the main prize Saturday at the closing of Istanbul's 22nd International Film Festival. The 26-year-old director has been dubbed a South American Jim Jarmusch or Wim Wenders, and his film has already notched up a respectable festival record with plaudits last year at Locarno, Switzerland, as well as Havana and Vienna's Viennale. The film took Istanbul's Golden Tulip in an international competition devoted this year to films that are about art or artists or are literary adaptations. Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, won a special jury prize for Personal Velocity, her adaptation of her own book of short stories about three women at critical junctures in their lives. The international jury chose not to detail reasons for its choices.