On Sunday 9 April, the festival closes with Berlin’s Golden Bear Award winner for Best Picture: the Hungarian love story On Body and Soul (Teströl és lélekröl), directed by Ildikó Enyedi.

Director Enyedi began her career as a conceptual artist and made her premiere at Cannes in 1989 with My Twentieth Century, which won the festival’s Camera d’Or. She has released five feature films since, including On Body and Soul.

In On Body and Soul, a slaughterhouse in Budapest is the setting of a strangely beautiful love story. At lunch, Mária, the new quality controller, always chooses a table on her own in the sterile canteen where she sits in silence. She takes her job seriously and adheres strictly to the rules, deducting penalty points for every excessive ounce of fat. Her slightly older boss Endre is also the quiet type. Tentatively, they begin to get to know each other. Recognizing their spiritual kinship, they are amazed to discover that they even have the same dreams at night. This story of two people discovering the realm of emotions and physical desire, at first individually and then together, is tenderly told but in a way that also exudes subtle humor. A film about the fears and inhibitions associated with opening up to others, and about how exhilarating it can be when you finally do.

On Body and Soul screens Sunday 9 April at 22:00. The film in subtitled in English. Tickets are available at The Cinemas Box Office.