Venice Film Festival to honour director Arturo Ripstein

Veteran Mexican director Arturo Ripstein will be honoured at the upcoming 72nd Venice Film Festival to be held from September 2 to 12.
The 71-year-old filmmaker will receive a Biennale award at a ceremony taking place the night of the world premiere screening of his latest film Bleak Street on September 10, said The Hollywood Reporter.
Praising his work and achievements in the field of filmmaking, Festival director Alberto Barbera said, "Arturo Ripstein is the most vital, tenacious and original director of the generation that made its debut in the mid-Sixties, the heir of the golden age of Mexican studio films and the forerunner of the new generation of contemporary authors such as Carlos Reygadas, Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Pereda, each of whom in their own way, recognises the profound debt that they owe to his work."

"Ripstein has brought to life a restless and afflicted universe, populated with characters pathetically on the verge of the abyss into which they are destined to fall," he added.
The filmmaker began his career as an assistant director for Luis Bunuel. He was the second director after Bunuel to receive the National Prize for Arts and Sciences from Mexican government.
His latest "Bleak Street" is inspired by the true-life accidental murders of two twin dwarf wrestlers by two former prostitutes and explores the dark and deep sides of Mexico City.