‘From Dawn to Dawn,’ ‘Alea Jacarandas’ Top 57th Edition of Visions du Réel

The leading Swiss documentary festival wraps up with a slate of awards highlighting intimate and politically grounded films

By Lise Pedersen

Lise Pedersen

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Visions du Réel closed its 57th edition Friday with a prize list that leaned firmly toward intimate, formally adventurous nonfiction, as Xisi Sofia Ye Chen’s “From Dawn to Dawn” took the Grand Jury Prize in the International Feature Film Competition.

Centered on the filmmaker’s brother, a Chinese gangster living in Spain, the debut feature offers a rare immersion into a world more frequently explored through fiction than documentary. Told through first-person narration and stylized imagery, the film charts his attempts to reconcile a criminal past with family obligations and shifting moral ground.

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