Thai film wins Palme d’Or, Binoche gets best actress

The Cannes film festival shocked the film world yesterday by handing the prestigious Palme d'Or to a weird Thai movie directed by a virtual unknown, Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which was considered an outsider for the top prize at Cannes, revolves around a man who is visited on his deathbed by a succession of spirits, including his deceased wife and his long lost son, who is now an ape.

The film stars newcomer Thanapat Saisaymar, a welder before he was given the role, and explores issues of animism and reincarnation. Weerasethakul said: "I would like to thank all the spirits and all the ghosts in Thailand who made it possible for me to be here."

Weerasethakul (above) has had some previous success at Cannes, landing the festival’s third-most prestigious award, the jury prize, for his 2004 film Tropical Malady. But British director Mike Leigh was considered the favourite to win the Palme d’Or this time for Another Year.

With hindsight, the fact that such a weird film as Uncle Boonmee won at the expense of Another Year should have shocked nobody, given the identity of the jury president at Cannes this year.

Tim Burton, director of Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and dark, weird reimaginings of Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory never seemed likely to plump for a film by Leigh, whose films are renowned for their "kitchen-sink realism". Leigh went home empty-handed.

Mathieu Amalric won the best director award for his film about a burlesque dance troupe On Tour. Juliette Binoche took best actress for her part in Copie Conforme (Certified Copy), directed by the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami. The best actor prize was shared between Javier Bardem (Biutiful) and Italian Elio Germano (La Nostra Vita). ·