Mexican drama wins top prize at Beijing Int'l Film Festival

Mexican film "Beginning of Time" ("El comienzo del tiempo") has won the best picture award at the Fifth Beijing International Film Festival, which concluded Thursday.

The 2014 drama, written and directed by Bernardo Arellano, 34, depicts an elderly couple forced into a life of crime after the cash-strapped government cancels their pensions.

Arellano's film beat off 14 other entries from around the world to garner the Tiantan Award, including two films from China, two from Russia, and one from the United States, Colombia, India, Austria, Iran, Italy, Japan, Britain, South Korea and the Czech Republic.

Jury chair Luc Besson, a well-known French director, presented Arellano with the award.

"I spent a lot of time doing my cast. I think that was the key because I looked for the human beings," Arellano said. "I love to look inside life, inside their spirit, inside their soul. I looked for special characters who represent the words I want to express in cinematographic language."

The Mexican director's previous film, "Between Night and Day" ("Entre la noche y el dia") in 2011, was also well received by critics, with the Variety magazine calling it an "engrossing feature debut." Endi