The top prize at the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Lion, went to Taiwanese director Ang Lee for his erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution." The 11-day festival ran from August 29 to September 8.
The Russian actor-turned-director's film is loosely based on the Sidney Lumet classic "12 Angry Men," in which a jury is prevented from reaching a quick guilty verdict by the obstinacy of one member who questions the process.
Mikhalkov's movie "12" is re-set in Chechnya and explores contemporary Russian society through the lives of its 12 main characters, who must decide on the guilt or innocence of an orphaned Chechen youth suspected of murdering his stepfather, an officer in the Russian Army.
The jury said the award was acknowledgement of the "consistent brilliance" of Mikhalkov's work, which reflects "great humanity and emotion and the complexity of existence."
Mikhalkov, 61, who said he was eternally grateful to the actors who worked under his direction, said the movie was not specifically about the situation in Chechnya, a Russian republic that suffered two devastating separatist wars in the 1990s that killed thousands.
"The basis was a wish to see 12 people who are a reflection of our society, bound together because they have to solve the problem of a life that is unknown to all of them," he told reporters in Venice.
Sergei Makovetsky, who plays a role similar to that played by Henry Fonda in the original, prevents a jury hearing the case from reaching a quick guilty verdict by raising doubts about evidence and lawyers in the case.
Inevitably, opinion among the 12 jurors begins to shift as they realize that they have the power to change another person's life forever.
The jurors engage in profound soul-searching to explain their beliefs, and in the process address contemporary Russian problems of greed, corruption, racism and fear.
A notable performance is delivered by Sergei Garmash, who portrays a racist convinced of the suspect's guilt simply on the basis of his ethnicity, and who blames all of Russia's problems on outsiders.
Director Mikhalkov plays the lead role in the film as the unofficial head juror who questions the fairness of the trial and demands that his fellow juror consider the implications of their verdict.
