Yesim Ustaoglu won the "Golden Shell" award at the 56th International San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain with her film "Pandora's Box".

"There were high-quality films in the festival, and there was a tough competition. I hoped to win an award, but I was not expecting the biggest award," she told reporters after the award ceremony.

Tsilla Chelton, the leading French actress of the film, won the best actress award at the festival.

The film recounts the story of two sisters and a brother in their 40s forced by their mother's disappearance to rediscover each other.

The siblings, who live in Istanbul, unite to search for their missing mother, but old tensions emerge during their journey and they realise that they know little about each other.

Ustaoglu directed the documentary short Life on Their Shoulders in 2004, and has directed a number of feature films, including The Trace (94), Journey to the Sun (99), which won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film and the Peace Film Award at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival, Waiting for the Clouds (04) and Pandora's Box (08).

AA