Romanian director Florin Serban's film 'You Don't Belong Here' won the Golden Leopard on Saturday at the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, AFP reports.

Florin Serban, a prominent figure of the Romanian New Wave, explained on the festival's website that his film is 'above all a portrait of a way of seeing the world that could disappear. Or perhaps, that should disappear.'

Running for more than two and a half hours and steeped in sombre colours, often shrouded in darkness, the film explores the relationship between Marius, the chief doctor at a hospital in his small hometown, and his teenage son Ioan, whom he has raised alone since his wife's death.

Professionally self-confident, Marius is not fully aware of his son's nocturnal activities: he roams the town by bicycle and vandalises cars with a gang of masked vigilantes. Marius's world is turned upside down when he learns that the police suspect his son of murder.

In a statement, the jury praised 'the strength of his writing, the singularity of his vision and the exceptional mastery of cinematic language'.

Seventeen films competed for the Golden Leopard.

After studying philosophy and journalism, Florin Serban studied directing at Columbia University, having been driven since his teenage years by a desire to make films. His first feature, 'If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle' (2010), won several awards, including the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

With 'You Don't Belong Here', the 51-year-old Romanian director returns to feature filmmaking after an eight-year hiatus, during which he founded a theatre school.

The Golden Leopard, the highest award at this film festival held every summer in the small Swiss town on the shores of Lake Maggiore, comes with a prize of 75,000 Swiss francs (79,700 euros), shared between the director and producer. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Codrut Balu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)