Brazilian Roberto Berliner was so elated when his film "Nise — The Heart of Madness" won the top prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the weekend that he wished he could freely express his joy in his native Portuguese when giving his acceptance remarks.

But without a Portuguese interpreter on hand, the mild-mannered film director stood on stage, carefully looking for words to say in English, and described the hard work and sacrifices he made over a period of 13 years to create the film.

"It took long time from my life," Berliner said, adding that after learning about the real-life Brazilian female psychiatrist Nise da Silveira, he became drawn into her accomplishments and felt it was his responsibility to create a film about such an "important" and "special" person.