Silent Light, a film about forbidden love among Mennonite farmers, has won the Ariel Award for best picture at Mexico's annual film awards.

Canadian author Miriam Toews, who has a Mennonite background, appears in the film as the wife of a farmer who is torn by love of another woman, played by Maria Pankratz.

A scene from Silent Light, which won best picture honours in Mexico's Ariel Awards.
(Toronto International Film Festival)

Toews, author of A Complicated Kindness, was one of several non-professional actors cast in the film by director Carlos Reygadas.

Silent Light won five Ariel awards on Tuesday, including best supporting actress for Pankratz.

Reygadas, who shot the story in the Low German dialect used in an insular community in northern Mexico, took the honours for best director and Alexis Zabe won for best cinematography.

The film, released under the titles Luz Silenciosa and Stellet Licht, also won a special jury prize at Cannes in 2007.

Other winners of the Ariels:

• Irene Azuela, best actress, Quemar las Naves.
• Jorge Zarate, best actor, Dos Abrazos.
• XXY, from Argentina, best Latin American film.
• Los Ladrones Viejos, directed by Everardo Gonzalez, best documentary.
• Parpados Azules (Blue Eyelids), directed by Ernesto Contrera, best first film.

Blue Eyelids also won a prize at the Sundance Festival this year.

Mexico's top box office performer last year was horror film Kilometro 31 (Kilometre 31). It won five awards in technical categories, including best special and visual effects.

With files from the Associated Press