"Flower in the Pocket", the first feature film by 29-year-old Malaysian director Liew Seng Tat, has won the top prize at the Fribourg International Film Festival.

The week-long festival, dedicated almost exclusively to films from developing countries, finished on Saturday. Around 25,000 people attended the event.

Awarding the "Regard d'Or" prize, the international jury said that the young Malaysian director had "managed to take a tender and poetic look at a complex and rich particularity of his society, without forgetting the cinematographic adventure".

The film tells the story of two small boys growing up without a mother, who are neglected by their father. But they always have hope despite their everyday challenges.

The Fribourg film festival, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, was created by Swiss aid agencies in 1980. The idea was to present African, Asian and Latin American films at a time when there were few distributors. It became an annual event in 1992.