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Saarbrucken

17.Internationales Festival
Zeichen Der Nacht
(Signes de Nuit)

in Berlin
Germany

JAN 18 - 21, 2019

 
Acud Kino
Acud Kino
Acud Kino
 
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AWARD CELEBRATION

The Awards of the Section Documentary Film

17.Internationales Festival Zeichen Der Nacht (Signes de Nuit)

January 2019
Berlin / Germany

 

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Main Award :

Srbenka
Slijepcevic Nebojsa

  

Srbenka

 

BERLIN PREMIERE


Srbenka
Slijepcevic Nebojsa

Craotia
2018 | 1:12:00

During the winter of 1991, Croatia defended itself against the military aggression of neighbouring Serbia. Among the innocent victims of this conflict was Aleksandra Zec, a teenager of Serbian origin, who was hatefully lynched in Zagreb. A generation later, while in Croatian schools, Serbian pupils continue to be taken for the “enemies” of yesterday, Oliver Frljic adapts “the Zec affair” at the theatre, with Nina, a Serbian, born in 2001, in the title role. In front of Nebojša Slijepcevics camera, the troupe’s rehearsals turn into collective psychotherapy, interspersed by shots of an empty stage haunted by personal accounts that build up in voiceover. Through skilful metatheatre that involves both the troupe’s acting and sense of self as they work on their own memories, distanced by the theatrical device, Srbenka delineates a public space likely to break the cycle of vengeance. Slijepcevics film also constitutes a powerful reflection on one of the possible functions of art: to dry out, metre by metre, the cesspool of hatred fed by the entrepreneurs of ethnic cleansing who continue to act today.
 
   

Jury Statement :
The history is written about winners and losers, often producing an oversimplified picture of aggressors and victims. However, the documentary SRBENKA reveals that the truth is much more complicated then that. There are many aggressors among victims and victims among aggressors. An individual choice and responsibility is always present. The theater director Oliver Frljic deals with childhood traumas of the participants. Serbs in Croatia. Cinema director Slijepcevic Nebojsa in this case shows what is left behind the stage. A fresh look at Balkan military conflict.

 

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Signs Award :

Dust
Jakub Radej

The Signs Award for Documentary honors films, which express in a surprising way sensitive and perturbing aspects of reality.



Dust

Dust
Jakub Radej

Polen
2017 | 25:00:00

Dust is a study of the way that every human body must go through from the moment of death to the funeral. In Jakub Radej’s film, the consecutive stages of the way (mortuary, morgue, cemetery) are juxtaposed with a bureaucratic approach to the property of the deceased. A detached account of the fate of material objects that belonged to the deceased is presented in an open form, which may also include a question about the meaning of life and a reflection on the loneliness of people who have no one to bid them farewell.
 
   

Jury Statement :
A construction of juxtaposed shots and scenes that tell the story of "life of Death”. The film builds a game of addition and subtraction that leads the spectator into a reflection on the ephemeral existence.

 

 

Special Mention
for the Signs award
:

A Life from Death
Elämä Kuolemasta
  

A Life from Death

 

BERLIN PREMIERE


A Life from Death
Elämä Kuolemasta

Sweden
2017 | 0:20:00

Sound seeps away from the piano, breath from life, focus from the film. A mimesis of dying, stylised, but tangible. Death from the perspective of the attending carers: changing the sheets, holding back tears, having a coffee break, holding fading hands, lighting candles. And once more: changing the sheets, holding back tears, the coffee … life cycles.

 

 

 

 

Jury Statement :
The border between the life and death is blurry, fragile and full of open questions. Sensitive blurry images is one way how to show the crossing, the fragile line of the end of life, a way to deal with the unknown. A therapy, a poem and a farewell.

 

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Night Award :

Nobody Knows Who I Am
Celui qui sait saura qui je suis
Sarah Moon Howe

The Night Award for Documentary honors films, which represent reality in an ambivalent and enigmatic way, avoiding stereotypes of representation and simple conclusions.


Nobody Knows Who I Am

Nobody Knows Who I Am
Celui qui sait saura qui je suis
Sarah Moon Howe

Belgium
2017 | 1:15:00

What happens when a documentary director gets dangerously carried away in the whirlwind of staging her character? Between filmmaker and person filmed, who manipulates who?

 

 

GERMAN PREMIERE

 

Jury Statement :
An almost obsessive attempt to portray a charismatic and complex man who is as much of a victim as an opportunist. A very interesting portrait of the ambiguity of our times.

Director Statement :
Raconter l’histoire vraie d’un menteur m’a permise de révéler combien nos fictions personnelles nous aident à vivre la réalité. Votre festival a compris notre besoin de nous inventer pour tenir le coup. Votre festival a dépassé la personnalité du personnage pour embrasser une compréhension globale de la complexité humaine.

 

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Diversity Award :

The Time of the Forest
François-Xavier Drouet

The Time of the Forest

 

BERLIN PREMIERE


The Time of the Forest
François-Xavier Drouet

France
2018 | 1:43:00

A tree is a tree is a forest. And a forest is nature. A walk in the woods is the epitome of recreation and contemplation for most people. But in his film Le Temps des Forêts, François-Xavier Drouet tells a different forest story. One of tree deserts, monoculture, pesticides and other poisons, production, profitability, and social injustice. The director takes us on a trip to central France, the west coast, Burgundy and the Vosges mountains. He starts out on the Millevaches high plateau in Limousin. This plateau is a 70% afforested region. However, this forest is a green desert - a mere cultivation area for the wood industry. Douglas firs rise in disciplined rows hectare after hectare.
Monoculture instead of biodiversity prevails: the forest is only there to be harvested. Giant machines that look like metal monsters fell the fir trees every few minutes, hectares of surfaces are cleared, rivers and streams devastated and poisoned. The destroyed wasteland finally receives the next generation of Douglas firs. Pesticides will help them grow faster in the soil, which is worn out by the monoculture. In his film, François-Xavier Drouet allows many people to express their views, people who work in and with the forest. People who benefit from the forest. But also people who prefer to cultivate their forests in a sustainable way. A forester describes the constantly worsening working conditions that are tightened by the “Office national des forêts” (ONF) in favour of profit and profitability. He talks about the countless suicides of forestry workers who cracked because of inhuman conditions.
Finally, the film accompanies many forestry workers to a demonstration in front of the ONF headquarters. This is when it becomes clear that the French forest and wood business has taken on proportions that go far beyond anything imaginable. Images of huge deforested areas, nightmarishly huge machines felling tree trunks like matchsticks and building them up into huge piles, images of a sawmill factory that processes as much wood in a day as a small family sawmill in a year... These pictures are not from faraway Canada or China, they are from our neighbouring country, France. This film is a discovery because it tells a story about the forest we have not yet heard and seen.

Jury Statement :
The analytical documentary film shows that trees are much more then just pure consummation material. They are part of our history, memories and possibly even soul. What if the human beings would live in a perfectly organized space where all the trees would look the same? The jury dedicates this short film to Peter Wohlleben who in his book "The hidden life of Trees" proved that trees have much more in common with human beings then we tend to think.

 


 

Festival international SIGNES DE NUIT - 18, rue Budé 75004 Paris - France - Tel : +33 (0) 1 40 46 92 25 - +33 (0) 6 84 40 84 38 - cood.int@signesdenuit.com