|
****** |
Award Ceremony and Awarded Films |
Wednesday July 1, 2015 / 8.30 pm
Filmhaus
Saarbrucken / Germany
|
|
|
*
MAIN AWARD
* |
|
|
|
Simon Gillard
Belgium
2013 | 0:20:00
Yaar, in the heart of the bush where the gravel is hollowed, a stubborn civilisation hunts out its future below the earth's surface. Blind, or perhaps all too seeing, they dig away, night and day, spurred on by the madness that drives man to his death.
|
|
|
Jury Declaration:
The alchemy and magic of this film capture the materiality and existentiality of the moment in a sensible way. During die protagonists digging themselves deep in the earth to find something, which the spectators couldn’t know, we can get near to them in a nearly intimate way.
|
*
SPECIAL MENTION
* |
|
|
|
Jimmy Hendrickx
Belgium, Malaysia
2013 | 0:15:00
Semalu, which means sensitive plant in Malay, is a cinematic portrait of the abandoned children of Cheras, a suburb in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A place in a process of modernization. Between a noisy landscape of construction works we see the next generation grow up. The ancestors of these children came here to build a new future. 30 years ago this territory was still jungle and swamp. Far away from the jungle this will be be the kids’ new urban residence. Semalu is a dark, yet magical journey along their concrete playground.
|
|
|
Jury Declaration:
The portrait like calmness of Semalu is drifting between the anonymity of the lost promise of the capital city and the proximity the children between themselves. |
|
|
|
Valentina Carnelutti
Italia
2015 | 0:20:00
Als ihre Mutter für eine verdächtig lange Zeit auf dem Bett liegt, bemerken Leo und Annetta, dass etwas nicht in Ordnung ist. Aber verstehen sie wirklich, dass sie nie wieder aufstehen wird? Die Kinder beginnen ihr Morgenritual ohne sie.. Einige Träne, viele unterdrückte Gefühe und deine überzeugende schauspielerische Leistung der Kinder kennzeichnen diese Ode an eine Mutter.
|
|
|
Jury Declaration:
reCuiem takes its strength from the play of the children, who unconsciously ritualize the death of her mother.
|
*
SIGNS AWARD
* |
The Signs Award is attributed to films treating an important subject in an original, convincing and surprising way.
* |
*
Seven Times a Day we bemoan our lot and at night we get up to avoid dreaming
* |
Sieben Mal am Tag beklagen wir unser Los und Nachts stehen wir auf,
um nicht zu träumen |
|
|
Susann Maria Hempel
Germany
2014 | 0:18:00
A cinematic devotional book. Based on interviews with an unemployable sufferer (and his fellows), living in the East German countryside, who lost his memory in 1989 and woke up into several nightmares.
|
|
|
Jury Declaration:
The film convince by it graphic straightforwardness. The visual derangement of the manually splendid animation treatment underlines perfectly the equally disordered narration. |
|
*
SPECIAL MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD
* |
|
|
|
Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, André Turpin
Kanada
2014 | 0:12:00
A nurse working in a center for the disabled is confronted to his principles when he’s asked to accomplish a particular task.
|
|
|
Jury Declaration:
The work receives a special mention for its sensible treatment of an unnoticed subject.
|
|
*
NIGHT AWARD
* |
The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving. |
|
|
Satinar Singh Bedi alter Woodman
India
2014 | 0:25:00
In Hindu mythology, Kamakshi is the goddess of compassion. She fulfils all wishes and embodies serenity and peace. Sita, Rama’s wife, after suffering a long journey full of deprivations and false accusations levelled against her by her beloved husband, pleads to be swallowed up by her mother, the earth.
In black-and-white and on 35mm, we follow an old woman who digs for water in a dry and barren region. She digs and digs, and the furrows in the dry soil are mirrored in the wrinkles of her spirited face. Almost disappearing in the ditch, a girl suddenly appears at its edge. They exchange looks. The old woman distributes coins from a water-filled boat. The water carriers wield torches in the night. Associative and hallucinatory imagery is interspersed by narrative moments. Towards the end, colour takes charge of the direction and the desire for water is fulfilled at a high price.
|
|
|
Jury Declaration:
The visual force of the “Kamakshi” and the subtle narration of this profoundly mystical film have convinced the jury to attribute the Night Award. |
|
|
|