International Festival Signs of the Night - Paris
Festival internatinal Signes de nuit - Paris
     


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19e Festival international Signes de Nuit - Paris / 1-10 octobre 2021

Online Edition
9

 




MAIN AWARD



The Meaning of August

Manos Papadakis
Greece / 2020 / 0:26:57


Andreas has to take care of the boss’s house and dog. The dog is mad. The house is luxurious. His co-workers are jealous. The neighbor is stalking close by. The dog is called Leben. The dog has its own plans.




 


Jury Declaration:

Cruel but hopeful short film that tells a very simple anecdote: the meeting of two marginal beings, located outside the real world, two forgotten ones who find refuge in the relationship established between them. A man and a dog, a story of hope.








SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way



Leave of Absence

Anton Sazonov
Russian Federation / 2019 / 0:11:47


Artyom, a regular butchery worker, got confused with his life circumstances. Suddenly he comes up with an unusual way out of his crisis.



 


Jury Declaration:

Strong compacted narrative that mounts the stresses of daily life on a man’s life. The protagonist’s reaction to his situation is skilfully unveiled with a lasting impact. This film does not glorify war but underscores the layers of stress that lie underneath it.



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



The Dreams Of Lonely People

Marzenia Samotnych Ludzi
Poland / 2020 / 0:23:44


After twenty years in prison, the man returns to his homeland to wait for death in peace. His world is completely changed when he accidentally meets the character of the magical world of nature.


FRENCH PREMIERE

 

Jury Declaration:

A small desire of even looking at a slice of the sky could give birth to a human dream of living together outside the isolation of prison walls. Cinematographic narrative has curious convergences of co-incidences.

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JURY AWARD



The Black Sheep

Vincent Zheng
China / 2021 / 0:34:10


On the grassland in the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a first-rate shepherd at the State-run Sheep Farm, Gyabo and his wife have been worried about his melancholy son Tenzin, but Tenzin grew up with the unexpected black sheep. More than three years passed peacefully. By the fall of 1999, Gyabo hoped to follow the tradition and complete the marriage for his 14-year-old son, Tenzin, and to train him to be his inheritor, as a shepherd, then he received notification from the government, his son must go to school. Tenzin and his black sheep run to their unknown destiny.

WORLD PREMIERE


 

Jury Declaration:

Under the veneer of ravishing natural beauty and contented living live several delicate human issues that the reality keeps unraveling. Cinema has its own skin that may not be as lustrous as it looks.



Director Statement:


The International Jury of the 19° Festival international Signes de Nuit - in Paris has attributed the JURY AWARD to "THE BLACK SHEEP", It is the first award for the film. This is a particularly important compliment to us, which gives our team and me a great encouragement, also gives us confidence and hope in future filmmaking. I am deeply influenced by the great French directors and films, literature and philosophy. I've been to Paris 2 years ago and was very impressed, and I hope to go there again.



SPECIAL MENTION


Silence of the World

Riccardo Palladino
Italy / 2020 / 0:08:00


A “shadowy” cinematographer, with a unique point of view and an old Beaulieu camera, find out the World as the first time, confused and uncertain about the mysterious relationship between himself and the rest of the world.




 


Jury Declaration:

An enigmatic spirit amidst an impressionistic universe of silences and uncertain relationship between the cinematographer and the silence of Nature has its own unique equation, uncertain, mysterious and yet engaging.



SPECIAL MENTION


We Could Start All Over From the Beginning

Podríamos empezar desde cero
Dagmara Wyskiel
Chile / 2021 / 0:12:34


Children know that bodies sometimes disappear. In the postwar landscape they talk about the nature of the moon, of society and of the souls, which go away. The adults have vanished. The parents became extinct because of their own mistakes. There was no room on the planet for so many old people. There are many mysteries yet to be discovered.

EUROPE PREMIERE
 


Jury Declaration:

Placed on an apocalyptic post-war landscape, it is the children who ask the most profound questions about mysterious time and need to start all over again to mend ways but as the sun sets on the horizon the question looms large, “the problem is that there is no beginning!” – the temporal cycle encircles humanity.



MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way


Path

Pradip Kurbah
India / 2021 / 0:20:00


When the pandemic hit us, we were soon to know about the phrase 'embracing the new normal'. There is nothing normal about the loss of livelihood, nothing normal about having to walk for hours. While the privileged embraced a new world, those who were worst affected, fall through the gaps. Path, however, is a personal story of a lone journey a man takes as India readies herself for the onslaught of the virus.

FRENCH PREMIERE

 


Jury Declaration:

A sober black and white serves the director to tell this little story that, at last, is a farewell. A camera that always keeps its distance shows us a man who carries a heavy load with him. On the way, we learn that some roads must be traveled alone.



MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way



Good Girl

Merja Maijanen
Finland / 2019 / 0:11:56


After being awarded for being a good girl, a naive little girl learns what it really means to be one.

 




 



Jury Declaration:

An articulate study of the impact of unspoken parental discord on the body of a child, delivered with exquisite timing and the subtle expressiveness of its actors.





Director Statement:

There are a lot messages we give to little girls without knowing it. With this film I wanted to expose them and show how harmful they can be.