February 14, 2010
Ecumenical Reception Berlinale 2010: Special Award to Prof. Dr. Thomas Koebner
On the occasion of the 60th Berlinale the German churches made a Special Award which was presented at the Ecumenical Reception. Carrying a prize money of 3000,- €, donated by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany, the award was given to Prof. Dr. Thomas Koebner “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the perception and acknowledgement of film as art form.” Koebner founded the Institute for Film Science and Media Dramaturgy at the University of Mainz where he teached till 2007, after callings to the universities of Munich, Cologne, Wuppertal and Marburg. 1972-1973 he was Film Commisioner in the Federal Government Department for Economical Co-operation, 1989-1992 director of the German Academy for Film and Television (dffb) in Berlin.
Koebner has fostered the appreciation of the relevance of film and the achievements of film artists, and significantly contributed to assert film as a field of research and a source of cultural inspiration in Germany, says the motivation for the award. By his numerous publications he conveyed the aesthetic wealth of film to a broad public. “The church film organisations owe profound respect and cordial gratitude to Prof. Koebner’s hermeneutic ingenuity,” the churches proclaimed.
The reception began with greetings from the Commisioner of Culture of the EKD, rev. Dr. Petra Bahr, the chairman of the Journalistic Commision of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Dr. Gebhard Fürst, and the Programm Manager of the Berlin Film Festival, Thomas Hailer. The laudatory speech was made by Hans Helmut Prinzler, former director of the Foundation German Cinematheque and the Berlin Film Museum. Rev. Werner Schneider-Quindeau, chairman of the Ecumenical Jury, presented the award to Prof. Koebner.
INTERFILM's executive director Karsten Visarius congratulates Thomas Koebner
February 13, 2010
Robin E. Gurney Honorary Life Member of INTERFILM
hh/13.02.10 – By decision of its Presidium and action of its Steering Committee during a meeting in Berlin February 13, 2010, Robin E. Gurney, former communication and information officer of CEC, has been appointed Honorary Life Member of the International Inter Church Film Organization INTERFILM.
 From English Methodist background, Robin Gurney served as a Salvation Army Officer and missionary in Argentina, as a trades union official, as a public relations officer with the United Nations Association, and as Press Officer for the Methodist Church in London. He first came to Geneva in 1977 as a Press Officer for the World Council of Churches (WCC) and later created the communications coordinators network in the Commission on Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service (CICARWS), before a period with the Commission of the Churches on International affairs. It was that time he produced for WCC the well done fiction film “Sanctuary” on the problem of refugees (written and directed by James Becket).
This was followed by four years in London as Media Secretary of the Church Mission Society. When Robin returned to Geneva to join the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in 1990 he therefore brought a diverse wealth of experience and expertise from which CEC has benefited immensely. At a time when communication and public relations are of ever-increasing importance – the more so for a relatively small organization like CEC – Robin has been the vital link between the CEC staff and governing bodies on the one hand, and the CEC member churches and the wider world on the other. “Monitor”, which Robin launched in 1992, is but one example on what the CEC owe him. Further, in collaboration with WCC, LWF and RWF he has played in 1994 a major role in creating the Ecumenical News International (ENI). One year before, in 1993 he brought CEC and INTERFIM together and became a member of its Steering Committee.
He then initiated the Templeton Award for religious journalism and in 1997 the European Templeton Film Award as he reported in Monitor No 22 from March 1998 on the first award for De Verstekeling (The Stowaway) by Ben Van Lieshout. Also after his retiring in 2001 he has served as a mentor and member of the jury for the Templeton Film Award till 2006, and he did the same at the Documentary Film Festival "Visions du Réel" in Nyon, where a new established interreligious jury from 2005-2007 awarded a Templeton Special Prize. Both projects developed more and more and received highly recognition. Nevertheless, in 2007 the Templeton Foundation unfortunately decide to close the two projects, But Robin (living with his wife Ruth in Buckinghamshire/England as well as keeping their very congenial apartment in Argelès-sur-Mer) is still going in cinema, visiting festivals and supporting INTERFILM generously.
February 10, 2010
In memoriam Ron Holloway (1933-2009)
Ron Holloway and his wife, Dorothea Moritz-Holloway (Photo: © Hans Hodel)
International cinema mourns the loss of a staunch supporter and critic, writes Philip Lee, editor of WACC's journal Media Development, in his obituary. One of Ron's last articles on films from and about Afghanistan appeared in Media Development. Read more.
James M. Wall, contributing editor of the Christian Century magazine and former president of INTERFILM North America, knew Ron from the beginnings of the National Center for Film Study (NCFS) in Chicago which was founded by Ron, Daniel Cantwell and Henry Herx in the early sixties of he last century. In his Internet blog Wallwritings Jim commemorates his late friend. You can find his article here.
Ron was Honorary life member of INTERFILM. Many of his festival reports appeared also on te INTERFILM website. They can be found in the festivals archive section, for example at the Other Festivals menu item.
September 14, 2009
INTERFILM in Venice 2009
Panel Discussion on Human Dignity in Iranian Cinema at the Mostra del Cinema
On the subject of „Stories of Human Dignity in Film: Focus on Iranian Cinema” INTERFILM , in co-operation with the Associazione protestante del cinema “Roberto Sbaffi” (INTERFILM’s corporate member in Italy) and hosted by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo, the Catholic Italian film organisation, organised an ecumenical panel at the 66th Mostra internazionale d’arte cinematographica in Venice on September 9th. Chaired by Peter Ciaccio, managing director of “Roberto Sbaffi”, Iranian born directors Shirin Neshat and Babak Payami together with film critics Peter Malone (Australia) and Heike Kühn (Germany) discussed the possibilities of Iranian cinema to reveal human desires and sufferings in a country ruled by an authoritarian religious regime. The repression of the protests against the official election results in June with demonstrators murdered and opposition leaders arrested and forced to self accusations proved the actuality of the issues in question.
Shirin Neshat, awarded with a Silver Lion for Best Direction for her competition entry “Women Without Men” at the end of the festival, as well as Babak Payami, winner of the Golden Lion in 2001 for his “Secret Ballot”, both stated to be artists but not politicians. By emphasizing this distinction, they nevertheless realize their work to assume a political dimension by simply being truthful to the lives and identity of their fellow citizens. Living in exile, Neshat in the USA, Payami in Italy, and thus sharing the experience of a number of well-known Iranian film artists, they commented deeply pessimistic on the perspectives of improvements in Iranian society, all the more by films telling stories of human dignity. Facing censorship, marginalisation and oppression, film artists increasingly are unable to communicate their true intentions and observations within the country.
The actual situation given, Heike Kühn and Peter Malone expressed their admiration of the achievements of Iranian film makers in the past. Although facing political control, they managed to portray the shortcomings of the Islamic Republic either by metaphorical narratives or later, under the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, even in a neorealistic style, so Heike Kühn in her appreciation of Iranian cinema. Its artistic virtues have been rewarded by numerous prizes at festival all around the world, as well as by critical acclaim by the public abroad. Peter Malone, former president of the World Catholic Association for Communication SIGNIS and member of the SIGNIS jury in Venice complemented this perspective by observations from the Fajr Festival in Teheran where he served in the Catholic/Muslim Interfaith Jury for several times. As in example he mentioned films on the war between Iran and Iraq which constantly attract the attention of Iranian audiences but never got known outside the country.
Peter Ciaccio closed the panel by quoting the dedication at the end of Shirin Neshat’s “Women Without Men”: “The film is dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom and democracy in Iran - from the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 to the Green Movement of 2009.” If films cannot claim to push forward political changes, they remain faithful to human dignity by bearing in remembrance human hopes, efforts and defeats.
The panel resumed the first INTERFILM presence at the Mostra del cinema in 2008, dedicated to the cinema in China.
Download the announcement of the event here.
See also the presentation of Heike Kühn in the Forum section.
July 20, 2009
Film in WACC's Quarterly "Media Development"
20.07.09/hh - «Reforming the Media» is the title of the issue No 1/2009 of Media Development. It includes a report by INTERFILM’s honorary member Ron Holloway on recent films from and about Afghanistan and an additional report on Afghan documentaries. As a starting point, Ron Holloway reminds us of an iconoclastic attack of the Taliban regime arousing world wide consternation. When the giant Buddha on the Silk Road at Bamyan were destroyed by radical Taliban clerics in March 2001 in accordance with a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, even the Afghan populace was stunned by the disrespect for their own cultural heritage. Beginning with Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s „Safar é Gandahar” (Kandahar, 2001) a number of films have raised voice against the relapse into barbarism.
The issue No 2/2009 is dedicated to „Environmental Communication“ and contains an article on „Poverty and environment in films set in Africa“ by Pat Brereton (Dublin). In a short overview it frames an analysis of Gavin Hood‘s Oscar winning study of South African poverty in Tsotsi (2006), alongside an overview of Blood Diamond (2007), both of which testify to a growing concern with Africa, while signalling a renewed interest and engagement with environmental and justice issues.
Media Development is published quarterly by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in Toronto (Canada). It publishes regularly «on the screen» reports on the activities of ecumenical festival juries. Media Development can be subscribed for US$ 40 on www.waccglobal.org.
July 19, 2009
History of CEC
19.07.09/hh - On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the CEC Office of Communciations & Information has prepared a package which includes a 60 page booklet and a DVD. “A brief and incomplete history of the Conference of European Churches" was written by Robin Gurney and Luca M. Negro, respectively the former and present Communications Secretaries of CEC. The book is accompanied with the DVD "A pictorial History of CEC", by Robin Gurney, containing historical pictures from the early period of CEC to the present.
CEC is supportive of INTERFILM through corporate membership, based on the ecumenical vision both associations embrace.
July 19, 2009
CEC celebrates 50 years of European Ecumenism
Lyon (CEC/ENI) – 19.07.09 The European ecumenical movement marked 50 years of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in a special celebration on July 19 during the 13th Assembly of CEC meeting from 15-21 July in Lyon (France). This has gathered 300 delegates from CEC member churches and 500 other participants. The first Assembly was held in January 1959 in Nyborg, Denmark.
President of CEC, the Rev. Jean Arnold de Clermont said that 50 years represents a jubilee when debts are forgiven. He said: “We look to the future, with our experience and our wisdom.” Dr Alison Elliot, who is the Moderator of the 13th Assembly said that she believed CEC had a role for hope and reconciliation. She added: “In these days of potential and uncertainty, happy birthday CEC.” The pioneers, founder members and leaders of the organisation over five decades, including the first General Secretary Rev. Glen Garfield Williams were remembered in the 2½ hour event. The celebration included music, drama, and stories from people involved with CEC through the years.
A keynote address by the Ecumenical Patriarch His All Holiness Bartholomeos I, a spiritual leader who represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity, has called for the creation of a churches' umbrella body in Europe to include Roman Catholics alongside Anglicans, Orthodox and Protestants. "It is only by engaging in dialogue and by closely cooperating that the churches will prove capable of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to the world in a convincing and effective way," the Orthodox leader said in his address to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Conference of European Churches. CEC now has about 120 member churches, principally Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant, but Bartholomeos said that Europe needs a grouping that includes the Catholic Church. This would help to promote unity between churches and enable them to act jointly on issues in Europe such as secularisation, human rights violations, racism, the economic crisis, and threats to the environment.
"I am convinced that a conference of all the European churches, and I underline, all the European churches, working in harmony will be able to respond better to the sacred command to re-establish communion between the churches and to serve our contemporaries confronted as they are with so many complex problems," said Bartholomeos to applause."It will then be possible to promote more effectively the dialogue of the churches of Europe with the European institutions and the European Union," said the Patriarch, who is based in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople and one-time capital of the Byzantine Empire.
The Patriarch noted efforts made in recent decades to overcome divisions. These include the Charta Oecumenica, a document signed in Strasbourg in 2001 by CEC and the Council of European (Catholic) Bishops' Conferences, and intended to boost inter-church cooperation. However, many of its proposals have not been implemented by churches, and many Christian faithful are unaware of its recommendations, said Bartholomeos.
The history of CEC goes back to January 1959, when representatives from 45 Protestant and Orthodox churches in 20 countries in Eastern and Western Europe gathered in Nyborg, Denmark. During the Cold War, CEC helped bridge the divide between East and West. In recent years, the church grouping has played an active role in representing churches to institutions such as the European Union, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. CEC is also supportive of INTERFILM as a corporate member.
For more information see: www.cec-kek.org and www.eni.ch
July 1st, 2009
A journey to Gotland and Fårö
Report about the INTERFILM seminar from June 25-28, 2009
(hh/vis) It was in 2000, when INTERFILM, supported by Ylva Liljeholm and Karin Nyberg-Fleisher, organised a seminar in Örebro/Sweden. This year, INTERFILM returned to Sweden, inviting its members to the islands of Gotland and Fårö to take part in a seminar prepared again by Ylva Liljeholm meanwhile moving to Gotland’s main city Visby, and by Jes Nysten (Denmark), member of INTERFILM’s Steering Committee. The event was sponsored by the Cultural Department of the Swedish Church and took place in the framework of the Bergman Week on Fårö (www.bergmanveckan.se) where Sweden’s most famous director found his final resting place.
Bergman's grave on Fårö
Through a Glass Darkly – We See A Mystery
Considerable parts of the seminar took place in an old school house in Bygdegården on Fårö, beginning with a lecture of film critic and theologian Jes Nysten from Denmark. Using the "mirror scene" in Wild Strawberries as a starting point, he pondered Bergman’s use of he mirror as a symbol of man’s lack of understanding of both himself and others. The mirror, "the other’s gaze", offers a negative and false self-understanding. How can we see our true selves – face to face? This theme is also recurrent in the works of younger Nordic directors like Åke Sandgren and Simon Staho. Jes Nysten is a priest in Roskilde and a film critic for various publications.
 Tomas Ericson and the others. Pastoral characters in Bergman’s film
Having regard to research and reflections for his dissertation Peter Ciaccio gave a lecture on Bergman’s pastoral characters who refer to his childhood experience as a pastor’s son. However, Peter Ciaccio made a sharp distinction between Bergman’s biography and the function of pastors in his films underlining that they are shaped by his imagination and concepts and differ substantially from documents of his life. Even Bergman's autobiography contradicts other evidence in this respect. Peter Ciaccio himself serves as a pastor in a Valdensian community near Rome and is in charge of INTERFILM’s filial organisation in Italy, the Associazione protestante del cinema “Roberto Sbaffi”.
Hans Hodel and Peter Ciaccio at Bygdegården
August Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman: A Symbiotic Connection
Ingmar Bergman once said: „I’ve had a hard time with Strindberg“. Birgitta Steene, this year’s recipient oft he Strindberg Prize and contributing text editor of „The Ingmar Bergman Archives“ (winner of the August Book Award in 2008), lectured on Strindberg’s life-long impact on Bergman. It is an impact which, in Bergman’s own words, was based in both „repulsion and attraction“. To Bergman, Strindberg was established from early on as a kind of sibling soul whose presence made itself felt both in Bergman’s theatre work and in several of his films. Birgitta Steene is also author of the fundamental source for research on Bergman’s oeuvre, “Ingmar Bergman: A Reference Guide” (2006).
“Lighting is easy (turn on a lamp!) - the hard part is deciding where the shadows should be.“
In a personal recollection, illustrated by his own photos and clips from some Bergman films, Bo-Erik Gyberg talked about his experiences and impressions from working with Bergman’s favourite cinematographer, Sven Nykvist. Having worked closely with Nykvist on two Bergman feature films as a still photographer and assistant, Gyberg joined Nykvist on several international jobs in the 1970’s.They often talked about life, their profession and, above all, about light. The title oft he lecture is from one of their conversations.
Crisis (1946)
In one of Fårö’s rural cinema theatres, the “Bio”, the participants took the opportunity to watch Crisis, Ingmar Bergman’s directorial debut as a filmmaker. The stepdaughter of a piano teacher is courted by her real mother’s decadent lover. „Crisis is my first film. If someone had asked me to film the telephone directory I would have done it.“ (Ingmar Bergman).
The cinema "Bio" on Fårö
Bus Tour „Location Fårö“
On a bus tour the INTERFILM group followed the traces of films Ingmar Bergman shot on Fårö. During the guided tour, which spanned 3,5 hours they visited locations from Persona, Through a Glass Darkly, A Passion, Shame and Scenes from a Marriage. At the respective spots they could compare their impressions to a recently produced video with clips from the Fårö settings in the films. During the ride they also watched clips from the two documentaries Bergman had shot on Fårö.
Palermo Shooting by Wim Wenders
The seminar closed with the Swedish première of Wenders film Palermo Shooting, which was in competition of last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Photographer Finn (rock star Campino) leads a hectic but exciting life. When a nightly car crash almost claims his life, he finds himself face to face with life’s pointlessness. He travels to Palermo – the city of death – to regain his lust for life, but instead meets Death (Dennis Hopper). A philosophical thriller reminiscent of both Wild Strawberries and Seventh Seal – dedicated by Wenders to his favourite directors Bergman and Antonioni, who passed away on the same day in 2007. After the screening, Wim Wenders discussed with the audience. Wenders was honoured with the Special Award for his artistic achievements by the Ecumenical Jury on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of INTERFILM at the Locarno Film Festival 2005.
May 7, 2009
Documentary «Divorce Albanian Style», by Adela Peeva
(Sofia/press/hh) The last documentary produced by the Bulgarian film director Adela Peeva, which was since his release in 2007 very successfull in winning several nominations and awards («Best Bulgarian Documentary 2007», «Human Rights Award» at the XIV Sarajevo International Film Festival 2008, Prize of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR Idée Suisse 2008 and many others), won recently again two awards at the South East European Fim Festival in Los Angeles: «Critics Choice Award Best Documentary» and «Audience Choice Award Best Film». INTERFILM wants to congratulate his member Adela Peeva for this wonderful and succesfull film.
The story of the film (59’/66’), shot in Albania, Russia and Poland, is about love and separation, about families forcibly separated by the totalitarian regime of Enver Hodja – the longest-serving European dictator of the 20th century – only because their wives were foreigners. It takes place in the surreal world of 1960s communist Albania. As told by survivors of this extraordinary period, Divorce Albanian Style reveals the experience of the many thousands of families that were forcibly separated by the totalitarian regime of Enver Hodja, the longest-serving European dictator of the 20th century. Near the height of his mania, in 1961 Enver Hodja broke off Albania’s relations with the Soviet Union. Albanian men married to foreign women were forced by the state to split from their wives – women from all over Eastern Europe - who were subsequently expelled. The official reason was alleged espionage. Hojda quickly created a mechanism to deal with those who refused to leave. KGB-trained secret police collected “evidence”, minor clerks became “investigators”, carpenters were made into prosecutors and labor camps expanded. The women who stayed – and their husbands - spent years in prisons, the last released in 1987. Divorce Albanian Style tells the stories of three of these couples, and of the apparatchiks and officers of the secret police who changed their lives forever.
Adela Peeva holds a degree from the Academy for Film, Theatre and TV in Belgrade. From 1973 till 1990 she worked at the Documentary Film Studio in Sofia. The films of Adela Peeva are always dealing with controversial subjects. Some of her films (“In the name of sport“, “Mothers”) were prohibited by the communist regime. Later on, after the democratic changes the films were screened both in Bulgaria and abroad and awarded. In 1991 she established her own production company „ADELA MEDIA”. From that time dated also her interest about the Balkans. She made the following award wining films on Balkan subjects “Born from the Ashes”, “Right to chose“ “The Unwanted”, “Whose is this Song?” - Nominated for European Film Academy “Best Documentary - Prix ARTE” 2003 award, participated at over 50 International film festivals all over the World and was awarded 16 prizes, ”Divorce Albanian style” - Nominated for European Film Academy “Best Documentary - Prix ARTE” 2007. More information and trailer: www.adelamedia.net.
April 15, 2009
In memoriam Wim Koole (1929-2009)
hh. - Wim Koole (Dr. Willem Jacobus Koole), who died on Easter Sunday, 12 April in Muiderberg (The Netherlands), was Honorary Life Member of the International Church Film Organisation INTERFILM and one of the earliest Honorary Life Members of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). In the course of a long life dedicated to his belief in Christian principles of communication, Wim was a pioneer in many aspects of audiovisual work, loyally serving his own company, IKON, and WACC’s European Regional Association.
Wim Koole studied theology in Utrecht from 1950-1954 and became Minister of the «Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk». At this time, he developped a strong interest for the „beauty and importance“ of cinema and became a friend of Jan Hes, who was Director of the Nederlands Film Instituut in Hilversum and General Secretary of INTERFILM from 1955-1991. Wim Koole was managing director of IKON (1963-89), chairman of the supervisory board for video information, vice-president of the Dutch Film Fund, formal and informal advisor and initiator of many WACC-related activities. He offered thoughtful and inspirational support to many directors and producers. He was the founder and long-time editor of The Co-Production Connection, a bulletin linking church-related and secular producers of television programming.
In 1989 Wim received the highest possible award for Dutch broadcast journalism for his work, the Nipkowschijf. Philip Lee, Deputy Director of Programm, WACC, writes: „Communicators in Europe and elsewhere will mourn the loss of a gentle man who, among all his outstanding professional and human qualities, always chose to meet people with a smile that, in itself, was a heartfelt embrace.“ INTERFILM mourn the loss of one of the eldest and faithfullest friends who was supporting INTERFILM always with sympathy. # More on http://www.waccglobal.org
March 28, 2009
„Waltz with Bashir“ awarded Film of the Year 2008 by Protestant Film Jury
Award Ceremony in the German Film Museum, Frankfurt/Main
(vis) The Protestant Film Jury in Germany has awarded “Waltz With Bashir” by Ari Folman Film of the Year 2008. Werner Schneider-Quindeau, president of the jury, presented the certificates to Anat Schwartz, member of the Bridget Folman Gang production team, and to Roman Paul from German co-producer Razor Films, at the award ceremony in the German Film Museum in Frankfurt/M on Friday, March 27. After the screening of the film they discussed with the jury’s vice president, Margrit Frölich, about the film’s production, its specifics and its reception by the Israeli public. At the beginning, jury member Jakob Hoffmann paid tribute to the aesthetic achievements of the prize winner. Jakob Hoffmann is member of INTERFILM and served among others at the INTERFILM jury at the Max Ophuels Prize Saarbruecken 2009. Here is the text of his eulogy:
"There are two kinds of documentary films: the good ones and the bad ones. The bad ones luxuriate in the general assumption that documentary films supposedly show reality. The good ones refer to their approach, to their construction. On top of this, there are very few excellent films that obtain from this construction a unique form in its own right. WALTZ WITH BASHIR is one of these truly extraordinary films.
Nothing seems so far removed from reality than the animated film. With animated films we primarily associate the fairy tales produced by Walt Disney, that is perfect entertainment for young and old. When you now see WALTZ WITH BASHIR, you will have no trouble finding the form convincing: it immediately makes sense.
The film’s point of departure is a dream. In dreams, subjectivity and history coincide. Dreams are attempts at integrating history into one’s individual biography. Nightmares indicate the failure of such an attempt at integration. In the film, the nightmare launches an investigation into the past. It is a battle through the psyche’s mechanisms of repression to the events that took place. The historical facts seem evident: we are dealing with the massacre of Sabra and Schatila (Lebanon) in 1982. The personal memory of the author, however, is cut off from this event; it needs to be reconstructed. The director Ari Folman attempts to accomplish this reconstruction by visiting his companions to ask them what they remember.
In his review of the film, German film critic Georg Seesslen writes: „In the film’s form, history suspends itself ‚from below’. The powerful technological apparatus, which always maintains a residue of obscenity face to face with the real suffering of human beings within history, is replaced by the subversive power of the crayon. Here the autobiographical is now longer just an assertion. Because the stylization of the film moves far away from the „State of the Art“ of computerized animation in blockbuster films. Here we find images that reclaim memory from the ‚official reading’, from media hysteria.“
The brilliant exhibit „Superman and Golem – The Comic as Medium of Jewish Memory“ (that ended last Sunday in Frankfurt’s Jewish Museum) showed the rich tradition of confronting history by means of illustrated stories that exist in 20th-century Jewish culture. This is where Ari Folman’s animated documentray film has its roots. But it also attempts something new.
The Film of the Year is chosen from the twelve Film of the Month awards given by our jury during the past year. I quote from the jury’s motivation for awarding “Waltz with Bashir”: “When Ari Folman’s efforts to call in mind the past end, we are not only able to look at a specific historical crime with a new glance. In a radical and highly original way “Waltz with Bahsir” demonstrates how terror, fear and suppression combine. And: How morality and memory can be reinstalled.”
The German-Jewish intellectual Walter Benjamin, who was an expert on angels in the work of the painter Paul Klee, is buried in Port Bou at the French-Spanish border. In his memory the artist Dani Karavan has created a sculpture, which a pane of glass protects from the sea. On the pane is written: „Historical Construction is dedicated to the memory of the nameless.“ WALTZ WITH BASHIR is such a historical construction.
Jury President Werner Schneider-Quindeau with Anat Schwartz and Roman Paul
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