CineMag SIGNIS: Dialogue

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Dialogue DiĂĄlogo

Le dialogue favorisant la compréhension et la cohésion sociale et spirituelle entre les différentes cultures et religions, fait partie de l’ADN d’OCIC/SIGNIS. Ses activités dans les festivals internationaux de cinéma sont considérées par certains comme prophétiques dans le monde chrétien et non-chrétien, mais aussi dans le monde du cinéma. Elles défendent le cinéma de qualité qui exprime également des valeurs humaines et spirituelles. Déjà dans les années 1950, elles entraient en dialogue avec d’autres cultures/religions que la leur. Ainsi des films indiens comme Pather Panchali de Satyajit Ray (Mention OCIC Cannes 1955) et Do Ankhen Barah Haath de Shantaram V. (Prix OCIC Berlin 1958), ou celui du Japonais Kon Ichikawa, La Harpe Birmane (Prix OCIC Venise 1956) ont été primés. Pour ce film, le jury voulait souligner la portée spirituelle et humaniste d’une œuvre émanant d’une religion nonchrétienne.

Des festivals comme Religion Today (Trento) et Popoli & Religioni (Terni) ont pour thème principal le dialogue entre plusieurs religions. D’autres festivals comme celui de Barcelone (MCEC) et de Guadalajara (FIC) présentent des films de différentes religions et cultures afin de rassembler toutes les communautés. Des festivals comme Visions du réel (Nyon) et DOK/ Leipzig veulent, à travers les jurys interreligieux soutenir artistiquement des films promouvant le dialogue interculturel. Des festivals dans le monde musulman (Fajr/Téhéran) et dans le monde juif (Jérusalem) ont invité SIGNIS à développer ce dialogue et à promouvoir des films qui défendent des valeurs qu’ils ont en commun. Depuis 1952, en Égypte et au Sri Lanka, des membres de SIGNIS construisent, à travers le cinéma de leur pays, un dialogue avec le monde musulman, bouddhiste et hindou.

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EDITO

Geula (Redemption) de Joseph Madmony & Boaz Yehonatan Yaacov

Dialogue promoting social and spiritual understanding and cohesion among different cultures and religions is part of the OCIC / SIGNIS DNA. Some consider their Jury activities in international film festivals as prophetic for the Christian and non-Christian world, but also for the world of cinema. They defend quality cinema that expresses human and spiritual values.

A considerable number of its awards are considered as classics in film history. Already in the 1950s, these juries entered into dialogue with other cultures-religions than their own. Indian films such as Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray (OCIC Mention at Cannes 1955) and Do Ankhen Barah Haath by Shantaram V. (OCIC Prize Berlin, 1958) or Japan’s Kon Ichikawa The Burmese Harp (OCIC Prize Venice 1956) were lauded. For Ichikawa’s film the jury wanted to point out the spiritual and humanitarian significance of a work from a non-Christian religion.

Festivals such as Religion Today (Trento) and Popoli & Religioni (Terni) have engaged in dialogue with other religions as their reflection theme. Others like those in Barcelona (MCEC) and Guadalajara (FIC) are working with films with stories about different religions and cultures to bring the different faith communities together. Festivals such as Visions du réel (Nyon) and DOK/Leipzig want interreligious juries to artistically support films promoting inter-cultural dialogue. Festivals in the Muslim (FAJR/Tehran) and Jewish (Jerusalem) worlds, have invited SIGNIS members to develop dialogue and to promote films that uphold values they share.

Since 1952 members of SIGNIS in Egypt and Sri Lanka have been building through the cinema a dialogue with the Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu world in their country.

GC

N°3/2019 Publication éditée par l’Association Catholique Mondiale pour la Communication Publication of the World Catholic Association for Communication Publicación editada por la Asociación Católica Mundial para la Comunicación SIGNIS – Rue Royale, 310 – 1210 Brussels – Belgium – Tel: 32 (0)2 734 97 08 – www.signis.net Secretary General: Ricardo Yáñez Chief Editor: dr Guido Convents – Lay-Out: Pascale Heyrbaut Team/Correspondents: Magali Van Reeth, Peter Malone, Marianela Pinto, Marc Bourgois, Alejandro Hernández, Douglas Falheson, Hans Hodel, Peio Sánchez, Katia Malatesta, Boutras Danial, Juan Orellana, Sergio Joel Ascencio Casillas, Peter Sheehan, Mac Machida, Masahide Haresaku, Inês Gil Administration: Fabienne Deseau, Florentina Gonzalo, Nadia Tekal E-mail: guido.convents@signis.net – @SIGNIS – facebook.com/signisworld – youtube.com/user/signisworld Photo Cover: Still from the film Love and Shukla withTaneea Rajawat (main actress) ISSN 0771-0461 – Prix : 7 euros par numéro - 25 euros par an (frais de port inclus) Les articles signés expriment les opinions personnelles des auteurs.

EDITO

El diálogo que promueve la comprensión y la cohesión social y espiritual entre las diferentes culturas y religiones forma parte del ADN de OCIC / SIGNIS. Algunos consideran que sus actividades como jurado en festivales internacionales de cine, son proféticas para el mundo cristiano y no cristiano, pero también para el mundo del cine. Un número considerable de los premios que otorgan defienden un cine de calidad que expresa valores humanos y espirituales. Un número considerable de sus premios son considerados clásicos en la historia del cine. Ya en los años cincuenta, estos jurados entablaron un diálogo con otras culturas y religiones que no eran las suyas. Películas indias como Pather Panchali de Satyajit Ray (Cannes, 1955) y Do Ankhen Barah Haath de Shantaram V. (Berlín, 1958) o la película japonesa dirigida por Kon Ichikawa Arca birmana (Venecia, 1956) fueron elogiadas. Con el filme de Ichikawa, el jurado remarcó el talante espiritual y humano de una obra procedente de una religiosidad no cristiana.

Festivales como Religion Today y Popoli & Religioni han entablado diálogos con otras religiones como tema de reflexión. Otros como los de Barcelona (MCEC) y Guadalajara (FIC) exhiben largometrajes provenientes de diferentes religiones y culturas, con la intención de unir a las diferentes expresiones religiosas de sus ciudades. Festivales como Visions du Réel (Nyon) y DOK/Leipzig quieren que los jurados interreligiosos apoyen artísticamente las películas que promueven el diálogo intercultural. Los festivales en el mundo musulmán (FAJR/ Teherán) y Judío (Jerusalén) han invitado a SIGNIS a participar en un jurado interreligioso para desarrollar el diálogo y promover películas que defiendan los valores que comparten.

Desde 1952, miembros de OCIC/SIGNIS han estado construyendo, a través del cine, un diálogo con el mundo musulmán en Egipto y, budista e Hindi, en Sri Lanka.

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DIALOGUE Living together and understanding each other in a globalized world - It is all about values we share!

Culture and religion are strongly intertwined and today they are all over the media, in politics, and in communities. With aesthetics and ethics, religion creates culture. Questions arise as to whether Islamic religion can be part of Western Culture, given that it is heavily influenced by modernity, Can Christianity, and how it embraces modernity, be part of Oriental culture shaped by Buddhism, Hinduism or/and Shintoism?

Some cinema professionals express surprise at the idea of film and intercultural dialogue in general and specific interfaith dialogue. They can begin to understand ecumenical dialogue, dialogue between Catholics and Protestants, but seem to think that Christianity and its culture is so different from other world religions that interfaith sharing does not make sense. SIGNIS sees cinema as a meeting place for dialogue Pope John Paul II called media the new areopagus and his promotion of cinema and dialogue in his 1999 address to the Festival of the Third Millennium, held in Rome), there should be an eagerness for this kind of interfaith sharing, essential to understand also culture and to foster inter-cultural dialogue. Since 1947 OCIC, SIGNIS and Ecumenical juries have been giving at International film festivals many awards to films which come from countries with Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic cultures, and especially in recent decades to many films from Iran and North Africa. They all dramatize basic human values, shared values between all human beings no matter what their religion. OCIC, Unda and SIGNIS offices in Taiwan and Sri Lanka have made awards to films in Buddhist culture. The SIGNIS Prize in Zanzibar and the Catholic Cinema Centre awards in Cairo are made in a Muslim context. OCIC juries were active between 1977 and 1978 at the Cairo International Filmfestial and between 1978 and 1992 at the Carthage International Filmfestival in Tunisia. There is a strong dialogue between Hindus and Christians through film in India and several Hindu directors who studied in Kolkata with Gaston Roberge SJ express their indebtedness to him. Former OCIC president Ambros Eichenberger started from the 1970’s with a policy to foster ecumenical and interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

After 9/11, 2001 an official delegation from the Iranian government and cinema industry visited the Vatican.This led to a mutual visit to Tehran’s Fajr festival in 2002 and the establishment of the SIGNIS Interfaith award there, which still continues. It wanted and wants to make clear that there is not a war of religions, or a clash of cultures, going on. A similar prize found place between 2006 and 2014 in Bangladesh, while in Australia, the Brisbane film festival between 2003 and 2008 established an interfaith jury composed with one SIGNIS member and two other members from other religions. SIGNIS and Interfilm chose jurors from other faiths for an interreligious jury in Nyon, Switzerland and in Leipzig, Germany, and discussed how to develop together interreligious dialogue in the world of the international film festivals. In 2008, SIGNIS installed an international jury at the international Religion Today Festival, a Catholic Trento/Rome-based festival and in 2017 with Popoli & Religioni in Terni. Both admit film entries on any theme, and it should be noted that The Religion Today Festival doesn’t want to be called a festival for spirituality and cinema. Its former president David Zordane referred to Jonathan Brant from Oxford University, to reflect on the possibility of revelation occurring in the experience of film-watching. “Interestingly, the concept of ‘revelation’ has a strong religious dimension but can perfectly be assumed independently from any explicit reference to religion, as a synonymous of a sudden apprehension that drives to a selftransformation. The use of this concept of revelation to explain what can happen when people go to the cinema and watch movies is a good way to refer to a vast range of experiences which are deep and spiritual but which are not always perceived as religious. I think therefore that it is worthy to maintain this undefined correlation, maybe this ambiguity, between the religious and the spiritual.

This is not an option but a necessity, when dealing with films from many different faiths, as in the case of the Religion Today Film Festival. Here the distinction between religion and spirituality becomes even more complicated, subject to different perceptions and interpretations by different observers because of their origin and history”. It has to be said that in the project and idea of the Religion Today Film Festival explicit religious reference is central. In 2018 SIGNIS was invited to be present in an interreligious jury at the Jewish International Filmfestival in Jerusalem. With the growing interest in the interfaith and intercultural dialogue, SIGNIS and its partner for the Ecumenical juries Interfilm -representing the Protestant Churches- are well aware that not only Europe but also in Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, and Africa are future area for developping dialogue that is essential for a culture of peace.

Peter Malone/GC

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Prix SIGNIS à Trento & Terni RELIGION TODAY - Trento 2008 Don Zeno - L’ uomo di Nomadelfia de Gianluigi Calderone (Italie) ex-aequo Seasons of Love de Kalavanal Jiji (Inde)

2013 One Day after Peace de Erez Laufer & Miri Laufer (Israël/Afrique du Sud)

2018 Resurrection de Kristof Hoornaert (Belgique)

2014 Magic Man de Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv (Israël)

POPOLIeRELIGIONI - Terni

2009 Family on the Edge de Gilad Goldschmidt (Israël)

2015 The Healing de Ivan Jovic (Serbia)

2010 Zen and War de Alexander Oey (Pays-Bas)

2016 The Island of the Monks de Anna Christine Girardot (Pays-Bas)

2011 Tala va mes (Gold and Copper) de Homayoun Assadian (Iran)

2017 The Chop de Lewis Rose (Royaume-Uni) & Vedete sono uno di voi (See, I’m One of You) de Ermanno Olmi (Italie)

2012 The Pillars de Moustafa Zakaria (Emirats arabes)

Vivre ensemble et se comprendre à l’ère de la mondialisation SIGNIS considère le cinéma comme un lieu de rencontre pour le partage interreligieux, indispensable pour comprendre la culture et favoriser le dialogue interculturel. Depuis 1947, les jurys OCIC/ SIGNIS et œcuménique ont décerné dans les festivals internationaux de cinéma de nombreux prix à des films issus de pays de culture hindoue, bouddhiste et islamique. Tous ces films mettent en scène des valeurs humaines fondamentales, des valeurs partagées par tous les êtres humains, qu’importe leur religion. Les membres d’OCIC, Unda et SIGNIS à Taïwan et au Sri Lanka ont récompensé des films de culture bouddhiste. Les jurys SIGNIS à Zanzibar, ainsi que le Centre du Cinéma Catholique au Caire œuvrent dans un contexte musulman. Des prix inter-confessionnels sont attribués à Téhéran (Fajr). SIGNIS et son partenaire Interfilm (œcuménique) choisissent des jurés d’autres confessions pour constituer un jury interreligieux à Nyon (Suisse) et à Leipzig (Allemagne) et réfléchissent au développement d’un dialogue interreligieux dans le monde des festivals internationaux de cinéma.

En 2008, SIGNIS a constitué un jury international au festival Religion Today, basé à Trento (Italie), et en 2017 avec Popoli & Religioni à Terni (Italie), des festivals sensibles au dialogue interreligieux. En 2018, SIGNIS a été invité à participer à un jury interreligieux au Festival international du film juif à Jérusalem.

Vu l’intérêt croissant pour le dialogue interreligieux et interculturel, SIGNIS et Interfilm sont conscients du fait que non seulement l’Europe, mais aussi l’Asie, l’Amérique latine, le Pacifique et l’Afrique sont des espaces futurs pour le développement de ce dialogue indispensable à une culture de la paix.

2017 Chocolate Wind de Ilia Antonenko (Russie) Enklave (Enclave) de Goran Radovanovic (Serbie) L’Amore senza de Paolo Mancinelli (Italie) 2018 Geula (Redemption) de Joseph Madmony & Boaz Yehonatan Yaacov (Israël)

Vivir juntos y comprenderse en un mundo globalizado SIGNIS ve al cine como un lugar de encuentro para el diálogo interreligioso, un espacio esencial para entender la cultura y fomentar el intercambio intercultural. Desde 1947, jurados de OCIC, SIGNIS y Ecuménicos han otorgado numerosos premios en festivales internacionales, de películas provenientes de las culturas hindú, budista y árabe. Todos estos filmes exhiben valores humanos fundamentales, compartidos por todos los seres humanos sin importar su religión. Los miembros de OCIC, Unda y SIGNIS en Taiwán y Sri Lanka han otorgado premios a películas inspiradas en el budismo. Los jurados SIGNIS en Zanzíbar y el Centro de Cine Católico de El Cairo operan en un contexto musulmán, mientras que un premio interreligioso es entregado cada año en el Festival Fajr de Teherán.

SIGNIS e Interfilm seleccionan especialistas de otras confesiones para integrar jurados interreligiosos en Nyon, Suiza; y en Leipzig, Alemania; y discuten continuamente sobre cómo desarrollar este tipo de diálogo en el mundo de los festivales internacionales de cine.

En 2008, SIGNIS presentó un jurado internacional en el Festival Religion Today en Trento; en Roma, en 2017; y en Terni, sede del certamen Popoli & Religioni. Todos estos Festivales son sensibles al diálogo interreligioso. En 2018, SIGNIS fue invitado a integrar un jurado interreligioso en el Festival Internacional de Cine Judío de Jerusalén.

Con un creciente interés en el diálogo interreligioso e intercultural, SIGNIS, y su aliado Interfilm en los jurados ecuménicos, son conscientes de que no sólo Europa, sino también Asia, América Latina, el Pacífico Sur y África son áreas para el desarrollo de este diálogo fundamental para construir una auténtica cultura de paz.

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Love and Shukla de Jatla Siddhartha (Inde) Sans danse ni chanson, un film indien juste et tendre pour évoquer l’absence d’intimité, et ses conséquences, au sein d’une famille modeste.

Shukla est un modeste conducteur de rickshaw qui appréhende de se marier.

Dans la société traditionnelle indienne, il y a peu d’espace pour exprimer le sentiment amoureux lorsqu’on est jeune, et encore moins d’occasion de découvrir la réalité de l’amour physique en dehors de la vulgarité violente de la pornographie sur écran.

L’humour graveleux de ses collègues de travail n’arrange pas les choses. Lorsque le mariage arrive, non seulement la jolie et timide fiancée est encore plus terrorisée que lui, mais il faut partager le quotidien, et l’intimité affective et sexuelle, dans une seule pièce qui sert de logement à une famille de cinq personnes...

Pour son premier long métrage, Jatla Siddartha réalise un film délicat, tout en finesse et plein d’humour pour dénoncer les conséquences de certaines traditions ancestrales, aggravées par les contraintes sociales et économiques. Les familles doivent s’entasser dans une seule pièce, y compris les jeunes mariés, les privant de toute intimité. Et selon l’usage, les bellesmères se transforment en peste dès qu’elles ont enfin une bru pour exprimer leur hargne et leurs rancœurs.

En toile de fond de cette histoire familiale, le réalisateur déroule un portrait de la société indienne aujourd’hui. Avec légèreté,

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il montre la violence quotidienne d’une mégapole surpeuplée, où les plus misérables s’agressent entre eux, où ceux qui détiennent la moindre parcelle de pouvoir en abusent, où la télévision et ses feuilletons à l’eau de rose envahissent le peu d’espace personnel et de silence qu’il reste.

Pour pouvoir enfin aimer sa femme, Shukla doit reprendre en main sa vie, sa dignité et sa famille. Quittant sa carapace de jeune homme effacé, il doit secouer les traditions pour trouver une nouvelle façon, plus affectueuse, de vivre ensemble, d’apprendre à s’écouter avec respect et dignité.

Bien différent des films habituels du genre Bollywood, Love and Shukla trouve un ton juste, entre drame et comédie, pour évoquer les relations familiales, et qui dépasse largement le contexte local.

Lorsque les contraintes économiques restreignent fortement l’intimité, c’est aussi la dignité de chacun qui est bafouée.

Dans une dernière scène lumineuse, les deux jeunes mariés trouvent enfin un espace où faire connaissance et, débarrassés de toute honte et de toute peur, ils peuvent - prélude à tous contacts charnels - commencer à se parler et à se découvrir. L’amour peut alors naître dans les faubourgs de Bombay.

Au Festival international du film de Zanzibar, Love and Shukla a reçu le prix SIGNIS, accompagné de l’attendu suivant : « Le film raconte avec pudeur la recherche d’espace et d’intimité d’un couple de jeunes mariés en Inde, sans autre choix que de partager une chambre avec leurs parents.

De l’anticipation initiale de l’acte sexuel comme expérience la plus immédiate et intime du mariage, cette privation de la vie intime conduit les protagonistes à une compréhension plus profonde de l’amour mais aussi de la communication, de l’attention et de la tolérance en famille.

Dans les séquences finales, s’ouvre une relation familiale plus respectueuse, entre la mère dominante et le reste de la famille, ainsi qu’un espoir d’intimité pour le jeune couple. Avec une excellente mise en scène, le scénario évoque avec légèreté le contexte culturel, et l’humour allège l’atmosphère dramatique.»

Magali Van Reeth

#Female Pleasure de Barbara Miller (Suisse/Allemagne) En donnant la parole à cinq femmes originaires de cinq pays et de cinq religions différentes, le documentaire dénonce la violence avec laquelle le pouvoir masculin, qu’il soit culturel ou ecclésial, dénie aux femmes la liberté de leur corps, de leur sexualité et de leur indépendance.

Si le titre peut prêter à confusion, précisons d’emblée que les seules images dérangeantes de ce film sont, dès l’ouverture, les affiches publicitaires de grandes marques commerciales de parfum, alcool, voiture ou vêtement, pour justement montrer l’utilisation irrespectueuse et quasiment pornographique du corps féminin dans l’espace public. Et introduisent toute l’ambiguïté de l’attitude de ce pouvoir masculin qui porte un regard concupiscent sur le corps des femmes, tout en empêchant ces femmes de revendiquer leur liberté sexuelle, quand ce n’est pas leur liberté tout court.

La réalisatrice Barbara Miller a choisi cinq femmes, ancrées dans des traditions et des croyances bien différentes.

Deborah Feldman a été élevée au sein d’une communauté juive orthodoxe américaine, avant de s’en détacher. Elle vit désormais avec son fils à Berlin et témoigne, à travers l’écriture et l’expression artistique, de cet étouffement où les femmes ont pour unique rôle la procréation à répétition.

Leyla Hussein est une musulmane, originaire de Somalie et vit à Londres. Elle a été excisée à l’âge de sept ans et il lui a fallu des années pour réaliser que la violence de cet acte n’est pas que physique. Aujourd’hui,

elle se bat pour faire cesser cette pratique, à travers des conférences et des prises de positions publiques qui lui ont valu des menaces de mort.

Rokudenashiko est japonaise. Elle est auteur de manga et elle est en procès pour avoir représenté et décliné dans son travail artistique la vulve féminine. Dans une société bouddhiste où le pénis est célébré comme symbole de fertilité et montré jusque dans les confiseries, la représentation du sexe féminin reste obscène et taboue.

Doris Wagner est allemande et chrétienne, elle est entrée très jeune dans un couvent où elle a été violée par le père supérieur de sa congrégation. Dans son cas, c’est très clairement le comportement du clergé catholique qui est en cause, et contre lequel elle a essayé, en vain jusqu’à aujourd’hui, de lutter pour dénoncer les abus de ces hommes d’influence et de pouvoir et le silence de leur hiérarchie.

Vithika Yadav est indienne. Elle a refusé un mariage arrangé, comme il est de tradition dans la société hindouiste. Ayant épousé l’homme qu’elle a choisi, elle a créé un une association et un site pour l’éducation sexuelle et contre les violences faites aux femmes. Ce qui lui vaut les représailles des plus traditionalistes de ses compatriotes.

Il est clair, dans ce documentaire, que les femmes participent aussi à perpétuer cette domination masculine et la violence qui en découle. Pour l’excision, ce sont généralement les mères ou grands-mères qui l’imposent à leurs petites filles et c’est pourquoi Leyla Hussein participe à de nombreuses actions éducatives, au Kenya notamment. Les femmes de la communauté ultra-orthodoxe quittée par Deborah Feldman ont été les plus virulentes dans leurs insultes et menaces. Quant aux religieuses côtoyées par Doris Wagner, pour certaines, la faute incombait à la victime et non pas au violeur. Avec beaucoup d’humour, les œuvres de Rokudenashko et d’autres femmes artistes déclinent la vulve comme objet qui ne doit pas faire peur, ni aux femmes ni aux hommes, une partie intégrante du corps de la femme.

Pour la réalisatrice, ce n’est pas un film sur la religion ou la foi mais sur la diabolisation de la sexualité féminine. Dans ce domaine, les liens entre culture, tradition et religion sont très complexes mais une chose est sûre, les hommes ont de tous temps et partout dans le monde, utilisé la religion pour renforcer leur pouvoir sur les femmes. #Female Pleasure a reçu une mention du jury interreligieux à Leipzig en 2018.

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The Reports on Sarah and Saleem de Muayad Alayan (Palestine/Pays-Bas/Allemagne) Dans Jérusalem, une ville splendide et en perpétuelle ébullition, une liaison amoureuse tourne au drame. Un film subtil qui dénonce l’impossibilité du désir de l’autre.

Depuis Roméo et Juliette, on sait combien il est dangereux d’aimer une personne qui est l’ennemie de sa famille. Si on pouvait penser qu’au fil du temps ce genre de situation était devenue moins dangereuse, un film venu de Palestine nous rappelle le contraire. Sarah est une jeune femme juive, elle tient un café dans un quartier animé de Jérusalem. Saleem est arabe et il a fait sa connaissance en venant livrer les croissants fabriqués à Jérusalem-Est. Souvent le soir, ils se rencontrent furtivement pour faire l’amour dans la camionnette de livraison.

Avec un début d’histoire très classique, le réalisateur Muayad Alayan tisse peu à peu un scénario subtil où, de rebondissement en rebondissement, les personnages se trouvent emportés dans un imbroglio politique et affectif, prisonniers à la fois de leur famille, de leur culture et des gouvernements en place dans la région.

Enquête policière, portrait d’une société en tension permanente où les destins individuels sont liés à l’agressivité collective, le récit est aussi une tragédie illustrant l’impossibilité du désir.

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Le film est scandé en chapitres, entrecoupés de vues de Jérusalem, lumineuse et belle de jour comme de nuit, comme pour souligner l’antagonisme entre la beauté des lieux et le danger et la haine permanente qui y règnent. Comme un refrain, il y a aussi l’omniprésence du mur séparant les communautés, métaphore incontournable de la scission d’un territoire commun aux juifs, aux chrétiens et aux musulmans, comme une impossibilité de communion.

Passant d’un personnage à l’autre, le scénario nous introduit peu à peu dans la toile d’araignée qui se referme sur eux, tous les personnages sont coupables, chacun à sa manière et, c’est sans doute une des grandes forces de ce film, sans qu’il ne soit jamais question de morale ou de religion !

The Reports on Sarah and Salem montre que, dans cette partie du monde, tout est fait pour réprimer le désir de l’autre. Désir sexuel en dehors des liens du mariage mais aussi désir de connaître l’autre, d’aller dans son quartier, dans sa maison, de créer des liens entre les différentes communautés. Et

même à l’intérieur de chaque communauté, on se définit d’abord par famille, par religion, par clan.

Portés par d’excellents acteurs, les quatre personnages principaux sont laissés seuls face à une tragédie qui les dépasse. Pour Muayad Alayan, l’acceptation de l’autre viendra par les femmes. Les seules - semblet-il - capables de compassion, de pardon et de réconciliation. Les seules capables de changer. Bisan, jeune épouse naïve et aimante, respectueuse des traditions de sa culture, montrera à sa famille et à coups de balai les limites à ne plus franchir et prendra, avec beaucoup d’intelligence, en main son destin. Quant à Sarah, elle paye très cher son apparente liberté et sa décision de dire la vérité.

Tout en apportant beaucoup de soin aux images – les vues de la ville, si émouvantes ou le visage de Saleem derrière les barreaux de sa cellule, éclairé comme une peinture classique – le réalisateur construit un film impressionnant par son scénario, où la mise en scène de schizophrénie collective montre comment tout est fait pour réprimer le désir de l’autre, au sens propre comme au figuré.

Magali Van Reeth

FILMS Love and Shukla

by Jatla Siddhartha Un conductor de rickshaw joven, pobre familia de brahmanes, Finalmente se casa. El techo de la familia ahora es ocupado por la familia de él, por decir lo menos intrusivo.

Para encontrar un momento de intimidad real, el joven se ve obligado a llevar a su esposa a un hotel por horas ... Commerdia dramático en la relación entre la búsqueda de la felicidad individual y convenciones culturales. – Premio SIGNIS Zanzibar 2018 It’s the story of sex, love and the search for privacy in a small, one-room Mumbai chawl.

Shukla, an auto driver from an orthodox Brahmin family, has never intimately known a woman other than the celluloid starlets he watches every day on the 4 inch display of his mobile phone.When his mother arranges his sudden marriage, Shukla and his new wife face the experience of more than 55% of couples in Mumbai: a new marriage, no experience in a relationship and a joint family love nest that offers no space for sex, much less a conversation.

Their only respite is a line of old suitcases set up by his father to separate them from the family, a cell phone and a city of 18 million eyes. – SIGNIS Prize Zanzibar 2018

#Female Pleasure

by Barbara Miller #Female Pleasure aboga por una liberación sexual de las mujeres del siglo 21.

Se cuestionan las estructuras patriarcales milenarias y la banalización de la cultura pornográfica. El filme grafica a cinco mujeres muy particulares en diferentes partes del mundo revelando situaciones universales y mostrando el combate por el derecho a elegir su sexualidad así como a un trato más igualitario entre los sexos que no se base en el placer.

Get ready to meet five courageous women, determined to fight with body and soul for emancipation, striving to destigmatize their sexuality and conquer the right to erotic pleasure.

A documentary that travels to the four corners of the world, only to land in the very core of man-driven oppression. The female body enslaved by religious doctrines, social prejudice and the patriarchal rule. Five women enduring prosecution, threats, marginalization, and violence, only because they dared to stand up and utter the deepest truth.

The Reports on Sarah and Saleem

by Muayad Alayan Inspirada en un hecho real, esta cinta del director Muayad Alayan transcurre en la Jerusalén actual. La ciudad está dividida y aquello se nota. Hay tensión, segregación, opresión y desconfianza. Israelíes y palestinos intentan convivir, sin embargo el conflicto es mucho más profundo, más interno, mucho más poderoso. En este escenario tenemos a dos amantes: Sarah que está casada con David, un alto oficial de ejército y Saleem cuya esposa Bisan está esperando un hijo. Amantes nocturnos, ambos tienen sus propios problemas en casa.

Sarah is Israeli and runs a café in West Jerusalem. Saleem is Palestinian from East Jerusalem and works as a deliveryman. Despite being worlds apart, Sarah and Saleem risk everything as they embark on an illicit affair that could tear apart their unsuspecting respective families.

When a risky late-night tryst goes awry and threatens to expose them, the two of them look on helplessly as their frantic efforts to salvage what’s left of their lives further escalate things.

Caught up in the occupying machinery and socio-political pressure, Sarah and Saleem find themselves trapped in a web of deceit and not even the truth looks able to stop it.

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TRENTO TERNI

Two film festivals fostering dialogue between faiths, cultures, peoples and individuals

Enclave by Goran Radovanovic – SIGNIS prize Popoli e Religioni Terni 2017

The Religion Today Film Festival started in Trento in 1997 and it was the first event of its kind dedicated to dialogue between cinema and religions - an event organized for a culture of peace and dialogue between faiths, cultures, peoples, and individuals.

It promotes a journey “exploring the differences”, both in religious practices and beliefs and in cinematic styles and languages, towards a mutual enrichment through reciprocal knowledge and comparison. It is not by chance since the place is known for the Council of Trent held between 1545 and 1563 where the Catholic Church had to deal with Protestantism.

Lack of information and empathy often explains the prejudice regarding religions and the creation of the “other”.The origin of the festival was the conviction that cinema can offer a platform or a meeting place to facilitate reciprocal learning between different cultures and their imaginations.We, as organizers of the festivals, are convinced that the power of the image, enables a broad public to discover and to understand the ideas or worldviews, and the main figures of different religions. It is a way to counter the preconceptions and ignorance which often causes social and political conflict. This leads often to violence. Going along this path was for us an answer to the

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polarisation between cultures and religions in our society. It is important to respond to the urgency of current times.

The itinerant aspect expresses the will to take its awareness and experiences out into the world, not forgetting its origins but to build new homes in different cultures. Over the years it has traveled to many Italian and world destinations, such as Assisi, Bologna, Bolzano, Milan, Nomadelfia, Ravenna, Rome, London, Jerusalem, Sao Paulo, Teheran, Dhaka and Zamosc. Every edition confirms and reinforces this migrant characteristic of the festival with films distributed among various Italian international towns. This is the expression of a developing identity which has its roots in a specific history, but it is precisely thanks to this history that it feels pushed towards the road of change under the sign of discovery and a pluralist society such as there is today.

Together with the world cinema competition, open to any film with a religious connection, it offers a platform for exchanging ideas and viewpoints, including a “living workshop” involving filmmakers of different faiths and nationalities. Every edition presents an “annual theme” and includes special events, academic panels, and activities for schools and colleges.Therefore,

in October 2019 the 22nd edition’s aim is to promote a conscious and non-rhetorical knowledge of the religions considering the theme of mission, which can be found in many religions. Besides, this year’s Festival encourages the public to relate with the current events and major changes in progress at all levels in our societies, between old and new conflicts, unstoppable movements of peoples, globalizing tendencies and identity claims. The work and experience of the missionaries become indispensable tools to understand the current society and the religious pluralism that characterizes them.

The festival is also an associate member of SIGNIS and has a SIGNIS jury. In 2018 the SIGNIS Prize went to the Belgian production Resurrection by Kristof Hoornaert. This film is an act of faith: it is possible to live beyond violence and death, suffering and fear, those of which you are a victim and those which you inflict on others. To overcome both hatred and remorse, the filmmaker proposes a double path of respect, without the need for words: communion with nature, whose contact heals many wounds, and silence, which can lead to forgiveness and acceptance of the other, and thus open up to a new life.

Info: Religion Today

Reception by Lilla Zentai - Religion Today Commendation 2018

Popoli e Religioni Terni Film Festival This international film festival takes place in Terni every November. It was conceived in 2005 by then Bishop of Terni, Vincenzo Paglia, with the aim of making the peoples and religions dialogue through the art of film.

It was deemed a “meeting of civilizations’’ that wanted to be a response to the “clash of civilizations’’ feared after 9/11. One of the objectives of the festival is the integration of immigrants. Further, it deals with interfaith dialogue, spirituality in cinema, visual education and activities for prisoners.

For two consecutive years the festival was awarded the Medal of the President of the Italian Republic. It has been organized

by ISTESS (Institute of Theological and Historical-Social Studies) and directed by Stefania Parisi and artistically directed by Arnaldo Casali. Hence, every year the festival focuses on a selected region of the world, actively involving foreign communities.

In 2017 a SIGNIS jury was first invited to participate at this festival. One of the first prizes went to the German Serbian coproduction Enclave, directed by Goran Radovanovic and in 2018 to the Israeli film Geula (Redemption), co-directed by Yossi Madmoni and Boaz Yaacov.

Enclave

de Goran Radovanovic Parmi les films de guerre, ceux dont les protagonistes sont des enfants portent en eux une dramaturgie particulière. Avec un scénario subtil, Enclave montre la complexité d’un conflit ethnique et religieux, et donne des éléments qui permettent de passer de la haine à la tolérance. En 2004, cinq ans après la fin de la guerre, la tension est encore vive au Kosovo, dont le statut politique est toujours indéterminé. Les forces des Nations unies (KFOR) tentent d’empêcher les différentes communautés de s’entretuer et le bruit des armes automatiques résonne encore trop souvent.

Dans une campagne désolée, Nenad fait les trajets vers l’école dans un char de la KFOR. Il a dix ans et vit dans une enclave serbe et chrétienne au cœur d’un territoire albanais et musulman.

Le film nous plonge au cœur de l’absurdité de ce conflit où des gens, parlant la même langue et habitant depuis toujours la même terre, cultivent une culture de haine pour leur voisin dont la religion, et quelques coutumes, sont différentes. Nenad vit seul avec son père, un homme rude et taiseux, et son grand-père qui s’éteint doucement.

A l’école, il est seul et joue rarement avec

d’autres enfants, des jeux où on s’appelle « le Serbe » ou « les Albanais » et non par les prénoms. Il suffit d’un incident pour mettre le feu aux poudres. Avec finesse, le scénario tisse la toile de la vengeance et de l’incompréhension, et ne dévoile que peu à peu la résolution du récit. Si certaines scènes sont poignantes, comme celle du bus ou de la punition par le père, il y a aussi beaucoup d’humour. Les acteurs, y compris les enfants, n’ont pas besoin de beaucoup de dialogues pour exprimer le doute, la peur ou la résignation. Subtilement, la métaphore de cette enclave politique se décline dans le char, qui protège et rend plus visible, ou par la cloche, qui emprisonne et sauve à la fois.

Le film n’explique pas le conflit mais montre qu’il est toujours possible de construire des ponts sur les ruines des générations précédentes.

A travers les enfants, la réconciliation est possible. Pour autant, le film ne verse pas dans le conte de fées et parce que deux êtres ont su réparer, l’insondable bêtise humaine n’est pas éradiquée. Arrivé dans une grande ville où les Serbes sont majoritaires, Nenad devient un « Albanais » aux yeux de ses copains de classe...

Magali Van Reeth

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NYON Interreligious juries

LEIPZIG

SIGNIS and Interfilm collaborate in choosing jurors from other faiths for interreligious juries in Nyon and in Leipzig and are actively discussing how to continue to develop interreligious dialogue in the world of the international film festivals.

Interreligious Jury Nyon: Brigitte Affolter, Carlos Aguilera Albesa, Sascha Lara Bleuler, Behrang Samsami.

The International Documentary Film Festival of Nyon in the ancient lakeside town of Nyon on the shores of Lake Geneva has been in existence since 1969.

It had historically been held each year in the Autumn. A national Ecumenical Jury was present between 1978 and 1995. It awarded educational and artistic films which promulgated spiritual and human values, particularly justice and peace issues, and the dignity of the human person and respect for the environment. Following fundamental changes to the festival beginning in 1996 (e.g. a switch to a Spring date, and financial restraints, etc.), the number of accredited juries was reduced.The festival also changed its name to Visions du Réel and the presence of an Ecumenical Jury was put on hold.

Ten years later, the previous partners in the Ecumenical Jury (Interfilm’s representatives in Switzerland and the Catholic Media Service Zurich, the Swiss representative of SIGNIS) agreed to the convincing proposal from the directors of the festival, Jean Perret and Gabriela Bussmann, to establish an Interreligious Jury instead to replace the former ecumenical one. Times had changed.

In a post 9/11 world, religion and culture, social and political differences, and conflicts in which religious values played a role, were daily topics in the press, audio-visual media, and were also present in fiction films and

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documentaries. For Nyon it was time for a renewed presence, having film experts sensible for these religious values in film and a four-member jury could be guaranteed, of which one would come from a nonChristian religion (Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist) in addition to a representative from the Templeton Foundation. Two jury members would be non-Swiss. In fact, this project was supported by Robin Gurney, a consultant from the John Templeton Foundation for Europe. He suggested that it would be a good idea to give a prize for a documentary film in addition to the European Film of the Year Award for a fiction film (European John Templeton Film Prize awarded since 1997).

He was convinced that the presence of a jury for such a prize at the Visions du Réel would be highly appropriate.

The John Templeton Foundation became a partner for three years with Interfilm and SIGNIS to support the initiation of this international Interreligious Jury from a financial perspective and to include an additional prize -- the best festival film dealing with Science and Religion. This was one of the prime areas of focus for the Foundation. Finally, in 2005 SIGNIS and Interfilm together established this Interreligious Jury, based on the rules for Ecumenical Juries, in cooperation with the John Templeton Foundation. From 2008

the international Interreligious Award continued without the involvement of the Templeton Foundation, but now with the financial support of the national and local Christian churches. The result is that between 2005 - 2019, the Interreligious Juries provided awards to fifteen films. In 2005 the French documentary from Nino Kirtadze, The Pipeline Next Door, obtained the prize. It is a story of how a small village is suddenly confronted with globalisation. In the years since, the Jury has continued to make convincing choices for its Prize.

In 2019 the Interreligious Award went to the Azerbaijani film directed by Hilal Baydarov, When the Persimmons Grew.

“It documents the life of the village of the filmmaker in a summer when he and his brother join their mother in the family house. It is the persimmon season and the village’s inhabitants come together around the harvest of this fruit. A happy reunion for the filmmaker’s family, which also evokes the solitude that his mother will face when the brothers leave at the end of the harvest.

The director succeeds in interweaving linear time with the moment, capturing for eternity the joys of everyday life.”

Hans Hodel

Cahier Africain by Heidi Specogna - Intereligious Prize Leipzig 2016

Cahier Africain

primé deux fois par SIGNIS

DOK Leipzig

En 2016, le prix WACC-SIGNIS pour les Droits de l’Homme est décerné au documentaire Cahier africain. Pour la WACC et SIGNIS, ce documentaire offre une perspective très humaine à l’horreur des situations de conflits qui impactent les vies des gens ordinaires, en particulier celles des femmes et des enfants. En 2017, ce film reçoit également le prix interreligieux à Leipzig.

Due to the recent social and political changes and situation in Germany, especially in Leipzig, where extremist nationalist movements were attacking emigrants and refugees, mostly Muslims and expressing openly antisemitism, Leena Pasanen, the artistic director of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (DOK Leipzig) asked Interfilm and SIGNIS to react. She invited both international organizations to include non-Christian members in their ecumenical jury to support intercultural and interreligious dialogue. In November 2016, therefore the jury invited a Muslim filmmaker from Turkey and a Jewish director from the Netherlands to join them in forming an interreligious jury. The award in 2016 went to Heidi Specogna’s Cahier Africain (Germany/Switzerland) about the ongoing atrocities between different religious and ethnic groups in the Central African Republic. In the same way an interreligious jury was formed in the following years.

Cahier africain commence avec la découverte d’un petit livre d’exercices scolaires, contenant les témoignages de 300 femmes, filles et hommes centrafricains. Les pages du cahier révèlent les souffrances qu’ils ont subies entre les mains des mercenaires congolais, entre 2002 et 2003.

Filmé à partir de 2008, Cahier africain accompagne les victimes de violence, comme Amzine, qui a donné naissance à une petite fille à la suite d’un viol, ou Fane, qui a été touchée par balle au genou et qui s’est fait opérer à Berlin.

La réalisatrice Heidi Specogna explique que « le destin de ces êtres humains engendrés par la violence est une tragédie que le monde ne veut pas voir. A l’origine, le film était dédié à ces femmes qui tentent de regagner un ancrage après avoir vécu la violence. »

In 2017 it gave its prize to Love is Potatoes (Liefde is aardappelen) by Aliona van der Horst (Germany/Russia). Using the example of a personal search for traces, Love is Potatoes reveals an episode of world history. On a quest for her own roots, the author finds, in a house in Russia, evidence of her origins, the flight, the story of her family, the way the past was dealt with, the issue of forgetting, the effects of hunger – all measured against the yardstick of death. Working with pictures of the house and the souvenirs, with letters, sound recordings and especially with Italian animation artist Simone Massi’s excellent visuals, Aljona van der Horst did create a moving and profound work of art, not without risking a pinch of irony and humour, too.

In 2018 italian documentary Avevo un Sogno (I Had a Dream) of Claudia Tosi, which not only contains hope but produces it. obtained the interreligious Prize. The film “shows a sense of responsibility to make the world a better place inspiring the next generations”, explained the jury its decision.

HH/GC

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TEHRAN Début des prix Interfaith pour les films iraniens Au lendemain du 11 septembre, l’industrie cinématographique iranienne a demandé à Peter Malone, président d’OCIC en 2001, de mettre en place une collaboration entre musulmans et catholiques.

SIGNIS Jury Tehran 2017: Hojatollah Ayoubi, Michal Legan et Katia Malatesta giving its Interfaith Prize to the Chinese film Knife in the clear water of Wang Xuebo.

In the post 9/11 world the Iranian film industry and Ministry of Culture wanted to make it clear that there was no conflict between the Christian and Muslim world.

Iranian government representatives visited the Vatican in November 2001 with the help and encouragement of Archbishop Foley.

After this visit the suggestion was made that OCIC (now SIGNIS) could be an organisation that could help foster the dialogue between the two religions. It was suggested to Fr. Peter Malone, President of OCIC, to see what practicalities could be enacted. He knew the organizer of the Fajr Film Festival, Amir Esfandiar, and suggested the possibility of a practical collaboration between Muslims and Catholics by creating an Interfaith Jury and Award for Iranian films (many of which had already received SIGNIS prizes at other film festivals).

Fr. Malone attended the Fajr Film Festival as an observer in 2002. His experience of the festival was one of a warm welcoming, of enthusiastic and professional festival organizers, and of many interesting films.

He even elected to give the first Interfaith Prize that year to Bahman Farmanara’s film, Khaneiruye ab (A House Built on Water).

His justification for the prize was that the film was an artistic combination of a drama about mid-life confusion and a critique of contemporary Teheran society. It also relied on the teaching of the Koran and introduced

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“magic realism” elements through the depiction of angels. It was a challenging film and introduced a kind of standard for what SIGNIS understood in awarding an Interfaith Prize.

A House Built on Water is about an Iranian gynecologist who is not satisfied with his life. He becomes acquainted with a boy who has memorized the entire text of the Quran and suddenly falls into a coma. The doctor also deals with and treats people who suffer from cancer, Aids and narcotic addiction.

Additionally, Fr. Malone gave a commendation to the film, Emtehan (The Exam), the first feature by director Naser Rafaie. The Exam offered a warm, serious but also humorous glimpse of schoolgirls in Tehran waiting to begin their exams. The awards were made in the National Theatre on the final day of the Festival along with the major Iranian awards. Fr. Malone presented the Interfaith awards on-stage and the event was televised nationally. There was also subsequent extensive newspaper and magazine coverage.

Setting up an Interfaith Jury was a concrete way of showing that Catholics and Muslims could watch and discuss films containing values which they share. In this way, the first official Interfaith Jury was organized in Tehran the following year in 2003.

The Interfaith Jury is comprised of two jury members selected by SIGNIS and one or two Muslim jury members selected by the festival.

For its Interfaith Prize, the jury historically considered the selection of films pertaining to the new Iranian feature films section. Since 2016, the Interfaith Prize is given to a film from the international competition. In that year the Afghan Australian production Love Marriage in Kabul was awarded the Prize.

The jury explained that Love Marriage in Kabul was a film about Mahboba Rawi, an exiled Afghan woman who has lost her child, and then raises funds in Australia for Afghan orphanages. Despite many difficulties she succeeds in making the “love marriage” between Fatemeh and Abdul while continuing her social activities. “This lively documentary depicts the difficulties in everyday life in Afghanistan, especially for women, and the faith of those willing to change. Without ever losing humour the film gives us hope for a better future.”

Founded in 1982, the Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF) is Iran’s largest annual film festival held in Tehran. It is an event that celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed cineastes and pays tribute to quality local and international films. Since its establishment, Fajr International Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of the Iranian Cinema. Every year veteran directors and new filmmakers devotedly present their works in the festival.

Peter Malone/GC

Rona, la mère d’Azim

Rona, la mère d’Azim de Jamshid Mahmoudi - Prix SIGNIS Téhéran 2019

de Jamshid Mahmoudi

Ce film est le deuxième long métrage de Jamshid Mahmoudi, après Quelques mètres cubes d’amour (2014). Afghan d’origine, le cinéaste qui habite Téhéran depuis très jeune, revient avec un thème qui lui est cher : le combat de réfugiés en Iran, qui luttent contre une bureaucratie qui ne leur facilite pas la vie. Azim veut aider sa mère Rona à fuir vers l’Allemagne, mais à la dernière minute et sans raison apparente, son frère Faroogh décide de ne pas l’emmener. Une tension énorme s’établit entre les deux frères, en particulier lorsqu’Azim découvre que Rona a besoin d’une greffe de rein.

Comme en Iran, il est interdit de donner un organe à un étranger, il est confronté à un dilemme : en donnant un de ses reins il peut sauver la vie de sa mère, mais perdre la sienne.

Sans tomber dans le sentimentalisme, Rona, la mère d’Azim raconte une histoire de conflits familiaux et de désir de réconciliation. Mais ce qui est véritablement en cause, c’est la souffrance des réfugiés qui font partie d’une communauté exclue de la société. Un autre problème économique et social : le don d’organe. Pour faciliter les greffes, l’Iran autorise la vente d’organes depuis les années 1980. Cependant, au lieu d’aider la médecine, la légalisation de la vente d’organe n’a fait qu’empirer le trafic.

The 2019 Interfaith Jury The 2019 Interfaith Jury was comprised of three members – Mr. Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Navab (Iran) and two members appointed by SIGNIS -- Ms. Ines Gil (Portugal) and Douglas Fahlson (Ireland). The festival presented 100 films from 75 countries.

The task of the jury task was to select a film from our selection of assigned films that had a high level of artistic quality and technical skill, portrayed universal appeal, showcased the transcendent dimensions of life and the shared faiths, and dramatized human values. The assigned films could be grouped into a few select themes. One such theme was touching on the concept of loss. Widow of Silence (India) follows a Muslim woman in Kashmir as she struggles with the local bureaucracy to produce her long missing husband’s death certificate. Yomeddine (Egypt/Austria) is a personal journey made by an Egyptian leper after the death of his wife. Another Kashmir story, Hamid (India), tells of a disappeared father and his young son’s fantastical search for him. Laughing (Italy) concerns a comedic take on a young wife’s attempt to deal with the recent loss of her husband.

Another general theme exhibited was spirituality and faith. Namme (Georgia) focuses on a spiritual daughter as she takes over the family’s care of a local, traditional source of healing water. Beloved (Iran) showcases an independent 80-year old woman who fends for her cows and herself in the mountains of Iran. A rural mosque is discovered to have once been a Catholic church in A Shelter Among the Clouds (Albania) and the local villagers from both faiths agree to its shared use. Red Flowers and Green Leaves (China) highlights an arranged marriage between a young couple as they discover more about each other. Before the Frost (Denmark) is a 19th Century Danish tale of rural poverty and best intentions gone horribly wrong. And 23 People (Iran) is based on a true story of 23 Iranian child soldiers who served as prisoners of war in Iraq during the war in the 1980’s.

Douglas Fahleson

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JERUSALEM Inter-Faith Jury at the Jewish Film Festival

Sarah Tuttle-Singer, Kadar Herini, Magali Van Reeth, jurés au festival de Jérusalem

In 2018, SIGNIS was proud to be part of the first Inter-Faith Juy at the Jewish Film Festival in Jerusalem. It takes place every year during the Hanuka week, a Jewish feast celebrating light, a very good omen for a cinema festival!

Three jury members were chosen by SIGNIS and the Jerusalem Cinematheque (where the event takes place): a Jewish person, Sarah Tuttle-Singer from Israel ; a Muslim person, Kadar Herini from Palestine and a SIGNIS member (myself). The theme of the Festival is to show films that have a link with the Jewish culture, whether past, present, inside or outside Israel, fiction films, documentaries, comedies or drama. As it is holyday time, most of the screenings are packed and the debate and reactions of the audience lively!

During the week of the Festival, I had many encounters with the audience and I was touched by how everyone seemed to approved this jury and even thanked us for being part of this group. With the other jury members, we had very fruitful meetings. Eventhough our believes where not the same, and we were all aware of the outside political tension, we agreed with the criteria: the prize awarded

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was not the film we liked the best but the most well made film that could help people from different backgrounds to work together for a better world.

While attending the Jewish Film Festival, I was able to aknolwedge the work done at the Cinematheque to promote dialogue through films and debates. More than ever, we are convinced that Art is a language and a territory where we can all expose peacefully our differences. Cinema and Film Festivals are a unique place for overcoming misunderstanding and going beyond the contempt of ignorance of those we have never met.

Magali Van Reeth

The Inter-Faith Prize was given to Samaritan, a very well crafted documentary by a French young director, Julien Menanteau. Through two main protagonists, the story cleverly tells the difficult daily life of a very small Jewish community that lives in Palestine, speaks Arabic and have Muslim neighbours.

They are not very welcomed by other Jews across the border but they know they can plau a role in the peace process. The film gives hope to all the persons of good will, even in a conflict area.

Le prix interreligieux a été attribué à Samaritain, un excellent documentaire réalisé par un jeune réalisateur français, Julien Menanteau. À travers les deux personnages principaux, le récit déroule subtilement le quotidien difficile d’une très petite communauté Juive vivant en Palestine, parlant arabe et ayant des voisins musulmans. Ils ne sont pas très bien accueillis par les autres juifs de l’autre côté de la frontière, mais ils savent qu’ils ont un rôle à jouer essentiel dans le processus de paix. Le film donne de l’espérance à toutes les personnes de bonne volonté, même dans une zone de conflit.

Samaritan by Julien Menanteau - Interfaith Prize Jerusalem 2018

40 years of Jewish culture awarded and commended In 1979 the first film about Jewish culture not produced in Israel got a commendation of OCIC. In the next 40 years about 30 got a prize or a commendation, From 1990 on this was also the case for 33 Israelian productions. Some of the recent ones are listed below.

International films about Jewish culture

Israelian films

2012 PRIX ITALIA – SIGNIS Prize Nicky’s Family - Matej Minac-CTV-Ceska Televize

2014 RELIGION TODAY – SIGNIS Prize Magic Man by Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv (Israel)

2013 MONTE CARLO – SIGNIS Prize Le métis de Dieu by Ilan Duran Cohen (France)

2015 RELIGION TODAY – SIGNIS Commendation Vice Versa by Amichai Greenberg (Israel)

2014 KIEV – Ecumenical Commendation Anderswo - Anywhere Else by Ester Amrami (Germany)

2016 CANNES – Ecumenical Prize Abulele by Jonatan Geva (Israel)

2015 KARLOVY VARY – Ecumenical Commendation Song of Songs by Eva Neymann (Ukraine)

2015 WACC-SIGNIS Human Rights Award Censored Voices by Mor Loushy (Israel)

MONTREAL – Ecumenical Prize L’orchestre de minuit by Jérôme Cohen Olivar (Morocco)

2017 Karlovy Vary – Ecumenical Prize The Cakemaker by Ofir Raul Graizer (Israel/Germany)

2016 MUNICH – SIGNIS Prize Le Voyage de Fanny by Lola Doillon (France) 2017 RELIGION TODAY Trento (Italy) – 20th anniversary SIGNIS Prize The Chop by Lewis Rose (United Kingdom)

2018 Karlovy Vary – Ecumenical Prize Geula by Joseph Madmony & Boaz Yehonatan Yacov (Israel) Fribourg – Ecumenical Prize Foxtrot by Samuel Maoz (Israel/Switzerland/Germany)

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EGYPT SRI LANKA SIGNIS National Members

Egyptian Catholic Cinema Center Awards 2019

1n 1949 the Egyptian Fr Pierre Franzidis wrote in the International Film Review of OCIC, his first article on the cinema in Egypt in the first six months of that year. At that time, his congregation, the Franciscans, had founded the Egyptian Catholic Cinema Center (Centrale Catholique du Cinéma Egyptian) in Cairo, in the midst of the Muslim world and culture.

In 1949 the CCCE became also a member of OCIC. The aim was to guide and educate the Egyptians to watch ‘morally good’ and artistic quality films. It intended to promote a value-oriented local film industry in which dialogue between the different religions was highly important. From then on it showed how religious institutions can play an important role in society and especially in the world of culture and art in Egypt. In the following years Farid El Mazzaoui, Pierre Franzidis, Erminio Roncari, and Joseph Mazloum were the directors. Since 2011 Fr Botros Danial has been the director. The CCCE, near Tahrir Square, became over the years one of the richest documentation Centers for the history of Egyptian Cinema.

From 1952 on the CCCE has organized annually the festival of Egyptian Cinema. In

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doing so it became the oldest film festival in Africa. The Festival has become one of the most renowned events in the country and most appreciated by actors, actresses, writers, directors. in Egypt. Most of them are Muslims. The festival of which the awards are considered as a kind of Egyptian Oscars, is traditionally organized each year in February. In January-February 2011 the Egyptian revolution prevented the festival.

But the CCCE had not remained inactive, on the contrary. In March 2011, the Central organized two different evenings. The first was set up on the occasion of Mother’s Day. It welcomed for the first time the mothers of the martyrs of the revolution.The second evening was held in the light ’For the Love of Egypt’, and hosted guests such as renowned TV host Moufid Fawzi, the famous actresses Nelly and Ragaa Al-Gueddawi.

A month later young ‘revolutionaries’ from Tahrir Square decided to thank Fr Boutros for his support of their movement. Several representatives from the world of the media were present, such as the actress Nelly Artin Kalfayan, the television presenter Sanaa Mansour, the actor Samir Sabri, writer and journalist Hanane Moufid Fawzi, the political scientist Amr Al-Choubaki and

Dalla Megahed, adviser of the American president Baraka for Islamic affairs.

In 2019 the jury committee members: The famed actor Mostafa Shabaan, the Egyptian actress Magdy Kamel, the director Adel Adeeb, director of photography Mohamed Mokhtar and Scriptwriter Mohamed Soliman announced mid-February the 67th CCCE Prizes. Shaaban told Egypt Today that he was happy with this honorary award noting that the first award he received was from the Catholic Center Cinema Festival on his role in Fata Men Israel (A Girl from Israel) in 2000.

The famous Egyptian actor Ahmed el Fishawy won the Best Actor award for his role in Eyar Nary (Gunshot). Yomeddine scriptwriter and director Abu Bakr Shawky won both the Best Script Writer and the Best Director awards for Yomeddine.

The Egyptian actress Horreya Faraghaly won the Best Actress award on her role in Tale’ Senay (Induced Labor). The veteran Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah and the renowned Egyptian critic Tarek el Shenawy received the Artistic Creativity awards.

Boutros Danial/GC

Grasarapa by Jayantha Chandrasiri’(Sri Lanka)

Promoting cultural understanding in Sri Lanka The Sri Lankan branch of the OCIC started in 1972 (today SIGNIS Sri Lanka) to recognize excellence of professionals –with awards– in the local film industry whatever their religion (Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, or others) It was and is an activity of reinforcing social cohesion to society to bring different cultures together and of promoting a good and value-oriented cinema culture in Sri Lanka. Although SIGNIS is a Catholic organization, the majority of those who have benefited from the film awards and workshops conducted by SIGNIS Sri Lanka, are the non-Catholics, especially the Buddhists of this country. The annual awards ceremony, also like its Hollywood counterpart (the Oscars), has become a gala event that attracts film and television stars, directors, cameramen, scriptwriters, critics, and journalists. The awards have gone mostly to non-Catholic Sri Lankan filmmakers, actors and technicians.

Film director and screenwriter Pathiraja Dharmasena (1943-2018) who became known as a ‘rebel with a cause’, an ‘enfant terrible of the ’70s’, and can be considered as the pioneer of Sri Lankan cinema’s ‘second revolution’ won the OCIC Sri Lankan Salutation award in 1973 for his first non-commercial film One League of Sky on urban youngsters. A few years later his film Bambaru Awith obtained the OCIC Sri Lankan award showing the conflict between the urban western capitalists minded youngsters and a traditional-minded fisher community. In October 2017 the 40th SIGNIS Salutation Awards Ceremony was held together to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Sri Lankan cinema.The first Sri Lankan film director Lester James Peries (99 years), whose first film Rekava (Line of Destiny), selected in 1957 at the Cannes film festival and embedded in the Sri Lankan culture was honoured.

In 2017 Praneeth Abhayasundere, president of the All Ceylon Buddist Congress was also honored at the SIGNIS Salutation as best lyricist for the film Pathtini.

In 2018 Roshan Edward, a video editor received the main SIGNIS Salutation award for his debut, Wind Through the Holes. A story about the travails of a Tamil mother who lost her son, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), during the 26year war that drew to a close in 2009. Fathima Shanaz, a Muslim woman was honoured for her short film, Hope, which focuses on the sensitive subject of child marriages, said she wanted to give “a voice to the voiceless” and “a face to the faceless” while raising important human rights issues. Jackson Anthony obtained the award for the best actor and Samanalee Fonseka for best actress acting in the best film Premaya Nam by the Ariyawansa Brothers. The Life Time Achievement Award went to veteran Actresses, Kanthi Lanka, Sumana Amarasinghe, and to film conserver, Tissa Nagodawithana.

In 2019 the SIGNIS Salutation Prize for the Most creative film and best director went to Jayantha Chandrasiri’s Garasarapa, a story about a Sinhala boy who falls in love with a Tamil girl, but the Civil War of the ‘80s intervenes!

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BARCELONA GUADALAJARA El diálogo interreligioso a través del cine

El primer hombre de Gianni Amelio

La Muestra de Cine Espiritual de Cataluña se realiza en Barcelona. Es una iniciativa del Departamento de Asuntos Religiosos del Gobierno de Cataluña. Esta muestra es un evento cinematográfico anual que pone en valor la presencia de la espiritualidad en la cultura audiovisual, hace visibles las diferentes manifestaciones religiosas y espirituales, así como contribuye a favorecer el diálogo interreligioso y la cohesión social.

La muestra tiene un programa con películas de estreno de todas las religiones favoreciendo el diálogo y en conocimiento de la experiencia religiosa. También películas de cultura laica, que plantean el tema de la transcendencia, como El primer hombre, basada en la novela de Albert Camus y que dirige Gianni Amelio. También se proyectan películas que tienen interés desde el punto de vista antropológico y nos proponen cuestiones abiertas en puntos de vista morales, por eso es llamado cine espiritual.

El evento cinematográfico “permitirá hablar sobre los estereotipos, los prejuicios, la interculturalidad y la convivencia entre personas de culturas, lenguas y creencias diferentes”.

La última edición de la XV Muestra de Cine Espiritual de Cataluña que tuvo lugar en noviembre 2018 presentó 19 películas y 2 cortometrajes. Fueron realizadas durante

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72 proyecciones en una cuarentena de salas repartidas en 16 ciudades de Cataluña. Entre las películas seleccionadas se encontraron títulos como La aparición (Xavier Giannoli), El insulto (Ziad Doueiri) o Una bolsa de canicas. (Christian Duguay) Por primera vez el Premio al Cine Espiritual de Cataluña fue entregado en 2018 a un director de cine conocido por su compromiso con la sociedad y la espiritualidad a través de las sus películas.

Este premio ha sido un fruto de la madurez de la misión de la muestra en estos quince años. El ganador, el director y realizador Paco Arango, explicó que «con el cine intento dejar un mundo un poco mejor».

Y lo ha agradecido especialmente porque «este tipo de premios te permiten seguir luchando».

Los dos nombres clave de esta edición fueron el de Raimon Panikkar y Carl Theodor Dreyer. Del segundo hace 50 años desde que murió, y la Filmoteca de Catalunya homenajeó su figura con una selección de sus películas más emblemáticas. De él decía Juan Orellana presidente de SIGNIS España: “Así es como abordó el Misterio el padre de estos creadores [los directores místicos], Dreyer que él mismo definía como “el drama objetivo de las almas”. Desde La pasión de

Juana de Arco (1928) a Gertrud (1964) pasando por Dies Irae (1946) y, sobre todo, su obra cumbre, Ordet (1955), el cine de Dreyer se fundamenta en el milagro de la trasfiguración, en la transformación profundamente espiritual y humana, cuando no física, que viven todos sus personajes.”

En el marco de la conmemoración del Año Raimon Panikkar se programó una selección de películas que reflejan su pensamiento.

Panikkar, de padre indio e hindú y madre catalana y cristiana, fue una de las voces más lúcidas del pensamiento contemporáneo por sus aportaciones al diálogo intercultural e interreligioso. En esta dirección se proyectó de la película La tortuga roja, una fábula muda sobre la relación entre el ser humano y la naturaleza, y que fue candidata al Oscar de animación.

Ya está en marcha la preparación de la próxima edición de 2019 que dedicará una monografia dedicada a los directores de “El estilo trascendental en el cine”, según el famoso texto de Paul Schrader. Así el cineasta japonés Yasujiro Ozu ocupará el ciclo en la Filmoteca catalana. Igualmente, para la nueva edición se proyectarán películas en la Filmoteca Vaticana (que cumplirá 60 años este año) y en la Abadía de Montserrat.

Peio Sánchez

L’Insulte de Ziad Doueiri (Liban)

El insulto

Festival International de Cine con Valores

de Ziad Doueiri (Liban) El insulto de un refugiado palestino de Beirut a un libanés del Partido Cristiano es el detonante de una radiografía impactante de los conflictos de Oriente Medio.

Una película casi judicial que habla de la necesidad de mirar y perdonar al otro en un mundo de odios y guerras aparentemente insuperables. Los dos personajes arrastran dolor y motivos para el rencor, pero hacen un recorrido que les demuestra que ese camino de obstinación no sirve para construir y que deberán despojarse del hombre viejo si quieren que la situación termine de forma satisfactoria.

El Seminario Católico de Información español Alfa y Omega premia las mejores películas tanto en lo estético como en lo antropológico, estrenadas entre el 31 de enero de 2018 y el 31 de enero de 2019.

El Premio por Mejor película social rue attribuda a El insulto. El jurado estaba compuesta de Juan Orellana, Peio Sánchez, Mª Ángeles Almacellas, Ninfa Watt y Enrique Chuvieco.

Info: Juan Orellana

Festival Internacional de Cine Con Valores inició en 2004 de traer filmes con contenido de valores humanos universales en la ciudad de Guadalajara. Organizado por FIC Tercer Milenio A.C., que gestiona con casas productoras y distribuidoras de todo el mundo, la presencia de las películas. Dicho festival cinematográfico, es único en México en su tipo, pues incluye en su programa películas que exalten el espíritu humano, de lucha y superación; propuestas de búsqueda por la trascendencia, tramas inspiradoras, de compromiso social y derechos humanos.

Desde su fundación, FIC Valores, ha buscado cintas de calidad, de propuesta artística y de alto perfil de valores humanos, con el espíritu de trascender muros o prejuicios sociales y ayudando a la sociedad, por medio del arte, a encontrarse y valorarse, logrando así empeñarnos en las causas justas que nos ayuden a crecer civilizadamente. FIC Valores, es una iniciativa que no se limita a una ideología, o a una confesión religiosa. No niega ni excluye, sólo desea buscar integración e inspirar a través del cine. Se trata de un encuentro fílmico en el que aproximadamente cien películas son exhibidas que son minuciosamente seleccionadas por un comité interreligioso que comulga con la idea de dignificar el espíritu con historias. FIC Valores está convencido del gran aporte humano y espiritual que da la experiencia cinematográfica y la utiliza constantemente todo el año para conformar una selección importante e interesante abonando en la formación de líderes para el cambio con la creación de cines comunitarios, usando la técnica del cine foro en talleres, charlas, y cursos de verano; brinda asistencia y acompañamiento a profesiones de la educación para expandir las herramientas de análisis en las nuevas generaciones.

En la edición de noviembre 2018 películas conocidas como El Infiltrado en el KKKlan, Tres Rostros de Jafir Panahi que habla sobre la indolencia por la mujer, o Cafarnaum de Nadine Labaki sobre los derechos de la infancia. También se programaron algunas películas en un contexto religioso. como Red de Libertad sobre un acto de valentía, en el que una religiosa rescata a miles de un campo de concentración Nazi.

Sergio Joel Ascencio Casillas

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Ambros Eichenberger est avec Peter Malone, l’un des premiers dÊfenseurs du dialogue interreligieux et interculturel.

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Ambros EICHENBERGER Defender of interreligious and inter-cultural dialogue

Ambros Eichenberger en quelques dates • 1929 - naissance • 1958 - prêtre dominicain • 1972 - président OCIC-Suisse à Zurich • 1973 - visite Tehéran (Iranian Filmworld) • 1973 - premier jury œcuménique à Locarno • 1975 - rencontre avec Sembene Ousmane • 1980 - élu président de l’OCIC

Ambros Eichenberger OP. (1929-2006), president of OCIC Switzerland, later vice-president, and president of OCIC, is, with Peter Malone MSC, one of the first promoters of interreligious and intercultural dialogue in the world of cinema. In 1971 he was a member of the OCIC jury in Berlin which gives a commendation to Gaav (The Cow) from the Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, featuring a poor peasant who identifies himself with his cow. The film highlights a specific Iranian theme and style.

Ambros traveled to Iran in 1973 and discovered the work of the filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless, who with Mehrjui is part of the Nouvelle Vague Iranienne. He wrote on Saless first film Yek Ettefaghe Sadeh in the Neue Zuricher Zeitung at the end 1973. He brought his film to the Berlin film festival (forum) where it won the OCIC Prize.

In the next years Ambros, who was not only a film journalist, but taught as a professor of Religion and Philosophy in Zurich, where he used film as an instrument to bring his students in contact with non-western cultures. One of the first films shown was the feature film Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare) by Kidlat Tahimik, a semi-autobiographical fable about a Filipino and his awakening to, and reaction against, American cultural colonialism.

He worked closely with the Protestant and Orthodox churches and favoured ecumenical presence at the international film world which resulted in the first ecumenical jury at the Locarno film festival in 1973 and with the Orthodox in 1989 in Moscow. His presence profoundly marked the role of the Catholic community - and especially OCIC/SIGNIS - in building bridges and experiencing dialogue through cinema art with people living under communist regimes (China, Russia, Cuba) or with other religions.

Ambros Eichenberger o.p., président d’OCIC Suisse, puis vice-président et président d’OCIC, est avec Peter Malone, l’un des premiers défenseurs du dialogue interreligieux et inter­ culturel.

En 1971, il devient membre du jury de l’OCIC à Berlin, qui donne un prix à Gaav (La vache) du réalisateur iranien Dariush Mehrjui, mettant en vedette un paysan pauvre qui s’identifie à sa vache. Ambros se rend en Iran et découvre le travail du cinéaste Sohrab Shahid Saless, qui, avec Mehrjui, fait partie de la Nouvelle Vague Iranienne. Il écrit des articles sur le premier film de Saless, Yek Ettefaghe Sadeh, (Un simple événement) dans la Neue Zuricher Zeitung et le présente au festival de Berlin (section forum) où il reçoit le prix OCIC. Ambros, qui n’était pas seulement journaliste de cinéma, enseignait également à Zurich en tant que professeur de

• 1984 - invité à Filmotsav à Bombay • 1985 - premier jury OCIC à La Havane • 1987 - rencontre à Moscou avec les orthodoxes • 2006 - décès

religion et de philosophie, où il utilisait le film comme un instrument permettant aux étudiants de se familiariser avec des cultures non occidentales. Notamment avec le film, Mababangong Bangungot (Le cauchemar parfumé) de Kidlat Tahimik, une fable semi-autobiographique d’un Philippin et sa réaction contre le colonialisme culturel américain. Il a travaillé avec des protestants et des orthodoxes et a oeuvré pour une présence œcuménique au niveau international, ce qui a abouti au premier jury œcuménique à Locarno en 1973 et au premier jury avec des orthodoxes en 1989 à Moscou.

Sa présence a profondément marqué le rôle de la communauté catholique - et en particulier celui d’OCIC / SIGNIS - dans la construction du dialogue par le biais du cinéma avec des personnes vivant sous des régimes communistes (Chine, Russie, Cuba) ou d’autres confessions.

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Honorary Award by OCIC and Interfilm to Raimondo Rezzonico, President of the International Film Festival Locarno for his sympathy and strong support of the ecumenical presence on the occasion of the 50th International Film Festival Locarno with Ambros Eichenberger and Hans Hodel.

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Japan There are approximately a half-million Catholics in Japan-just under 0.5% of the total population. Most Japanese identifying themselves with Buddhism and Shintoism. Martin Scorsese’s film Silence illustrates that the arrival of Catholicism to this country in the 17the century which was not without conflict. It was not only a “religious” affair but also cultural political. Today, one of the ways to express that Catholic Japanese are entirely part of society and open for dialogue is through film.

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In 1976 the Japan Catholic Cinema and Audio-visual Media Association (OCIC. Japan) was founded. And that year in October it gave its first film award to Toroku.This social critical documentary focused on the industrial contamination in the area of Toroku and its effects on the daily life and the health of those who were victims of the environmental destruction of the Mining Company. On this film a young filmmakers group, among them Kiyochi Ito, had worked four years with a lot of difficulties. It was their first feature production. OCIC Japan praised them for their courage and for this human and social message.

In the following years, OCIC Japan made clear that the values it defended were contributing to the spirituality of society.

In 1986 e.g., its annual prize was awarded to Kei Kumai’s film The Sea and Poison, based on the novel of Shusaku Endo. This fiction film explored the dilemma of a young doctor who participated in medical experiments on American prisoners during the Second World War. The conflict of a conscience which tried to justify a series of reprehensible acts but which lacked the decision to leave the vicious circle which continued to drag him deeper into evil was the subject of this human story with its almost directly religious overtones.

In 2002 OCIC Japan became SIGNIS Japan and it continued the tradition of attributing annually its film award for the best film made in Japan in which Christian values are reflected.

In June 2019, the 43rd Japan Catholic Award Winner of SIGNIS Japan was the documentary Bokemasukara Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu (Please Take Care of me as I Will go Senile, or I go Gaga, my Dear).

Director Naoko Nobutomo started filming the everyday routines of her parents, who still live alone in their home. Along the way, she documents the development of her mother’s Alzheimer’s, showing both the bright and dark sides of her parents’ life together. The intimate confines of the film create a private, natural picture, one that brings out many beautiful moments despite its heavy subject matte.

The director Naoko Nobutomo explained how she made the film. “Through the camera, I saw for the first time how thoughtful my parents were to each other. Mother senile at 87, father starting housework at 95. The

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‘I’ in this movie was born and brought up in Kure City, Hiroshima prefecture, and is a TV Director producing documentaries. She describes in her own words: ‘I moved to Tokyo at the age of 18 to enter university and lived there ever since for nearly forty years. I am the only child and not married, putting everything into my work, remained far away from them but quietly maintained my contact with them.’

‘When I was 45, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and my mother lovingly supportedme with great good humor. Having survived one of life’s major crisis, thanks to my mother,

I started filming my parents. However, through the view finder I started to notice changes in my mother’. While my mother was in distress with illness, my father had to learn how to peel an apple for himself and I was desperately trying to make up my mind to give up my job and return home.That was when my father said ‘I’ll take care of her.You get on with your career!’ It was the time when I began to realize that filming them was indeed my mission.”

Info: Mac Machida/GC

Please Take Care of me as I Will go Senile It is not uncommon for producers of documentary films to turn their camera towards their own families. To record the family members who remain the closest to you, is in one sense quite natural, but it does present a major dilemma over the objectivity of the documentation.

This is not a question of right or wrong. If you are recording it as a producer, only a dispassionate approach will reveal the truth. When recording as a family member, on the other hand, one can capture the closeness of family bonds and therefore move our hearts. Both approaches are deeply meaningful, but to record the family usually requires a whole-hearted commitment to one another. Here, we have a production with a miraculous combination of both the approaches. The documentary producer is the only daughter of an 87-year old mother suffering from senile dementia who is being taken care of by her 95-year old husband. The screen speaks to us with both of their voices harmoniously intertwined. When the mother, overwhelmed by emotions, tells her daughter ‘Stop the camera’, the daughter continues calmly, sustained by the overflowing current of love.

Like these moments, the camera captures and reveals to us the precious truth hidden behind the events it confronts. Here, recording is itself an act of love.And this is how the producer can convey an impartial insight into events experienced subjectively within her own family. The society needs insights like these today. After seeing this documentary, those three people are no longer strangers to us. Nor can we feel disconnected from those who have seen it with us. Has any other movie ever made us all feel so much like a family? This is a precious film and amply fulfills the objectives of the Catholic Film Award.

Fr. Masahide Haresaku (SIGNIS Japan)

Films Retablo

by Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Peru/Germany/Norway) Ecumenical Prize Kiev 2018 Segundo sees silence as his only option for dealing with his father Noé’s secret.The 14-yearold lives with his parents in a Quechuan village in the Andes high up in the mountains of Peru. Noé is a respected artisan and Segundo’s role model. With loving eye for detail, he artfully crafts altarpieces for church and homes, and is preparing his son to follow in his footsteps. But cracks form in their tight bond.

Rooz-haje Narenji (Orange Days)

by Arash Lahooti (Iran) Ecumenical Prize Mannheim-Heidelberg 2018 Life is no picnic for 45-year-old Aban. She is the only woman in a male-dominated work environment. As a farm manager, she successfully beats her male competitor Kazem in a bid for a regional harvest job, for which she is even risking her own house as security. She is in charge of an all-female group of seasonal harvest workers on an orange plantation in Northern Iran.

Village Rockstars de Rima Das (India) Premio SIGNIS Buenos Aires - BAFICI 2018 Dhunu, una niña de 10 años, vive en una remota aldea en Assam, India, en medio de una feroz privación. Ella es un espíritu libre, mientras que su madre, viuda, lucha diariamente para traer comida a la mesa y criar a sus hijos. Sin embargo, eso no le impide tener sueños como poseer una guitarra para poder tocar en la pequeña banda que quiere formar con algunos chicos locales, los ‘Village Rockstars’.

God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya

by Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia/Belgium/Slovenia) Ecumenical Prize Berlin 2019 Pour l’Épiphanie, une cérémonie unique au monde prend place dans toute la Macédoine, les grands prêtres lancent une croix dans les rivières et des centaines d’hommes se jettent à l’eau pour aller la chercher. Celui qui la récupère est béni pour l’année et devient une sorte de héros local. Petrunya est une jeune historienne au chômage qui vit chez ses parents.

En rentrant chez elle, elle tombe sur la cérémonie et décide de sauter dans l’eau et elle récupère la croix. Mais les femmes n’ont pas le droit de participer...

Yomeddine de Abu Bakr Shawky (Egypte) Beshay, lépreux aujourd’hui guéri, n’avait jamais quitté depuis l’enfance sa léproserie, dans le désert égyptien. Après la disparition de son épouse, il décide pour la première fois de partir à la recherche de ses racines, ses pauvres possessions entassées sur une charrette tirée par son âne. Vite rejoint par un orphelin nubien qu’il a pris sous son aile, il va traverser l’Egypte et affronter ainsi le Monde avec ses maux et ses instants de grâce dans la quête d’une famille, d’un foyer, d’un peu d’humanité…

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Let There Be Light by Marko Škop

Karlovy Vary in the light of family One of the striking themes at the 54th edition was the relation between a parent with his or her son or daughter. No big dramatic stories but often subtle cinema in which the image says more than thousand words. A theme which reflects also a growing tendency in society worldwide where one parent families seems to become a normal phenomenon.

Mother and Son The German film Lara of Jan-Ole Gerste centers on the relation of a frustrated mother and her son, who had been harassed in his youth to become what she never became, a virtuoso pianoplayer.

Her obsession is due to her lack of selfconfidence, which she unintentionally transmits to her son. It is also the reason why her husband divorced her to protect their son from her. The ecumenical jury gave its prize to Lara because of being “a well-acted and intelligently directed film of a depressed mother’s psychological humiliation of her composer-musician son. The interactions of mother and son dramatically and dynamically capture their alienation and shows signs of movement toward positive resolution”.

The Chinese film Kongzi Meng (Confucian Dream) of Mijie Li is set in today’s modern China where the educational system produces efficient workers without a lot of sense for spirituality. A mother, who is a technician, doesn’t want her five-year old son to be confronted by the cultural and spiritual emptiness she experiences. In an obstinate way she wants her son to study the “classics”, the Confucian writings to impart the moral foundations of this traditional

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philosophical school. It will break up her family because at that moment she doesn’t understand the Confucian values herself.

Living alone, she starts to study Confucian philosophy and understanding her own mistakes and learns why her marriage broke up. In that sense it is a positive way of considering this philosophy. She becomes a teacher and tries to transmit human values in daily life of chinese via private workshops and lecturers.

Father and Son Several films were about father and son relations. The Saudi coming of age story Akher Ziyarah (Last Visit) of Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan is in that sense somewhat special. Nasser drives with his son Waleed from the city Riyadh to the countryside to see his father, who is dying. During the ride, they don’t talk much and there is a tension between them. The son is under the influence of the western culture and Nasser sees him as a spoilt child.

With his grandfather they go and pray, but the adolescent grandson doesn’t. He befriends his nephew and has a sound bound with his father. They have the same age and he sees how his uncle gives responsibility to his nephew. One day a boy

in the village is missing. Waleed finds him drowned. At the same time his grandfather dies. Walleed discovers the value of life and living. He turns also back to praying. His stay and experiences in the village changes the relation between father and son in a positive way.

There are some similarities between Akher Ziyarah and the Czech documentary of Martin Marecek Dalava (Over the Hills) but the culture is different. Vit and his son Grisha are planning to travel almost three thousand kilometers by car from the Czech city Brno to the Russian Diveyevo to visit the mother and sister of Grisha. They haven’t seen each other for eight years. In the car the son puts his headset on, and the father immerses himself into his thoughts.

He once had believed that his love for a Russian would transcends faith and culture, but it didn’t apparently, and they divorced.

Gradually Vit and Grisha confront each other. Their common search for wife and mother brings them back together, again and their joureny becomes a spiritual one for them both.

Let There Be Light (Nech je svetlo) by Marko Škop. This Slovak film is set in a small very Catholic village of today. Milan, father of a family comes home every year

at Christmas. He is a migrant worker in Germany and wants the best for his family. Due to his absence his eldest son, an adolescent, is alienated from him. The son became a member of a local Catholic paramilitary organisation Milan and his wife note that the boy behaves strange, and they are worried when his friend commits suicide. In his desperate efforts to help and to understand his son Milan finds out that the organization is under the control of the local Priest. The Priest, however, is depicted as a kind of fundamentalist who is against the cultural influences of the West which harms Catholic Slovakia.

Bashtata (The Father) by Bulgarian filmmakers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valcanov is a kind of road movie in which the caring love of a son for his father is tenderley expressed. The father Vasil has lost his wife and is in shock. He believes she, from «beyond» life, is trying to contact him on his cellphone, because she had to tell him something important about some instances before she died. He believes that a psychic, living on the countryside can help him to establish that contact. His son Pavel does everything, with a lot of patience, to convince his father that he is chasing an illusion. Helping his father creates a lot of problems, private and profession, for Pavel, but he doesn’t let his father be alone.There is some humor in the film in which quince pear jam plays a role, and which will help at the to reunite father with son.

Father and daughter The Chilean director Felipe Rios tells with El hombre del futuro a kind of bittersweet story set in the Chilean part of Patagonia. Elena doesn’t know much about her father who is a truckdriver and

her mother doesn’t tell her. One day she goes for a long journey to Patagonia where she goes to fight a match as an amateur boxer. She finds a trucker who gives her a lift and who tells her about his life.Through his stories she experiences what kind of life her father had. Almost at the same time her father gives also a lift to a girl.

Through her he learns the importance of being with someone who could have been his daughter. He is sick and it is his last job.

By chance he can assist the boxing match of his daughter. He brings her to the grave of his father as transmitting a way of familyfeeling. Although understands now why he was never around, she leaves him. to continue her journey. At the end both find their version of peace.

The title of Damjan Kozole’s film is significant Polsestra (Half-sister). In this Slovenian film a family broke up because the father left with a younger Albanian woman with whom he has also a daughter, Neza. His Slovenian daughter from the first marriage is Irena a hairdresser and she has problems with her divorce. She has to find a place to stay and her father advices her to go and share the apartment of Neza who is still studying. Irena cannot come along with Neza who apparently has a cold an indifferent character, the opposite of Irena. She had always blamed Neza’s mother of being the cause of the breaking up of her family, but then she learns to see the situation different. It was her father who had made the choice to leave her mother! Neza, although younger, becomes the person who protects and helps Irena, like an older sister! The paradox is that it is through the father that the two half-sisters discovers also the notion of being family.

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Interreligious sensibility

This year a retrospective of the work of the Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine was on the program of Karlovy Vary.

One of his films Al-Naser Salah al-Din (Saladin) of 1963 is a promotion for interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims. The film is a fictional retelling of the Crusades which expresses the desires of peace of the Muslims between the two religions in the 1960s during the time of Egyptian president Nasser. Chahine tells how Western propaganda and fake news dehumanize the Muslims and how the West is acting out of greed to invade the Holy Land, which had nothing to do with defending Christianity. The film was based on Saladin’s reputation for generosity– living peaceful together with the Arab Christians, religiosity, and commitment to the ideals of a holy war.

GC

Une nouvelle revue internationale du cinéma Le cinéma est omniprésent dans nos sociétés. SIGNIS tient compte de cette présence signifiante. Cet art, expression de la créativité humaine, est comme un média qui influence les cultures avec des valeurs et des visions sur la vie et le monde. Depuis 1947, l’association, alors appelée OCIC, a été invitée par les festivals internationaux pour mettre en place des jurys SIGNIS, œcuméniques et interreligieux afin de promouvoir des films de qualités, traduisant artistiquement ses valeurs. Ainsi plus de 2000 films ont été primés ou distingués, la plupart étant devenu des classiques. Cette nouvelle revue veut marquer la présence de SIGNIS dans le monde professionnel du cinéma mais aussi être un outil pour ses membres, journalistes, critiques du cinéma et éducateurs aux médias travaillant dans plus de cent pays.

A new international film magazine Today, cinema is still very present in society.

SIGNIS takes into account this significant presence. This art, an expression of human creativity, is like a medium that influences cultures with values ​​and worldviews Since 1947 the organization, called at this time OCIC, has been invited by international festivals to participate with juries (SIGNIS, Ecumenical and interreligious) to promote quality films that artistically translate values.

In its 72 years, more than 2,000 films have been awarded or mentioned and most are now considered classics. This new journal wants to mark the presence of SIGNIS in the world of the cinema but also to be an organ for its journalists-critics and media educators working in more than one hundred countries.

Una nueva revista de cine internacional Hoy en día, el cine sigue estando muy presente en la sociedad y SIGNIS está consciente de ello. El cine, una expresión de la creatividad humana, es como un medio que influye las culturas con valores y visiones del mundo. Desde 1947, la organización, denominada en esa época, OCIC, fue invitada por diversos festivales internacionales a participar con jurados (SIGNIS, ecuménicos e interreligiosos) y promover películas de calidad que traduzcan valores de forma artística.

Desde entonces, más de dos mil películas han sido premiadas o han ganado una mención. Con el tiempo, la mayoría de las cintas galardonadas se han convertido en clásicas. Esta nueva revista quiere marcar la presencia de SIGNIS en el mundo del cine, pero también convertirse en un órgano de referencia para periodistas, críticos y educadores de los medios de comunicación en más de cien países.

CineMag

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«I am a particle, I am the sun.. »

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