Filmfest München 2004
June, 26 - July, 3

The Interfilm Academy's One Future Prize, awarded annually at the Filmfest München, goes to Hiner Saleem, born in 1964 in Kurdish Iraq for his film

Vodka Lemon (France, Armenia, Switzerland, Italy 2003)

With excellent storytelling ability, the director takes the audience to a distant, snowbound, mountainous village in Armenia and has us take part in the lives of its residents. After a century of catastrophes, including genocide and the long communist dictatorship, the young people are leaving. Their elders are left behind - a forgotten people.

As bleak as the situation seems, they nevertheless take strength in their ties to their birthplace and their memories of their dead loved ones. The film's protagonist is forced to give up what is left of his property, piece by piece, and begins a new life.

With forcefulö and often surealistic images, Hiner Saleem shows us theit leap into the future and by doing so, reminds us of our future and how important it is that even when we have to give up certain things, we should never give up hope - "omnia mecum porto".

A commendation goes to Robert Greenwald for his film Uncovered: The War on Iraq (USA 2004) for depicting the struggle between power and truth, the failure of the mainstream media, the courage of the film's participants to stand up for what they believe in, and the imaginative use of new tools of modern technology to get the message out to a public that has been lied to and manipulated.

The jury of the Interfilm Academy:

Eckart Bruchner (Germany), chairman
Chris Doherty (USA)
Christine Weissbarth (Austria)
Manuela Kempf (Germany)
Franz Indra (Germany)
Ileana Cosmovici (Italy)
Rita Przygodda (Brasilia)