for an excellent portrayal of the depth of human spirit linked to traditions and places in which it lives, enabling a person not only to accept a different culture but also to sacrifice oneself to save another human being.
A special mention was given to
Respiro/Grazia's Island by Emanuele Crialese, Italy/France
for a deeply moral yet not moralizing message told through a story of a very unconventional family living with a secret lie.
and to
In fiecare zi durnnezeu ne saruta gura/God kisses us on the mouth every day
by Sinisa Dragin, Romania
for an impressive portrayal of the ever-present search for answer to the question about the meaning of one's life. The film gives no pre-packaged answers but leads the viewer to a crossing to make his or her own decision.
A moment of happiness
by Michael Otrisal, Prague
"Bratislava is my moment of happiness since this word has female mystery flavour in my childhood fairy tales, narrated by my father", says during interview Antoine Santana, french director of same name movie (>Un moment de bonheur<). Bratislava film festival's four years old tradition has same flavour even for visitors of different personal history. Struggling for film culture establishing among slovak society this festival offers special atmosphere of pioneer enthusiasm combined with professionally focused attempt to find a unique place on the map of European film festivals. International Competition of First and Second Feature Films, official subtitle, seems to be part of answer. Almost absolute lack of bombastic performances (incidental features of film industry first class festivals) and viewer oriented politics makes Bratislava festival a meeting point of real film lovers. "Your Christmas begin this year 29th November, the first screening day", addresses them famous slovak politician and festival president Milan Kòažko. More then 30'000 viewers during nine festival days represents quite astonishing success in highly risky aspiration to make film festival a prestigious event at busy and multidimensional life of Slovakia capital.
Members of Ecumenical Jury (Juraj Drobny,slovak catholic priest and media expert, Anita Uzulniece, latvian journalist and cinema critic, Michael Otrisal, czech pastor and TV producer) enjoyed genuine democratic atmosphere of one treatment for all three festival juries, which gives a chance to unofficial sharing opinions among all 14 jurymen immediately after all screenings. Spontaneous reactions avoid any feeling of rather "political, cinema industry oriented" decisions and pure professional and personal view break any possible barriers between so called religious and nonreligious optics. From my point of view a real moment of happiness!
Apart from unofficial tradition which says that both Fipresci and Ecumenical juries in contrast to main jury operates in the same field of highly sophisticated artistic cinematography, Ecumenical jury joined main jury decision and among 22 films in competition awarded mexican-spanish film >Japón< directed by Carlos Reygadas "for an excellent portrayal of the depth of human spirit linked to traditions and place in which it lives and in which a person is not only able to accept a different culture but also to sacrify oneself to save another human being." Strong story of a middle aged man which leaves a major city to commit at a remote place in the mountains suicide but his live is "resurrected" through spiritual and even physical encounter with old widow alternates between a nature documentary and existential drama and talks about death, sex, love and religion. This holistic approach and excellent story telling brings viewer to the crossroad of human nature and sources of courage to be.
Two commendations reveal spectrum broadness of films in competition. Italian film >Respiro< (>Grazia´s Island<, directed by Emanuele Criarese) awarded "for deeply moral yet not moralizing message about secret a family tie told through a story of a very unconventional family" oscilates between realistic and magic features of life, portraited as mixture of comedy and drama. On the other hand romanian >In fiecare zi domnezeu ne satura pe gura (God kisses us on the mouth every day)< directed by Sinisa Dragin, awarded "for an impressive portrayal of ever-present search of answer to the question about meaning of ones life…" combines brutally realistic story of fragile and sensitive mass murderer Dumitru (on the end sentenced by God´s heavenly irony to the life) with surrealistic images of omnipresent God´s guidance. There are no pre-packaged answers or spiritual instructions in this movie except unbearable and unavoidable need of every human being to make day by day decisions between love and hate, hope and despair.
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