41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
30th June – 8th July 2006

The Ecumenical Jury at the 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, consisting of

- Jos Horemans, Belgium (President)
- Elena Jecu Dulgheru, Romania
- Julia Laggner, Austria
- Kai Voigtländer, Germany
- Milos Rejchrt, Czech Republic
- Jan Elias, Czech Republic

awards its prize to the film

El destino (Destiny)
by Miguel Pereira, Argentina/Spain, 2005

Disguised in priest’s clothes, a man after a violent drug transaction lands up in a small, isolated border town. Acting as a priest in the community provokes a struggle in search of his real identity.
The director succeeds convincingly in telling the story as a parable of the recurrent choice in life between good and bad as a conflict between progress and tradition. The composition of music and images leads to an excellent aesthetical experience.

Synopsis: On the border of Bolivia and Argentina, where stunning scenery contrasts with the hopeless poverty of the inhabitants in their remote villages, a plane lands carrying a young man dressed as a priest and bringing luggage apparently stuffed with bibles for the  salvation of souls. But in these parts people need a different kind of salvation. To make a living, the villagers produce original ceramic works: the patterns, together with their destiny, are engraved using the bones of dead ancestors. Pedro’s fate, after a dramatic event, is in the hands of these inhabitants. Conversely, the village sees the sudden arrival of a priest as a sign and a chance to change their destiny. They are in disagreement as to how to overcome their poverty: either they continue their potter’s trade, or surrender to the avarice of some of them and destroy their sacred sites and culture. The hopes of both camps lie with Pedro: he is deemed the most qualified judge. Destiny is an adaptation of the novel by Héctor Tizón, The Man Who Came to a Village (El hombre que llegó a un pueblo). (Festival information)

The jury awards a commendation to the film

Shab Bekheir Farmandeh (Goodbye Life)
by Ensieh Shah-Hosseini, Iran, 2006

for the pacifist message and for the convincing way in which it emphasises the communitary spirit, the power of sacrifice and the love for the strangers, which rest unalterated in the most cruel conditions of war.

Synopsis: A film which describes the terrors of war as seen through the eyes of a fragile reporter who manages to overcome her thoughts of suicide on the battle field. This drama, conceived as harsh “psychotherapy”, tells of the beautiful Maryam who, after her unsuccessful marriage, thinks of committing suicide in a way which would at least be of some use to others. She thus enters the Iran-Iraq war as a reporter. Her time spent in the devastated desert landscape, armies spilling over from one side to the other depending on which has the upper hand, totally changes her vision of the world. She is surrounded by suffering and pain, even in the village where she goes to find shelter after her unit is massacred. A wedding in the village ends in tragedy. The close of the film again finds Maryam at the front, where she comes across her friend, the commander Beshar. (Festival information)

The Ecumenical Jury (left to right): Milos Rejchrt, Jan Elias, Jos Horemans, Elena Jecu Dulgheru, Kai Vogtländer, Julia Laggner