16th Film Festival Cottbus – Festival of East European Cinema
November 13-19, 2006

The Ecumenical Jury at the 16th Film Festival Cottbus – Festival of East European Cinema (November 13-19, 2006) has chosen as winner of the Ecumenical Film Award

INDIÁN A SESTRICKA (The Indian and the Nurse)
by Dan Wlodarczyk, CZ 2006

The sophisticated storytelling by scriptwriter Jan Stehlik combines the world of Romany and Czechs, the latter playing prairie Indians in their sparetime without understanding for an alien culture. The love story between Franta, a Czech, and Marie, a Romany, unfolds in this setting. Convincingly director Dan Wlodarczyk shows the tensions and conflicts between and especially within the different ethnic groups leading us to the conclusion, that living together sometimes expects too much. Instead, living side by side without violence is not little. By this realistic approach the film aims at a perspective for a common future.

Members of the Jury:
Nicolas Cara (Romania)
Johannes Horstmann (Germany)
Arne Kristopherson (Denmark)
Joanna Pacana (Poland)