10th International Film Festival Bratislava
November 28 – December 05, 2008

www.iffbratislava.sk

The Ecumenical Jury of SIGNIS and INTERFILM, comprising
Natalie Resch (Graz/Austria), Claude Schwab, President (Saint-Légier/Switzerland) and  Roman Tarina (Bratislava/Slovak Republique)

awards the Ecumenical Film Prize in the competition of first and second feature films to

The Zone / La Zona
by Rodriga Plá, Mexico/Spain 2007

for focusing on the fence between a rich ghetto and its poor surroundings, showing the death games people play to save their goods and indicating the uneasy ways to recover dignity and hope.

Catalogue: Teenage Alejandro lives in the Zone, a restricted residential quarter for the privileged in the middle of a Mexican metropolis protected by armed guards and surrounded by appalling poverty and misery. Early in the morning of Alejandro’s birthday, three young men break into the villas. The burglary ends with the accidental death of a old woman, while the housemaid manages to escape and alert the security guards. The death is followed by immediate revenge where two of the young burglars are shot death. The third – Miguel – flees into the night, unable to escape La Zona. The resentful citizens gather in Alejandro’s parents’ house to form a posse determined to seek justice. The manhunt begins.
The directors statement: “>La Zona> is the story of an armed robbery gone wrong. In truth though, it is a story about a broken and divided society, a story of two worlds that fear and hate each other. It is a warning from a reality that we prefer not to see, a reality that surrounds us.” The film received the “Luigi De Laurentis”-Award for Best Debut Film at the IFF Venice 2007, the Fipresci Prize at the IFF Toronto and the Publics Prize at the IFF Fribourg 2008. 

The Ecumenical Jury awards a Commendation to the film

Under the Bombs / Sous les bombes / Pod bombami
by Philippe Aractingi, Lebanon/France/UK/Belgium 2007

for making a bridge between reality and fiction in Lebanon showing with a great respect the evolution of a women and a man through desolation, mourning and tensions due to differences of culture, religion and social status.

Catalogue: Zeina lives in Dubai and is just about to get divorced. In order to spare her son Karim the divorce battle, she tells him to spend some time with her sister who lives in a small village in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, armed conflict between Israel and Lebanon breaks out. Concerned about the life of her son, Zeina does not hesitate and decides to travel to Lebanon. She arrives in Beirut the day after the bombing has stopped. By chance she meets Tony, the only taxi driver willing to take her to the danger zone in the South. Tony, a Christian, and Zeina, a Shiite, seem to have nothing in common. Nevertheless, they set off across the invaded country to find Zeina’s missing son. On the journey, they meet death and destruction wherever they go.
The director started making the film ten days after the ceasefire came into force in Lebanon in July 2006. The cast consisted of only two professional actors; the rest – refuges, journalists, soldiers, religious people and those involved in fighting – were just being themselves. They all happened to find themselves in the chaos and ruins of this war-blighted country. They all experienced .a new tragedy as an intimate part of themselves. “Under the Bombs” won several awards at the festivals in Venice and Dubai. At the IFF Bratislava 2008 he won also the Prize of the Fipresci. Nada Abou Farhat als Zeina has been awarded with the Prize for Best Actress by the International Jury.

The members of the Ecumenical Jury (left to right):Roman Tarina,
Natalie Resch, Claude Schwab