52nd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film
26 October - 1 November 2009

AWARD OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY

The Ecumenical Jury at the 52nd Internmational Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, appointed by the International Church Film Organisation INTERFILM and the World Catholic Association for Communication SIGNIS, awards its Prize to the film

Les Arrivants (The Arrivals)
by Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard (France 2009)

Motivation:
„The Arrivals” shows that humanity can still triumph despite adverse financial and legal circumstances. The directors have portrayed the people with respect and dignity in their film, where each setting makes you feel the precise implementation of this strategy.

The film also won the “Golden Dove”, the main award of the festival.

Synopsis:
The first shot of the film establishes its agenda: the arrival of the Indian elephant god in the streets of Paris. The elephant god – a symbol of power and wisdom – is a well-chosen metaphor for the clash of foreign cultures that is part of the daily life of the CAFDA, a municipal reception centre for asylum seeking families. For both sides must show power and wisdom – the social workers who are constantly at risk of collapsing under the sheer number of new arrivals, and the asylum seekers who are forced to comply with an administrative logic that must seem as alien and incomprehensible to them as life on the moon. Observing both sides’ predicaments with sympathy and understanding, the film accompanies the CAFDA’s Sisyphus work and offers an authentic picture of persecution, political oppression and human misery outside Europe. (Festival information)

Members of the Jury:
Thomas Bohne (Germany) - President
Anneke Eijpe (The Newtherlands)
Irina Grassmann (Germany)
Peter F. Stucki (Switzerland)