PRIZE OF THE INTERRELIGIOUS JURY

From 2005 SIGNIS and INTERFILM have been present at the Visions du Réel Festival in Nyon (Switzerland) with an interreligious jury. From 2008, the jury include a representative of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Church, and a member from the Jewish and the Muslim faith. The jury will award its prize to a film from the international competition and possibly a commendation. This prize endowed with CHF 5’000 by the Swiss Catholic and the Swiss Protestant Churches (Conference of the Churches in the French speaking part of Switzerland/CER and the “Reformierte Medien” in Zurich).

The members of the interreligious jury 2011, nominated by the Swiss representatives of SIGNIS and INTERFILM, were:
Hassouna Mansouri critic of cinema and editor (Netherlands),
Raphael Pifko, psychologist and project manager at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich (Switzerland),
Jacqueline Veuve filmmaker and producer (Switzerland), and as its president
Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, professor for science of religion at the University in Zurich (Switzerland).

From left: Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, Hassouna Mansouri, Jacqueline Veuve,
Raphael Pifko; photo: © Miguel Bueno

The interreligious jury awards its prize of CHF 5000 to the film

El lugar mas pequeño / The Tiniest Place
by Tatiana Huezo Sánchez, Mexico 2011

The film describes a small village in El Salvador where daily life is slowly coming back while people are challenged by the traumatising memories of the civil war. An elaborated style allows the depiction of the tragedies avoiding all kind of clichés and even celebrating life. Violence is recalled but not shown. The shift between sound and image opens space for a meaningful silence.

>Film review

The jury awards a commendation to the film

Scheich Ibrahim, Bruder Jihad / Sheikh Ibrahim, Brother Jihad
by Andres Rump, Germany 2010

With a limpid and respectful style, the film gives a sober vision of an ideal shared by two characters belonging to different religious traditions