Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Mannheim-Heidelberg 2020

The film tells the story of a widowed father and his son forced to work as illegal farm laborers in southern Italy. Framed by a scene of familial warmth and tenderness and told through an intensely personal aesthetic, Una Promessa shows the deeper significance of love in a world of poverty, humiliation, and death. The film leaves us with a strong statement on human dignity and the need for breaking the circle of exploitation and violence. A sign of hope remains with the boy who can begin something new. (Photo:© Shellac Films)