Prize of the Interreligious Jury, Leipzig 2021

May God Be with You explores, in a beautifully cinematographic way, the silent transmission of human values and feelings of belonging within a Jewish family from the Maghreb. The film shows in subtle images that the individual’s identity is never fixed but constantly in flux. Through the use of her body – and especially her hair - Cléo Cohen demonstrates the fluid identities of Jewish people living in France today. These identities are partially rooted in various religious and cultural traditions – be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim, and May God Be with You examines the way in which Cohen’s family develop their personal, perhaps even contradictory identities in a fascinating dialogue with their history and the cultural and religious legacies of their environment.