The Ecumenical Jury Fribourg 2018, from left: Manfred Koch, Stefanie Arnold, Maxime Pouyanne, Luzia Sutter Rehmann (photo: © FIFF/Julien Chavaillaz)
"Foxtrot" by Israeli film director Samuel Maoz has won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the International Film Festival Fribourg 2018. The film refers to the ongoing presence of violence and death in the Israeli society due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film won the Don Quijote Prize of the international film clubs (FICC) as well.
The Grand Prix of the festival as well as a Commendation by the Ecumenical Jury was awarded to the Ukranian film "Black Level", a parable without dialogue. The International Jury gave a Special Award to "After My Death" by Kim Ui-seok from South Corea winning the Youth Jury Award Comundo too.
The French documentary "Makala", directed by Emmanuel Gras and telling the odyssey of a young Congolesian coal vendor, opened the 32nd edition of the International Film Festival in Fribourg. In the competition for long films 12 entries from 12 countries were screened - from the Philippines, South Corea, Israel, Brasil and, for the first time, Trinidad and Tobago, and elsewhere. Among them the Ecumenical Jury chose its winner. The second competition section was devoted to short films.
In the parallel sections, the festival showed films from Mongolia as "New Teritory", and biopics were the topic of "Genre Cinema". Honorary guest Ken Loach got carte blanche for five films, Jiři Menzels "Closely Observed Trains" from1966 among them. Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes film festival, chose films of the Cannes Classics section, and Beki Probst, director of the European Film Market of the Berlinale till 2014, presented Turkish film directors under the headline "Diaspora". One of them was Semih Kaplanoglu with his "Bal" (Honey), winner of the prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Berlin 2010.
Link: Festival-Website
Awards
What are we passing on to our children? What are children passing on to us?
Our traditions and our hostilities. Our hopes and our loves.
In an intense film made up of poignant images and biblical motifs, the director relays both history and personal stories in tragicomic style.
The Ecumenical Jury wants to put forward a special mention. Black Level by Valentin Vasjanovich is a courageous and innovative film with profoundly technical and symbolic dimensions.
The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is endowed with CHF 5.000, donated by the church aid organisations in Switzerland: Action de carême (Lenten Offering, Catholic) and Bread For All (Reformed).
