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Saarbruecken

The film "Jiyan" by Süheyla Schwenk won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 41st Max Ophüls Award. The festival jury awarded its prizes for the best feature film to "Neubau" by Johannes Maria Schmit and for the best direction to Johanna Moder for "Waren einmal Revoluzzer" (Once Were Rebels).

The 41st Max Ophüls Prize film festival opened on January 20 with the latest film by Rosa von Praunheim, "Darkroom". The director has been awarded the festival's honorary award. A total of 149 films were shown in Saarbrücken, 16 of them in the feature film competition, from which the Ecumenical Jury chooses its award winner. The festival is dedicated to young German-language films.

Link: Festival Homepage

Auszeichnungen
Bild zur Auszeichnung Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Saarbruecken 2020
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Saarbruecken 2020
Jiyan
2019

A powerful intimate play, which is further enhanced by the interaction of camera and setting. Both the handling of prejudices in the family system as well as degrading social realities are brought to light. It is precisely the refusal of unnecessarily large dramatic sequences in favour of a focus on everyday worries and hardships in the private sphere that brings the protagonists closer to us as human beings. 

Cleverly written, the film tells the life of a young Syrian/Kurdish family with their relatives in Germany. In the end the question is: What is the value of a human life?

Festival films

Jury

The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is endowed with € 2500, donated by the Catholic and the Evangelical Adult Education in the Saarland.

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