42nd Filmfestival Max Ophuels Prize

17.01.2021 - 24.01.2021

Saarbruecken

The Ecumenical Jury Saarbruecken 2021 on the screen: Birgit Persch-Klein, Tom Damm, Belinda Sigillò, Guido Convents (clockwise; © INTERFILM)

"Borga" by York-Fabian Raabe (Ghana, Germany 2021) won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Max Ophuels Prize Saarbruecken 2021, as well as the festival's main award, the audience prize and the prize for the socially relevant film awarded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. The film deals with the problems of globalisation and migration. Several prizes were also awarded to "Fuchs im Bau" by Arman T. Riahi (Austria 2020), namely for Best Director, the Youth Jury Prize and the Fritz Raff Screenplay Prize. It tells the story of a special needs teacher in the penal system.

The 42nd Max Ophüls Film Festival in Saarbrücken took place exclusively online. During the festival, the audience could access the films in the programme via a streaming platform for a ticket fee.

The festival showed a total of 98 productions, 12 of which were in the feature film competition, from which the Ecumenical Jury chose its prize-winner. The festival opened with the documentary "A Black Jesus" by Luca Lucchesi, which deals with conflicts between locals and refugees in a small town in southern Italy where a black statue of Jesus is worshipped.

Opening film: "A Black Jesus"

Link: Festival-Website

Preis der Ökumenischen Jury, Saarbrücken 2021

Borga

York-Fabian Raabe

2021

„Borga“ zeigt in eindringlichen, teils beklemmenden Bildern die globalen Auswirkungen des westlichen Konsums auf Kosten des afrikanischen Kontinents. Das damit verbundene Migrationsthema wird nüchtern und realistisch dargestellt. Doch der Film erzählt mehr als eine Geschichte über das Schicksal eines Migranten und seiner Familie: Er problematisiert unser kapitalistisches Handeln, in dem Giftmüll als neue Form der Ausbeutung Afrikas gezeigt wird. Er hinterfragt den Traum der illegalen Einwanderer, die bereit sind, für ihr vermeintliches Glück kriminell zu werden. Der Protagonist kann die ambivalenten Erwartungen beider Welten nicht erfüllen und erlebt schließlich die Familie als letztgültigen Halt. Dem deutsch-ghanaischen Filmteam ist ein authentisches, aktuelles und fesselndes Drama mit großartigen Darsteller*innen gelungen. Es bietet dem Zuschauer an, respektvoller und sensibler auf Fluchtgeschichten zu blicken und Klischees zu hinterfragen. „Borga“ gibt Flüchtlingen Gesichter und wirbt um Solidarität innerhalb der Menschheitsfamilie.

More about the festival

German Film Celebrates Diversity

For more than forty years the film festival Max Ophüls Preis in the German city of Saarbrücken presents films produced by young talented filmmakers from German speaking countries. It wants to discover and to promote the “newest” films from this cultural area. There is more. The festival was founded in 1980 which means at a time when the German film industry received a new boost thanks to the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962.

Festival films

Borga

York-Fabian Raabe

Germany, Ghana

2021

Jury

The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is endowed with 2,500 Euros and is jointly donated by the Catholic Adult Education Saarland-Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft e.V. and the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft für Evangelische Erwachsenenbildung im Saarland e.V., represented by the Protestant Academy in Saarland.