Portrait of vanishing Turkey wins two awards at Berlin film festival

Promouvoir la communication pour le changement social

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The Ecumenical Jury at the 60th Berlinale awarded its Competition prize to Bal (Honey) directed by Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey/Germany, 2010). The International Jury also gave the film its coveted Golden Bear.

A splendid portrait of the poet as a young child, Bal tells the story of the blossoming of the sensibility in a rural boy, Yusuf, living in the highlands of northeast Turkey. Immersed in a forest of overwhelming beauty, Yusuf´s life points to a connection with nature that provides not only material subsistence but spiritual learning, highlighting issues such as family love and involvement in the community. Bal invites us to go deeper into this forest, on a journey that mirrors the human soul seeking the ideals and people with whom we want to
share life.
In the Panorama, the Jury awarded its prize to the film Kawasakiho Ruze (Kawasaki’s Rose) directed by Jan Hrebejk (Czech Republic, 2009). The film recounts an episode in the life of a distinguished psychologist who deals with memory and who has previously betrayed a friend who was then forced to emigrate. The film explores questions of truth-telling and lying, responsibility and forgiveness, both within society and within the family. It emphasises the importance of collective and personal memory in a context of rebuilding a post-totalitarian country.

The Ecumenical Award in the Forum went to Aisheen (Still Alive in Gaza) directed by Nicolas Wadimoff (Switzerland/Qatar, 2010). A documentary shot after the end of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza in 2009, the film offers impressions of daily life in Gaza, showing not only the ruins but the beautiful beach, drama classes for children and the reconstruction of a roundabout destroyed by the bombs. Hope and growth blend with the sorrow of lost family members and land cultivated for generations. Life is persistent, like a dandelion growing through cracks in the asphalt.

The Ecumenical Jury this year consisted of Philip Lee (Canada), WACC's Deputy Director of Programme; Dr. Markus Leniger (Germany); Ylva Liljeholm (Sweden); Edgar Rubio (Mexico); Alberto Ramos Ruiz (Cuba); and Rev. Werner Schneider-Quindeau (Germany) - President of the Jury.

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La WACC encourage la communication pour favoriser le changement social. Elle est convaincue que la communication est un droit humain fondamental qui définit l’humanité commune des peuples, renforce les cultures, favorise la participation, crée une communauté et défit la tyrannie et l'oppression.

The World Association for Christian Communication is a UK Registered Charity (number 296073) and a Company registered in England and Wales (number 2082273) with its Registered Office at 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST. It is an incorporated Charitable Organisation in Canada (number 83970 9524 RR0001) with its head office at 308 Main Street, Toronto ON, M4C 4X7.