Prague, March 14 (CTK) – Swedish The Deminer won the best film award at the One World festival of human rights documentaries in Prague on Wednesday and the best direction award went to Talal Derki, for his film Of Fathers and Sons, a coproduction of Germany, Lebanon, Qatar and Syria, the organisers have told CTK.
Wednesday’s awarding ceremony closed the Prague part of the annual festival. The event will now move to 36 other Czech towns.
The jury choose the victorious best film and best direction from 12 films.
It said the winning The Deminer is exceptionally strong in combining rare excerpts from a private archive and pictures from the present era. It is an impressive story about the war and also about the family, memories and a loss, the jury said.
The film’s protagonist, Fakir Berwari, is a legend of the Iraq town of Dohuk. He decided to devote his life to the liquidation of war explosives of all types, often putting his life at risk.
Derki, who personally introduced his film in Prague, focused in it on the activities of a man fighting for an Islamic caliphate and his family. His film is a unique study about the Islamic radicalisation of children, the jury said.
A special mention was granted to Laura Bari, the author of the Canadian-Argentinian film Primas (Cousins), which makes the viewers look under the label of a victim to see how women and girls can live and flourish even after experiencing sexual violence.
The Vaclav Havel jury, which grants the award for an exceptional contribution to the protection of human rights, has unanimously agreed to give it to Watani – My Homeland, a film by German film-maker Marcel Mettelsiefen, which is a shocking testimony showing the life of a family of a Free Syrian Army commander in the devastated town of Aleppo.
The audience’s prize went to City of Ghosts, a documentary by U.S. film-maker Matthew Heineman, which presents the testimony of two civic journalists who continue reporting about the situation in Raqqa, a war-tormented Syrian town, in spite of brutal repressions they face themselves.
From March 5, the One World festival offered a total of 128 documentary films, attracting over 27,900 visitors.
