After 10 days of screenings of documentaries and feature films at the Geneva Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH), the winner of the competition has been announced.
The Armenian animated film «Aurora Rising» has received the main prize.
Director Inna Sahakyan was unable to come to Switzerland. The award was presented to the representative of the Armenian delegation to the UN.
The film is based on real events. It tells the story of an Armenian girl, Aurora Mardiganian, who survived the murder of her father, brothers and sisters, but managed to get to the United States.
In the USA, she wrote the book «Ravished Armenia», which was later made into a film in Hollywood» Soul Auction».
«Colette and Justin»
The Sergiu Vieira de Mello Award was given to the film «Colette et Justin» by the French director of Congolese origin Alain Cassand, in which he tells the story of his grandfather and grandmother, who survived the Belgian colonization, decolonization, and then emigration.
The film uses memories and photographs of his loved ones, as well as archival film materials.
«Part of the reason I made this film is because I wanted to rethink the storytelling. It wasn't talked about often in my family, in general people of African descent don't always know the history of their parents' country of origin. Who keeps that memory? How can we use these archives to tell the past from our own perspective?» asks Kassanda.
«Etilat Rose»
The film «Etilat Rose» won the World Organization Against Torture award.
After the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, freedom of speech in the country is suppressed, journalists are threatened , however, the staff of one of the country's largest newspapers, Ethilat Rose, is trying to keep going.
«I did it for the sake of history. As a social activist, my friends and colleagues with whom we work around the world must call for the response of politicians who make decisions for this country,» says filmmaker Abbas Rezaie. ul>
In total, 36 films were presented in the program of the Geneva Film Festival, including the film «We will not go out» by Ukrainian director Alisa Kovalenko.