Hamburg (dpa) – The film “Olga” by director Elie Grappe has won the Blickwechsel Film Prize at the Hamburg Film Festival. The makers announced this on Saturday evening in Hamburg. The film is about a young gymnast who lived and trained in Switzerland when the Euromaidan protests began in 2013 in her old home country of Ukraine. The focus is also on the young woman’s conflict between her free and successful life and the pain of her family and friends.
“Elie Grappes” Olga “addresses this conflict in a wonderful way,” was the jury’s verdict. “Tender and unpretentious, carried by Nastya Budiashkina’s brilliant acting, the film portrays Olga’s inner conflict and explores the desire of a young Ukrainian generation for movement and change.” The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros.
Further prizes went to the films “La Civil” by Teodora Ana Mihai (The Political Film / 5000 Euro), the film festival closing film “Where the Sun Rises in Paris” by Jacques Audiard (Art Cinema Award / 5000 Euro) and “Vortex” by Gaspar Noé (Film Critics’ Award / undoped). The audience chose “Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege” by Abdallah Al-Khatib as the winner of the 5000 Euro Audience Award.
The director Blerta Basholli won the NDR Young Talent Award, endowed with 5000 euros, for her film “Hive”. The film tells of a courageous and strong-willed woman from Kosovo who, after the massacre in March 1999 in the so-called “Village of Widows”, took her life into her hands despite the old village structures and without a husband. “A portrait of a strong woman, framed in a sensual way, which sheds light on a dark chapter in recent European history. A clear statement by a talented filmmaker, as subtle as it is brave,” said the jury in support of this film.
By Saturday evening, around 110 feature films from 57 countries had been shown at the ten-day film festival.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211009-99-540869 / 2
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