VERDICT of the Bydgoszcz ANNEX’s JURY: Magdalena Rucińska, Marek Noniewicz, Janusz Mazur
BYDGOSZCZ ART.DOC AWARD in the amount of 2000 EURO for
Arami Ullóna, the director of the film “NOTHING BUT THE SUN”
Justification:
The awareness of his own identity and the need to maintain the memory of the tradition which in a moment is going to disappear right in front of our eyes form the image of the protagonist of “Nothing but the Sun”. The film tells an intimate story of an Ayoero Indian. Together with his tribemates, he lives on the peripheries of civilization, in conditions which are an affront to dignity. Though he lives in abject poverty, he is full of dignity. He is aware of his situation and he fully accepts it too.
Seemingly cheerful, he misses forest – the tribe’s natural environment. In spite of this longing, he is able to maintain high spirits. Maybe because in his clash with civilisation, he has not lost the awareness of who he is. The consciousness determines his existence and makes you remember tribe traditions, which he records with a primitive tape recorder. The filmmakers do not create the protagonist. They merely accompany him with the camera. They give him a voice, as he comes from a dying civilisation, whose only trace will be the film. Filmed in a simple way, he does not try to appropriate the story through the visual. He does not try to seduce us by aestheticizing the image of the tragedy. This may be what makes the film so crucial and so different from the other ones presented at the festival which, in many cases, show events we all know from the news.
The honorary mention of the District Bar Association in Bydgoszcz for the best production on human rights goes to Jonas Poher Rasmussen for the film “FLEE”.
Justification:
The main character – an Afghani teenager Amin – and his family make all the refugees, including the ones who are being persecuted at the Polish border, human and reminds that their rights are our responsibility.
