The Solothurn Prize was awarded on Wednesday evening to «L’audition» by Lisa Gerig from Vaud. The documentary retraces and penetrates the heart of the asylum process in Switzerland. A total of almost 200 films were screened during the 59th edition of the Solothurn Film Festival.
The 33-year-old director, born in Morges and trained in Zurich and then in Cologne, won the prize for the most gifted Swiss cinema (60,000 francs) with her first feature film.
The film tells the story of two rejected asylum seekers who relive in fantasy their conversation with the officials of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). Candidates from Nigeria, Cameroon, Afghanistan and India then begin to tell their stories.
A long-time activist in the asylum field, Lisa Gerig thus penetrates the little-known heart of the Swiss reception system. For four years you studied the asylum procedure, starting from a quote from Bertolt Brecht’s “Conversations on Refugees”: “The passport is the noblest part of the human being”.
The “true Swiss” of the army
The public prize worth 20,000 francs is awarded this year to «Real Swiss» by Luka Popadić, 43 years old. In his documentary, the director and captain of the Swiss army looks at the “great silent” through the eyes of Saâd, Thuruban, Andrija and himself: Swiss officers of Serbian, Sri Lankan and Tunisian origin.
People of different cultures have been serving in the Swiss army for a long time and coexistence has been organised. The film was co-produced by RTS and SRF.
A neighborhood of Lisbon and a metaphorical shrimp
The prize for best short film of 10,000 francs goes to «2720» by Basil Da Cunha. A seven-year-old girl lives in the Reboleira neighborhood of Lisbon and tries to find her older brother who disappeared after a police raid.
Filmed in the same district and also screened in Solothurn, the third feature film by the 38-year-old binational Swiss-Portuguese director, “Manga d’terra”, was in international competition in Locarno last summer.
The prize for the best animated film, also accompanied by 10,000 francs, goes to «Crevette» by Elina Huber (Zurich), Noémi Knobil (Lausanne), Jill Vágner (Zurich) and Sven Bachmann (Basel), bachelor students in animation by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU). This 2D short film, co-produced by SRF, tells the story of the fear of becoming pregnant in metaphorical form. It was also selected for the Swiss Film Award in the “Best Graduation Film” category.
The 59th edition of the Solothurn Days concludes with this awards ceremony. For a week, viewers were able to discover almost 200 films from all categories.
ats/jop
2024-01-24 21:06:21
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