Your European Union: The Lux Prize For Film Laugh In
THE LUX Prize for film is the European Parliament’s film awards scheme. The programme speaks for itself. Here is where your tax money goes:
Akadimia Platonos, Die Fremde and Illégal were the three films shortlisted on Tuesday for the European Parliament’s 2010 LUX film prize, during an event at the Venice International Film Festival. Like past LUX Prize contenders, these films speak to Europeans’ hearts and identities, forcing us to ask ourselves about our cultural and family relations, and the rules by which we live.
Read on, fellow European:
As with previous winners — Auf der anderen Seite (2007), Le silence de Lorna (2008) and Welcome (2009) — the 2010 LUX Prize winning film will receive European Parliament financial support for subtitling the film into all the 23 official languages of the European Union (EU), an adaptation of the original version for the visually- or hearing-impaired, and the production of a 35 mm print per EU member state.
You cannot miss it. Really, you cannot. And here is what you can look forward to:
Akadimia Platonos (Plato’s Academy)
Every day Stavros raises the metal shutters of his cigarette store, puts out the newspapers in front and then sets out the chairs where he and his friends sit all day, looking out on the dusty intersection and surrounding grey buildings that shelter their businesses. They’re all very proud of the way their dog Patriot, on the opposite pavement, barks at every passing Albanian. Stavros and his friends don’t like these foreigners even though they’re willing to do the jobs the Greeks won’t do, nor do they like the recently arrived Chinese. By the store’s entrance, Stavros’ increasingly senile mother mopes in an armchair, regardless of the affectionate care lavished on her by her devoted son. Then one day she suddenly falls upon an Albanian worker, embracing him and calling him «my son» in Albanian. In fact, what does Stavros really know about his parents? His mother has always told him that after his father died up north, she moved to Athens, when he was but a year old. Now Stavros’ pals start looking askance at him: is he Greek or Albanian? Does he really have the right to sing the racist little ditty: «Albanian, Albanian, you’ll never become a Greek…»?
How do you follow that?
Die Fremde (When we leave)
What would you sacrifice for your family’s love? Your values? Your freedom? Your independence? German-born Umay flees her oppressive marriage in Istanbul, taking her young son Cem with her. She is hoping to find a better life with her family in Berlin, but her unexpected arrival creates intense conflict. Her family is trapped in their conventions, torn between their love for her and the values of their community. Ultimately they decide to return Cem to his father in Turkey. To keep her son, Umay is forced to move again. She finds the inner strength to build a new life for her and Cem, but her need for her family’s love drives her to a series of ill-fated attempts at reconciliation. What Umay doesn’t realize is just how deep the wounds have gone and how dangerous her struggle for self- determination has become.
Hah-ha. We love a good rom-com. BNext!
Illégal
Tania and her 14 year-old son Ivan are illegal immigrants from Russia, who have been living in Belgium for 8 years. In a permanent state of alert, Tania lives in constant fear of having her identity checked by the police – until the day she is arrested. Mother and the son are separated. Tania is placed in a holding centre. She does everything in her power to find her son again, in spite of the constant threat of deportation hanging over her head.
What says the contenders, speaking truth to power?
Akadimia Platonos director Filippos Tsitos says: “everybody agrees that the European Union is a good idea…
Making small, independent, non-English speaking movies nowadays can be compared to swimming in a wild ocean at night. You constantly feel like you are about to drown. So you are thankful for anything that helps you stay out of the water.”
They should make a film of that. Next!
For Die Fremde director Feo Aladag, “we live in a multicultural society, which can no longer simply promote consensus but must find new ways to get around increasing divergence. That will only happen with ongoing dialogue and by allowing ourselves to be being guided by our similarities rather than by our differences. My belief is that a harmonious co-existence is possible if we, in the name of empathy, grow beyond the shadows of our principles and convictions. This theme is universal, as it affects all of us, whether it is people who love one another, or people who share a society, a country or a planet and who are therefore a community.
Fin.
Posted: 5th, August 2010 | In: Politicians Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
