General considerations of the jury

The jury has been pleased to examine a group of films having different purposes and forms.  The discussion has soon focused on some interesting films which gave life to a debate on the nature of documentary and the challenge between universality and specificity. The films whose importance has been recognized by all of us have been awarded the prizes of the Festival. They are works that reflect the dynamism and the energy of the documentary art.

Prize Highest Cultural Value
It has gone to the film My love in Palmyra by Housam Abdoulghani  (Syria – Russia)
A film that wonders about the statute of the antiquity and the work of art. Who do this works belong to? To the nation? To the globalized tourism?  Or to the person who tries to make a living with it? The film wonders about how past can be useful to present.

Prize Most Innovative Documentary
It goes to the film Sana’a – Passage en noir by Robert Cahen (France)

Even if it can be considered as a video art documentary, it works on the processes of the film form, making the simple daily action of walking in town a poetic metaphor of living inside the body and the world.

Prize Best Photography
It goes to the film Moon Sun Flower Game  by Claus Strigel  (Germany)
For the visual comparison between past and present, between the imagines of a sixties piece of art and the cold poetic scenario of nowadays.

Prize Best Direction
It goes to the film Afghaan Women Behind the Wheel by Sahraa Karimi (Slovakia)
For the sharp look, the visual mastery, the narrative and artistic capacity of the composition.

Prize Mediterranean Section
It goes to the film Lady Kul El Arab by Ibtisam Mara’ana  (Israel)
From a simple story about the ambition of a girl who wants to win a beauty contest, the film creates a dramatic comparison with the society where the girl is imprisoned. The girl’s personality transformation involves the transformation of the same film, in the thematic passage form particular to universal, in the conflict between freedom and tradition, personal and collective.

Prize Islam Section
It goes to the film Afghaan Women Behind the Wheel by Sahraa Karimi  (Slovakia)
For the meaningful representation of the female condition and the strong metaphoric charge of an exemplary story towards the vital personal freedom.

Overall Prize Best Work in Competition
It goes to the film A Summer not to forget by Carol Mansour  (Lebanon)
A film on the war and its consequences, as never shown before. A terrible metaphor on the total conflict where there is not a direct comparison between enemies, but just the apocalyptic vision of destruction. A work dedicated to all the civilians, innocent victims of the absolute war.

The Jury:

Oliver Watson – Monder Khilani – Edoardo Ceccuti – Marco Bertozzi – Giancarlo Bocchi

This year, for the first time, Sole Luna Festival has founded the Audience Prize.
The prize is awarded to the winning feature film on the basis of an audience ballot.
It goes to the film Strawberry fields, by Ayelet Heller (Israel)