Awarded films in the international competition 2003

"S 21, THE KHMER ROUGE KILLING MACHINE" BY RITHY PAHN HAS WON THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM AWARD

The extraordinary documentary by Rithy Pahn opposes victims and perpetrators in the former Khmer Rouge torture centre "S 21".

The jury’s statement:
Among other outstanding works of the highest quality the jury has unanimously decided to give the main award to the film that brings together victims and perpetrators of the genocide in Cambodia. This drama like situation questions most profoundly the roots of violence and evil. The jury was impressed by the commitment, persistency and discipline by which the filmmaker and participants forced themselves to go through the painful process of reconstruction of horrors that the human beings are capable of doing. The jury finds the film extremely powerful, disturbing, courageous and masterfully directed.

Rithy Pahn was very happy about the jury’s decision and "would like to dedicate the award to all victims of the Khmer Rouge and especially those of 'S 21'. We made the film for them and also for our young generation. We want them to know what happened in our country."
 

"OTZENRATHER SPRUNG" BY JENS SCHANZE HAS WON THE 'SPECIAL JURY AWARD'

The Special Jury Award was given to the film "Otzenrather Sprung" by Jens Schanze who lives in Munich. The process of resettling several Ruhr villages which have fallen victim to open-cast mining of brown coal is impressively documented in the film. "The people, landscapes and arguments are presented in such an empathetic way and with such strength of imagination in 'Otzenrather Sprung' that maybe the people concerned themselves will only be able to recognise the overall extent of the loss by watching such a film."
(From the jury’s statement)
 

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