‘Impasse’ wins Arouca Film Festival with memories of World War II
The short film ‘Impasse’ by Russian director Alina Mikhailova today won the 16th edition of the Arouca Film Festival for its approach to Holocaust and World War II memoirs in Poland.
“The winning film of the Gold Slate reveals to us a hidden memory of the last century XX and of World War II that makes us question, more than the dramas of the past, the motivations and origins of the problems that, from always and until the today, mankind insists and persists in maintaining, “says the festival’s jury source.
The winning work thus explores in a 16-minute narrative some of the situations “that condemn millions of human beings to death, to disability, to misery or desperate flight into the unknown.”
For João Rita, director of the Arouca Film Festival, the jury’s bet on Alina Mikhailova’s film “makes clear the role of cinema as a generator of feelings, feelings, impact and awareness.”
The second main choice of the night fell on “On the phone with God”, which, telling the story of an unusual case in rural scenery, managed for the director Vera Casaca the Slate of Silver and for the actor Ivo Canelas the Best Representation award.
Other films won in the 16th edition of the contest were “We are nature”, which gave João Meirinhos the prize for Best Documentary for his approach to the theme of climate change, and “MAMON – Monitor Against Mexicans Over Nationwide”, with which the Uruguayan-Mexican production of the director Alejandro Damiani stood out in the category of Fiction, approaching with humor a futuristic war between Trump and Latin American citizens.
In the performance, the winner of 2018 was Luis Campos with the short “Charge”, about children from a fishing district forced to deal with drug trafficking, and in the section of Argument, the victory was “The chocolate soldier” in which North American Jackson Smith addresses an unlikely connection between a Jewish refugee and an enemy soldier.
Most awarded at the Arouca Film Festival: “Tupelo”, by the American Bill Plympton, in the category of Animation; “Le chat doré”, by the Spanish Nata Moreno, in Photography; “Vaso Chinês”, by the Portuguese Ricardo Leite, in Video clip for the band Prana; “Letter of Love (to Porto)”, also of the Portuguese João Castro, in Experimental; and “Are you voleiball?” by the Iranian Mohammad Bakhshi, in Montage.
As for the competitive entries in the 2018 edition, in Human Rights, the jury distinguished “From Hasakah with Love”, a two-minute fiction by Iranian Mohammad Farahani, and in the Mobile Films category, awarded “Sea”, a a 1-minute work carried out in Uzbekistan by Hristina Belousova.
As for the Audience Award, resulting from the vote of more than 600 spectators, it was attributed to the animated film “Tempation”, in which the French director Camille Canonne reports a chase to a bear that wants to steal a picnic basket.
In addition to the competitive sections and the screening of parallel films, the Arouca Film Festival in 2018 also promoted two workshops in 1st and 2nd cycle schools, in which more than 63 children developed their knowledge about story board and documentary film.
The event also includes a masterclass which, directed by the actress Laura Galvão and the director Nuno Rocha, was addressed to more than 100 students from the 10th to the 12th year of schooling.
“The festival is already well rooted in the community and has the involvement of various local, regional and national actors, which, together, allow the existence of a space capable of providing lively experiences to a village that lives and breathes cinema for almost a week, “concludes Cátia Camisão, the festival’s programmer.
