Jury Reports 2011

The Camera Novo Award goes to 'The White Meadows'

Our choice of The White Meadows might easily be conceived as politically motivated – Mohammad Rasoulof, its director, has been in an Iranian prison for a few months, serving a six-year sentence for ‘propaganda against the regime’. Much as the jury regrets the silencing of artists anywhere, we want to emphasise the one and only reason why we opted for The White Meadows: it is an absolute masterpiece that outranks the competing films, all of which were of an exceptional level.

Not only does The White Meadows testify to Rasoulof’s cinematographic and narrative skills, but its wonderful metaphors and allegories, its rich symbolism and its almost mythological characters and scenes underscore his artistic genius.

The film subtly criticises Iranian society, with its characters that believe they can see but are in fact blinded by traditions, dogmas and authorities. ‘Open your eyes!’, shouts one of the characters at his brother, in an apparently infinite but paradoxically claustrophobic landscape. We hope that you can soon find out whether or not those eyes open in a cinema theatre near you.

Honourable mentions go to

• Confessions (Tetsuya Nakashima)
  Tetsuya Nakashima’s film made us wonder why it has not found a Belgian distributor so far. We found the ingenious revenge plot combined with the stylised mise en scène quite enthralling. The key adjectives during the jury debate were: disquieting, raw, suspenseful, surprising, compelling, gruesome, overwhelming and smart.
• Carancho ( Pablo Trapero)
  Pablo Trapero has used an impossible love story to create a hard, realistic and dynamic film on Argentina’s tough city life. We were impressed by the convincing performances and the nervous camera handling, which made the social injustice of traffic victims as helpless pawns in an insurance swindle quite tangible.

The Amakourou Award goes to 'The Matchmaker'

After a 4-hour battle of minds between the youngsters in the jury a top-three emerged: The White Meadows, Confessions and The Matchmaker.

In the end we decided in favour of the Israeli film The Matchmaker by director Avi Mesher. We chose this film mainly for its heartwarming character. Other decisive factors were: the quality music, the strong acting and the multi-faceted story.

Close runner-up Confessions deserves special honour. This edition’s nine competition entries were of an exceptional level, which made the young jury’s task quite daunting.