Festival du Cinéma Africain, d'Asie et d'Amérique Latine de Milan 2009 : palmarès

The 19th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival, the most important rendezvous in Italy dedicated to the films from the South of the world, closed on Sunday 29th March.
The winners of this nineteenth edition have been announced, Saturday, 28th March, during the awards ceremony this evening.
VALERIA GOLINO HAS BEEN PRESENT AS SPECIAL GUEST AND WILL AWARD THE PRIZE FOR THE BEST WINDOWS ON THE WORLD FEATURE FILM

OFFICIAL PRIZES

Official Jury - Windows on the World Feature Film Competition and African Short Films Competition

Boubacar Boris Diop - writer - Senegal - President
Darezhan Omirbayev - director - Kazakhstan
Maria Sole Tognazzi - director - Italy

decided:

Best Windows on the World Feature Film
ENI prize for the best Feature Film from Africa, Asia and Latin America euro 15,000

JERMAL by Ravi L. Bharwani and Rayya Makarim, Indonesia / Netherlands / Germany / Switzerland 2008
The film denounces a violent situation of child labour, a difficult condition to film due to the claustrophobic dimension of a platform in the middle of the sea. The directors have succeeded in finding the right balance between aesthetics, denunciation and dramatic tension with a film of great poetry and humanity.

Best African Short Film
ENI Prize for the Best African Short Film euro 7,500

WARAMUTSEHO! by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu, Cameroon / France 2009
In the face of a risk-laden subject, the director succeeds in restoring deep truth with great force, without falling into the traps of banality, thanks to the considerable psychological intensity of the characters. The courage shown in dealing with a great tragedy and the fundamental theme of reconciliation is rewarded.

Special Mention
LA RESIDENCE YLANG YLANG by Hachimiya Ahamada, Comoros Islands / France, 2008

Official Jury - Competition for the Best African Film
Silvio Danese - journalist- Italy - President
Daniela Ducoli - journalist - Italy
Gabriele Porro - journalist - Italy

decided:

Competition for the Best African Film
Lombardy Regional Council Prize for the Best African Feature Film euro 7,500

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH by John Kani, South Africa 2008
For the exemplary dramatic clarity with which, in the form of a family melodrama, the film tells the story of the contradiction between History and Legend in the process of overcoming Apartheid in democratic South Africa.

Special Mentions
UN SI BEAU VOYAGE by Khaled Ghorbal, Tunisia / France 2008
For the moving and mature combination between character and environment in the story of a return to Africa, an emancipation in reverse, from urbanization to nomadism, up to a poetic fusion with the desert.

KHAMSA by Karim Dridi, France / Tunisia 2008
For the captivating and mature "live" style, with which the film tells the story of a child's formation with a tragic destiny in the suburbs and nomad camps of Marseille.

Official Jury - Windows on the World Documentary Competition and African Documentaries and Non-Fiction Fims
Lorenzo Hendel - Documentary-maker and RAI journalist - Italy - President
Ahmed Mahfouz - Director, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel - Qatar
Farah Polato - Lecturer, University of Padua - Italy

decided:

Windows on the World Documentary Competition
Provincial Council of Milan Prize for the Best Documentary from Africa, Asia and Latin America euro 6,000

NOS LIEUX INTERDITS by Leila Kilani, Morocco / France, 2008
With an attentive and patient investigation, the film focuses on the repercussions caused by decades of torture and political deportation in Morocco and their persistence on individual and family experiences. The point of view, which penetrates into the very heart of the homes, is supported by the solidity of the narrative structure and by a strict control over the audiovisual fabric.

Special Mention
UNE AFFAIRE DE NÈGRES by Oswalde Lewat, Cameroon, 2008
For the intensity and the solidarity with which the film deals with the tragedy of loved ones who disappear, abducted by the death squads of the Cameroonian army. From fully sharing in the anguish and pain conveyed by their relations there flows a current of emotions which invades and overwhelms the viewer.

Competition for African Documentaries and Non-Fiction Films
Prize for the Best African Documentary euro 4,000

LE TABLEAU by Brahim Fritah, France / Morocco, 2008
For the originality of the subject and its treatment. The space of a painting is transformed into an invitation to a vision, into which the images of memory and the story of an experience flow back, with the space of childhood and that of adulthood. The individual account, which supports the film thus takes part, without getting lost, in the variegated fresco of the experiences of migration.

Special Mentions
MAAM KOUMBA by Alioune Ndiaye, Senegal / France, 2008
For having given visibility and substance to a simple popular tale, presented with love and respect for those who preserve its memory. The evocative and innocent cinematic view succeeds in perceiving the emotional depth of the story, becoming lost on the surface of the waters.

SPECIAL PRIZES

"City of Milan" Prize awarded by the Milan City Council to the feature film receiving the most votes from the public
euro 7,500
LA EXTRANJERA by Fernando Diaz, Argentina, 2008

CEM-Mondialità / COE Prize for the best Short Film
The prize will be awarded by a Jury made up of Italian and foreign pupils from the secondary schools of Milan and consists of the acquisition of the home-video distribution rights in Italy.
LE PROJET by Mohamed Ali Nahdi, Tunisia, 2008
For having been able to deal with social topics in which young people can easily identify, highlighting the difficulties that an adolescent growing up in a suburb can encounter and for having denounced the problems of government censorship that freedom of expression can come up against.

SIGNIS Prize (OCIC and UNDA)
The prize is awarded by The World Catholic Association for Communication.
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH by John Kani, South Africa, 2008

CINIT - CIEMME Prize
The prize consists of the acquisition of the home-video distribution rights in Italy of an African short film.

IL SE SONT TUS by Khaled Lakhdar Benaissa, Algeria, 2008

ISMU Prize
The Fondazione Ismu (Iniziative e studi sulla Multietnicità) awards a Prize to the best short film at the festival with an educational value. The prize consists of the acquisition of the home-video distribution rights in Italy and is awarded by a jury of teachers.
WARAMUTSEHO! by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu, Cameroon / France, 2009
With accurate directing, attentive to details and from an original point of view, the short film shows the atrocity of the civil war in Rwanda, without facile sensationalism.
It shows its devastating effects even thousands of kilometres away; it illustrates the horror of a conflict which pitches men against one another only on the grounds of their ethnic group, breaking down family relationships, brotherhood and friendship. It is a heartfelt cry against war, every type of war.

CUMSE Prize
The prize consists of the acquisition of the home-video distribution rights in Italy of an African short film or documentary and is awarded by a jury of representatives of the foreign communities of Milan and volunteers of the CUSME
LE MONOLOGUE DE LA MUETTE by Khadi Sylla and Charlie Van Damme, Senegal / France / Belgium, 2008