Festival internazionale Segni della Notte - Urbino
International Festival Signs of the Night - Urbino
 





18° Festival internazionale Segni della Notte - Urbino (4° Editione) - March 24th - 28th, 2021

ONLINE EDITION9






MAIN AWARD


Soldier’s Woman
Patricia Wiesse Risso
Peru / 2020 / 1:22:00

ITALIAN PREMIERE

In 1984, soldiers of the Peruvian army, who were fighting the terrorist movement Sendero Luminoso in the Peruvian province of Huancavelica raped many teenage girls and young women from the area, including Magda. When it transpired that she was pregnant, the family placed the blame on her. Many women who suffered this fate were despised and rejected. Decades later, Magda is participating in a lawsuit that she and other women have filed against their former assailants so they can regain something of their dignity. Three friends who have been through the same experience visit Magda to lend their support. As they peel potatoes together, they recall the traumatic events they had to keep to themselves for so long. One of the friends admits that she feels a sense of rejection towards her two sons conceived by rape: “I look at them in anger and think they’ll grow like them, that they’ll also rape.” This empathetic documentary finally gives the women the attention and respect which they have been denied for so long.



 


JURY STATEMENT:


'The Soldier's Woman' is a story about woman's pride, human strength and consequence. In a very simple but beautiful way it shows the monumental majesty of nature, contrasted with the horrific memories of a woman abused during Peru’s internal violent conflict of the 1980s and 90s.




SIGNS AWARD

The Signs Award for Documentary honours films, which express in a surprising and sensitive way the perturbing aspects of reality



Downstream to Kinshasa
Dieudo Hamadi
DR Congo, France, Belgium / 2020 / 1:30:00

From 5th to 10th June 2000, the city of Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was the scene of heavy weapons fighting between two Congolese rebel groups. Since then, the Association of Victims of the Six-Day War has been fighting for the recognition of this bloody conflict and demanding compensation for the damage suffered. Tired of the bureaucratic negotiations and unsuccessful pleas that have been drawn out for years, the members of the Association have finally decided to take their fate into their own hands: after a long journey on the Congo River, they will voice their claims in Kinshasa, the capital.

 


JURY STATEMENT:


'Downstream to Kinshasa' gives urgent voice to the victims of war and genocide, keeping the focus on the present-day personal testimony and journey of those affected. With a creative, reportage approach, the director humanely captures people's resilience, determination and demand for justice and recognition.

 




NIGHT AWARD

The Night Award for Documentary honours films, which represent reality in an ambivalent and enigmatic way, avoiding stereotypes of representation and simple conclusions

Letters from Silivri
Adrian Figueroa
Turkey, Germany / 2019 / 0:15:51

ITALIAN PREMIERE

Letters from Silivri / Adrian Figueroa ” LETTERS FROM SILIVRI draws on letters of the Turkish philanthropist and public intellectual Osman Kavala to document a timeline of his imprisonment. By separating voice and image the film intends to create an echo chamber that allows audiences to listen more carefully to Kavala's letters, while at the same time place his words in context to a civil society.

 


JURY STATEMENT:


'Letters from Silivri' is a masterful and magical juxtaposition of voice and image, creating a powerful medication on memory, place, and one man’s experience of his unjust imprisonment.



 


JURY AWARD
FOR CREATIVE MONTAGE

Water Silhouettes
Violeta Paus
Chile / 2020 / 0:30:00

ITALIAN PREMIERE

Drought, pollution by industries called “sacrifice zones”, and massive waste are the biggest conflicts related to freshwater on the Chilean territory during the last decades. An analogy between women and territory shows how, through the water conflict, capitalist/extractivist models result in inequalities and injustices.

 


JURY STATEMENT:


Water Silhouettes’ presents an interesting experiment in intellectual film montage, returning to the history of cinema in a very creative way. It's also an effective exploration of the possibilities in film language, invoking multiple interpretations in the viewer, whilst remaining faithful to the central subject.



DIRECTOR STATEMENT:


"We are very grateful for the jury's award and we are very happy that the montage has been valued with this award. We shot the film vertically, which changed from the beginning the way of observing the territories and the protagonists of the story. Filming vertically had a direct influence on the montage of the work. Cinema is mostly filmed in horizontal format, what happens if we turn the camera around? By telling three micro-stories of three different women at the same time, it generates in the spectator the possibility of understanding the macro-conflict of fresh water in Chile.
Fresh water is not only affected by a single problem but is the sum of all human actions: monocultures, industries and all the garbage that we produce with our consumption models. This film seeks a way of creating cinema where the viewer has multiple visions and therefore a less linear narrative, leaving time for the viewer, while watching the film, to draw their own conclusions.
With the wonderful team of professionals we managed to make this film in which we wanted to convey the possibility of accessing a contingent and complex issue from another perspective.


 

 

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