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





6° Festival internazionale Segni della Notte - Urbino - November 28th - December 4th, 2022

20th International Festival Signs of the Night - Italy






MAIN AWARD


Edna

Eryk Rocha
Brazil / 2021 / 01:04:14

ALiving on the edge of Transbrasiliana highway in the Brazilian Amazon, Edna is a witness of a land in ruins built upon massacres. Raised only by her mother, she experiences in her body and hers descendants, the marks of a "war that never ends" - a war for land. Through her reports and writings, the movie builds an hybrid narrative that moves between reality and imaginary. Everything's woven from Edna's memory and her diary entitled "Story of My Life"



 


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JURY DECLARATION

"Edna" wins the Main Award for the depth of the theme, treated with a high-quality direction, which finds a happy balance between realism and poetry, narration and discontinuity. Acclaim also goes to the intense and expressive photography.



SIGNS AWARD

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


The Wall of Shadows

Eliza Kubarrska
Poland, Germany, Switzerland / 2020 / 1:34:00


The Sherpa family break a taboo and take part in the Himalayan expedition to Kumbhakarna,the holiest of mountains, to earn money for their son's school and cut him from their tradition. They accompany the leading world class alpinists.

 

 


JURY DECLARATION


The Sign Award goes to "The Wall of Shadows" for sensitively and professionally illustrating the sacred virtues of the Kumbhakarna mountain. Slow and meditative, the film combines stunning cinematography with the depiction of the domestic way of life in a remote indigenous community.





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


Ninosca - The Woman and the Emigrant's Song

Peter Törbiörnsson
Sweden / 2020 / 1:44:00


This is a film about a woman’s struggle for independence that requires her to face her past in the machismo culture of Central America. It is a single stand-alone documentary, and the third and concluding film in director Peter Torbiörnsson’s trilogy that started with The Lovers of San Fernando (2001) and was followed by The Last Chapter (2011). Peter has followed Ninosca during 40 years, through marriage and becoming a mother, the decision to leave Nicaragua and her family and move to Spain to be able to put food on the table and for her children to go to school – but also to escape her violent husband. Once in Spain, Ninosca is refused residence permit and she is unable to go back to Nicaragua. Her children are denied entry to Spain and they remain separated for more than seven years. Ninosca becomes one of Europe’s many undocumented immigrants. In the film we follow her intimately in her everyday struggle. Her dream is to return to Nicaragua, to reunite with her children, buy a piece of land and a small coffee plantation. She wants to return to her home village, revisit her brothers and relatives but at the same time she fears meeting her ex- husband, who has threatened to kill her if she ever comes back.

 

 


JURY DECLARATION


The Night Award goes to "Ninosca" for the mesmerising treatment of a very delicate and personal theme, delivering simple, yet profound messages through enigmatic dimensions while compressing forty years' worth of emotions.






JURY AWARD FOR A LUCID TESTIMONY
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Courage

Aliaksei Paluyan
Germany, Belarus / 2021 / 1:30:00


For many months we have been following the events in Belorussian streets after the presidential election. Protests, clashes with the police, mass arrests without any chance for a consensus between the parties. Three actors from the underground theatre in Minsk are trying to find themselves in this chaos. Outside their performances, they live regular lives, have families and work, while the stage offers an escape from everyday life and a possibility to express opposition against the authoritarian government. For many years they protested against the authorities through art and now they have decided to join thousands of people in the streets. Their courage will be tested.

 


JURY DECLARATION

"Courage" wins the Jury Award for the ability to offer a lucid and involved testimony of a dramatically current reality: the collective effort aimed at achieving an authentically democratic coexistence.




MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD

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


Into the Ice

Lars Ostenfeld
Denmark, Germany / 2022 / 1:25:00


On the frozen borders of Greenland, three daring and committed glaciologists explore the ice core to answer one of the most pressing questions of our times: how fast is the ice sheet melting? Into the Ice is an enlightening adventure, a scientific film about one of the greatest challenges of the not-so distant future: the inevitable rise in sea levels.

 

 


JURY DECLARATION


"Into the Ice" gets a Mention in the Sign Award for its brave dedication to inform and substantiate how fast the polar ice sheets are melting. The lengths taken towards achieving this also results in some amazing cinematography.




MENTION FOR THE 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


Boney Piles

Terykony
Taras Tomenko
Ukraine / 2022 / 1:20:00


Nastya was six when three missiles fired by the Russian army hit her house on New Year’s Eve. She survived but lost her father, her childhood and her faith in life. To the likes of her, the war has become something commonplace, like the landscape outside the window. Yet Nastya has dreams. Like every girl, she dreams of a new house and a dog and keeps on writing letters to Santa asking him to bring her father back. The method of documentary surveillance of characters and non-intrusion into their personal space made it possible to show the drama of children’s life on the front line.


 


JURY DECLARATION


"Boney Piles" gets a Mention in the Night Award for the beautiful transfiguration of intense particularities into a universal language. Furthermore, it is foreshadowed by a mysterious cinematography that is both complex and simple.