Nicole Vögele’s The Landscape and the Fury bags the Visions du Réel Grand Prize
- The Swiss director’s movie won the International Competition while the Burning Lights Prize went to A Fidai Film, co-produced by Palestine, Germany, Qatar and Brazil
By virtue of her second feature film, The Landscape and the Fury [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Swiss director Nicole Vögele has walked away with the Grand Prize in the International Feature Film Competition of this year’s Visions du Réel Festival, having previously scooped the C-Side Post-Production Prize in Nyon for Best Swiss Film by way of her graduate film, Mrs Loosli, dating back to 2013. This courageous filmmaker - as the festival’s artistic director Emilie Bujès describes her - presented a powerful and touching movie which isn’t afraid to drill down into the complex nature of reality in order to convey its contradictions and lyricism.
The jury for the International Feature Film Competition, composed of producer Dora Bouchoucha, artistic director Carlo Chatrian and Swiss filmmaker Carmen Jaquier, was similarly impressed by Rising Up at Night [+see also:
film review
interview: Nelson Makengo
film profile], a co-production between Belgium, Germany and Burkina Faso by young Congolese director and artist Nelson Makengo, which was rewarded with the Special Jury Prize. For their part, My Memory Is Full of Ghosts - Anas Zawahri’s moving and painful portrait of a Syria at breaking point - and We Are Inside [+see also:
film review
film profile] – a highly personal film by Lebanese director Farah Kassem - each received a Special Mention.
The Burning Lights Competition singled out A Fidai Film by Palestinian director Kamal Aljafari as its victor, a powerful film "which shows us what our vocation could be as film professionals in a world characterised by such gratuitous destruction (…)", to borrow the words of the jury, alongside Riders by Argentine director Martín Rejtman, which shines a light on the everyday difficulties experienced by these people who are fighting to keep their heads above water by delivering our meals under conditions which are questionable, to say the least. The movie nabbed a Special Jury Prize, while (Revolution, Fulfil Your Promise) Red [+see also:
film review
film profile] Love by Spanish artist Dora García earned itself a Special Mention.
In the National Competition, Brunaupark [+see also:
film review
film profile] by young directors Felix Hegert and Dominik Zietlow found itself in pole position as a joyful and sensitive first feature film painting a portrait of an entire community living in a building in a Zurich neighbourhood which is on the verge of being destroyed in the name of property speculation. The winners’ list was rounded off by a Special Jury Prize awarded to the poignant and poetic movie Valentina and the Muosters by Italian director and producer Francesca Scalisi, and two Special Mentions claimed by Alexander Kuznetsov’s An Ordinary Life and Alexe Poukine’s Who Cares? [+see also:
film review
film profile].
Emilie Bujès is making no secret of her joy in the face of a winners’ list she describes as "adventurous and delightful, extremely open from a geographical viewpoint, embracing many different forms and approaches, and epitomising the richness of the festival’s 2024 line-up, by which a variety of audiences have been moved".
The winners are as follows:
International Feature Film Competition
Grand Prize
The Landscape and the Fury [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Nicole Vögele (Switzerland)
Special Jury Prize
Rising Up at Night [+see also:
film review
interview: Nelson Makengo
film profile] – Nelson Makengo (Democratic Republic of the Congo/Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Qatar)
Special Mention
My Memory Is Full of Ghosts - Anas Zawahri (Syria)
We Are Inside [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Farah Kassem (Lebanon/Qatar/Denmark)
Burning Lights Competition
Burning Lights Competition Prize
A Fidai Film – Kamal Aljafari (Palestine/Germany/Qatar/Brazil/France)
Special Jury Prize
Riders – Martín Rejtman (Argentina/Portugal/Venezuela)
Special Mention
(Revolution, Fulfil Your Promise) Red [+see also:
film review
film profile] Love – Dora García (Mexico/Spain/Norway/Belgium)
National Competition
National Competition Prize
Brunaupark [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Felix Hergert, Dominik Zietlow (Switzerland)
Special Jury Prize
Valentina and the Muosters – Francesca Scalisi (Switzerland/Italy)
Special Mention
An Ordinary Life – Alexander Kuznetsov (France/Switzerland/USA)
Who Cares? [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Alexe Poukine (Belgium/Switzerland/France)
International Medium-Length and Short Film Competition
Best Medium-Length Film
Campus Monde – N’tifafa Y.E. Glikou (Senegal/Benin/France)
Best Short Film
Memories of an Unborn Sun – Marcel Mrejen (Algeria/France/Holland)
Special Youth Jury Prize for Best Medium-Length Film
Koka – Aliaksandr Tsymbaliuk (Poland)
Special Youth Jury Prize for Best Medium-Length Film
A Move – Elahe Esmaili (Iran/UK)
Other awards
Grand Angle Competition - Audience Award
No Other Land [+see also:
film review
interview: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
film profile] – Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor (Palestine/Norway)
Interreligious Prize
Kamay [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Ilyas Yourish, Shahrokh Bikaran (Afghanistan/Belgium/Germany/France)
Zonta Prize
(Y)our Mother [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Samira El Mouzghibati (Belgium/France)
FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize
(Y)our Mother – Samira El Mouzghibati
Perception Change Award
Save Our Souls – Jean-Baptiste Bonnet (France)
(Translated from French)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
