Silvered Water/Syria Self-Portrait/3

In its important tour around the world, to festivals but also to a theatrical release in some countries, the film by Wiam Simav Bedirxan and Ossama Mohammed was at the Istanbul Independent International Festival to get a big award. The jury said:

″In the spirit of the mission statement of the festival, we the jury of the Love and Change section, acknowledges that the world is hurting, and that it is the responsibility of civil societies to participate in positive change”. 

Of their unanimous decision to award the film the $10.000 prize, they said: ″The film that the jury felt most strongly about, is one that forces us to look oppression, torture, violence, despair and death directly in the face. It is bold and loud, yet poetic; it is intimate and yet collective. It is a timeless telling of people’s pursuit of freedom, as much as it is a timeless telling of governments’ failing in serving and protecting their people in the name of power and tyranny. ″

Receiving the award, an emotional Wiam Simav Bedirxan said: ″Maybe right now, I am receiving the award for this film, but this film is the story not of me, but all of humanity. ″

http://www.ifistanbul.com/en/index.asp

http://www.proactionfilm.com/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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