Visions du Réel 2012/ 2
Another edition, the 18th, of the exclusive Visions du Réel in Nyon, Swizerland, a small festival in terms of audience, around 25.000, but important for the professionals, especially, it is being said, for the directors, is over and awards have been given. The competent jury of the long documentary competition section chose Dutch documentary ”Matthews Laws” by Marc Schmidt for the Grand Prix (CHF 20.000) (so far unknown for this blogger) and the Special Prix for the Finnish upcoming festival-hit, the warm and entertaining ”The Punk Syndrome” by J-P Passi and Jukka Kärkkäinen (CHF 10.000).
Two other films were awarded which I am looking forward to see: ”900 Days” by Dutch Jessica Gorter that takes its story from the sige of Leningrad during the ww2, and ”Snake Dance” by Belgian excellent director Manu Riche and the writer Patrick Marnham. Here is a quote from a description of the film:
”Snake Dance” (photo), the new film by the Belgian documentary-maker Manu Riche and the English-Irish writer and scenarist Patrick Marnham, is about the genesis of the atomic bomb. The journey leading up to this story was a long one.
We plunge into the jungle of the Congo in the footsteps of Leopold II in search of the place where uranium is mined. We cross the ocean to Los Alamos, the base in New Mexico where Robert J. Oppenheimer developed the atom bomb assisted by the best physicists in the world. We follow the bomb to Japan, where it destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
