The prize, named after Slovene filmmaker and sociologist Darko Bratina, is awarded to an artist  whose work is dedicated to the theme of boundaries.

 

From Febrary 25 to March 3 selected films by Ruth Beckermann – AMERICAN PASSAGES, EAST OF WAR, PAPER BRIDGE, ZORRO’S BAR MITZVA – will be screened in Northern Italy and Slovenia.

 

AMERICAN PASSAGES (2011)

American Passages is an associative journey through the United States: a disillusioned Iraq veteran, gay adoptive fathers, black judges, white party animals and a pimp at a casino table in Las Vegas. 
The extreme contrasts of black and white, rich and poor, winners and losers are often as surprising as the meaning of the constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness in these times of crisis.
An epic panorama of America.

 

EAST OF WAR (1996)

White-tiled rooms, neon lighting; on the walls black and white photographs documenting the atrocities committed by the german Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in WW2. Against this background former soldiers talk about their experiences beyond the bounds of "normal" warfare. An uncompromising film on remembrance and oblivion.

 

PAPER BRIDGE (1987)

Paper Bridge is a journey through Ruth Beckermann's own family's history and at the same time the story of Central Europe's Jews and of a region. It takes her from Vienna, where her grandmother survived the war and the nazis in hiding and to which her mother returned from Israel, to the landscapes of her father's childhood: the Bukowina, once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

 

ZORRO’S BAR MITZVA (2006)

At the Wailing Wall or in the spotlight of a stage, wearing a Zorro costume or a designer dress, solemn or rollicking: crossing the threshold to the adult world can take place in very different ways. This film accompanies four 12-year-olds - Sharon, Tom, Moishy and Sophie - as they prepare for their bar or bat mitzvot. It takes a critical and ironic look at Jewish tradition and its interpretations, questions the significance of initiation rituals, and attempts to explore the diffuse terrain of adolescence.