Hubert Sauper’s documentary WE COME AS FRIENDS wins the main award at the Planete+ Doc film festival. The Millennium Award includes prize money of 8,000 euros.

The jury statement
An astonishing fairytale film that takes viewers to the birthplace of humanity and civilization, explaining what the latter has become. Following events in Sudan, which form a bittersweet mosaic of surreal situations, people and places, the film questions the essence of our European civilization and exposes its narcissist cynicism, greed and appalling hypocrisy. It is a universal and deeply personal film, evoking both laughter and chills” wrote the Jury in their decision.

The jury members
Nino Kirtadze, Aleš Suki, Manuel Rougeron

WE COME AS FRIENDS
directed by Hubert Sauper (KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production (A), Adelante Films (F))
International sales: Le Pacte

WE COME AS FRIENDS is a modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the the heart of Africa.  At the moment when the Sudan, the continent's biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old 'civilizing' pathology re-emerges – that of colonialism, clash of empires, and yet new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources. If "history does not repeat itself, but rhymes", the film bares witness to this disquieting reality – it is a complex, profound and humorous cinematic endeavor – a tale of very old and rather sinister verses.