SHORT NEWS

Festival L’Europe autour de L’Europe: two main prizes to films from Austria

The Paris-based festival L’Europe autour de l'Europe awarded two of its three main prizes to films from Austria:  The Prix Sauvage to Die Kinder der Toten by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška, the Prix Présent to Welcome to Sodom by Florian Weigensamer and Christian Krönes


PRIX SAUVAGE and its statue of the dancing wolf
to Die Kinder der Toten by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška

Die Kinder der Toten directed by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška is an explosive collaboration between Austrian maverick producer Ulrich Seidl and New York’s theatre group Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, based on a novel by Elfriede Jelinek. This incendiary mixture hits at our greed, selfishness and self-obsession, as a spoof of a silent B-production musical shot on Super 8, which is politically incorrect, thus not only creating a metaphor for the rise of memories of a repressed past, but also for the rise of current xenophobia. There is nothing wrong in this film, as all that is wrong comes across as right, brutal and radical, true Prix Sauvage. (the jury statement)



PRIX PRÉSENT
to Welcome to Sodom by Florian Weigensamer and Christian Krönes

The Prix Présent is awarded to Welcome to Sodom as a sign of recognition of the work of our fellow-filmmakers. We have been won over by the story and by the perfected work on sound and image. How did Florian Weigensamer and Christian Krönes manage to achieve such a degree of intimacy in portraying film’s characters? How many weeks or months of shooting to approach each of these human beings, contradictory in their lucidity and vigour ? The result is nevertheless beyond discussion : it is a masterfuly (too much perhaps?) controled and fair documentary, even if the doubt, the fear, the danger at heart of its story stay hidden. (Extract from the jury statement)