Closed 20th Free Zone – “Memories of a Burning Body” and “One of Those Days When Heme Dies” the best films

The screening of the Italian film “There’s Always Tomorrow” by Paola Cortelezi officially brought down the curtain on the jubilee 20th Free Zone.

Before that, members of the jury of the competition programs – International selection, Regional selection and First two steps – announced the winners. Of the seven award-winning works, as many as three deal with unusual stories and exciting lives of women who have passed the seventh decade of life.

The best engaged the International Selection film is a drama “Memories of a Body on Fire” Antonele Sudasasi, about three Chilean women who grew up in a time when sexuality was taboo, and now their fearless voices have become embodied in one sixty-five-year-old woman.

Special recognition it belonged to an Iranian film “My favorite cake” Marjam Mogadam and Bentaša Sanaihe, about a seventy-year-old widow who invites the taxi driver she met that evening to hang out. Because of the scenes in which the Iranian woman does not wear a hijab, smokes and drinks, which are prohibited in Iran, the directors have been under house arrest for months and are awaiting trial.

The best engaged the film Regional Selections is a meditative Turkish production “One of those days when Heme dies” Murat Firatoglu. He is the director, screenwriter and main protagonist, an enraged wage earner Eyup who one day decides to kill his employer because of a delayed salary.

Human Rights Award The regional program received a documentary “Forests of forests” Renate Poljak, testimonies of four female partisans about their war and post-war experiences.

For the best movie selection The first two steps, dedicated to the first and second directorial achievements, was declared a drama “Barricades” Antoine Chevrolet about childhood friends whose relationship will be changed from the roots by a secret.

The high school jury decided to give the award to the best film of the EU Teen Zone brings realization “Lars je LOL” Ajrik Seter Štordal about the unusual friendship of a girl with a boy who has Down’s syndrome.

The visitors of the festival, in their evaluations, decided that audience award goes into the hands of the documentarian “The sky above Zenica” Zlatko Pranjića and Nana Frank Moler about the health problems of residents of one of the most polluted cities in Europe.

It was awarded for the second time this year “Olivera Ranđić” award for creative contribution to the education and upbringing of children and young people. They are winners Nadica Stojanovićlibrarian of the “Radoje Domanović” National Library from Leskovac and Elizabeth Georgievpoet, translator and until recently librarian at the “Detko Petrov” Library in Dimitrovgrad.

“At a time when the librarian profession is fighting, not only for libraries, but for the place of culture in this society”, the jury does not only support Elizabeth and Nadica with the award, but “also their colleagues, associates, comrades, the best and bravest among them”, he states. is, among other things, in the explanation of the award.

Jelena Glišićthe president of the Library Association of Serbia, who received the award on behalf of Elizabeta Georgiev, explained to the audience that around 540 public libraries in Serbia are currently threatened by the legal act for borrowing printed publications, which is being introduced “in a non-transparent and undemocratic” manner, and invited them to support the Library Association society by signing a petition to repeal that act.

During the 20th Free Zone, held from November 6 to 11 in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, 77 films from 37 countries were shown in 13 cinema halls.

The four most viewed ones will be displayed in Encore to the free zone on Tuesday, November 12, in the Hall of the Cultural Center of Belgrade: “AI justice” (3 p.m.), “We have no other country” (17), “My favorite cake” (19) and “There is always tomorrow” (21).

From November 12 to 26, as many as 54 works will be available throughout Serbia through the platform Cinema Couch.

The free zone was supported by the MEDIA subprogram of the Creative Europe program, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Reconstruction Women’s Fund, the City Administration for Culture of the City of Novi Sad, the Film Center of Serbia and the French Institute.