Films on Iran and Sudan big winners at Geneva human rights film fest

"These films reveal realities that are often little known," the co-directors of the film festival said when announcing the big winners. Keystone-SDA

The 24th edition of the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva honoured films on Iran and Sudan. A Fox Under a Pink Moon won the Grand Prize for documentaries and Cotton Queen took home the Grand Prize for feature film-making.

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“This prize list reflects the wealth of voices that the FIFDH brings to the fore,” said the editorial co-directors Laura Longobardi and Laila Alonso Huarte on Saturday. “These films reveal realities that are often little known.”

On the documentary side, A Fox Under a Pink Moon shows 16-year-old Afghan Soraya Akhlaghi’s attempts to escape from Iran over a period of five years. Produced by the artist herself together with Iranian filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei, it denounces the violence of patriarchy.

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As winner of the Grand Prize, the producers went home with CHF 10,000 ($12,500) donated by the City and Canton of Geneva. Another film, Letters from Wolf Street by Arjun Talwar, won the Viera de Mello prize and CHF5,000. This Polish-German documentary tells the story of the ordinary racism faced by migrants in Poland.

In the feature film category, the Grand Prize, endowed with CHF10,000 from the Barbour Foundation, was given to Cotton Queen by Suzannah Mirghani. The viewer is confronted with the power struggles and stories of women against colonisation in a cotton-growing region of Sudan.

The CHF5,000 Vision for Human Rights prize went to Yurlu/Country by Yaara Bou Melhem. This uncompromising film focuses on the impact of colonial abuses on labour, land and heritage.

The FIFDH ends on Sunday. More than 200 guests from the artistic, scientific, political and activist worlds mingled with nearly 33,000 spectators over the course of the festival.

Translated from French with AI/gw

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