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EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY – PRIX ARTE

AKO SA VARIA DEJINY / COOKING HISTORY Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic (88 min.)

COOKING HISTORY is a documentary film about army cooks and how the everyday needs of thousands of armed stomachs affect the victories and defeats of statesmen. It deals with the field kitchen as a model of a world where food preparation becomes a fighting strategy; a fight for great ideals standing on four strong legs of a kitchen table.
The film is based on eleven recipes of cooks of the Second World War till the war in Chechnya, from France over the Balkans to Russia.

Director: Peter Kerekes
Screenwriter: Peter Kerekes
Producer: Pavel Strnad, Ralph Wieser, Peter Kerekes, Georg Misch
Director of Photography: Martin Kollár

BELOW SEA LEVEL Italy, United States

Director: Gianfranco Rosi

BURMA VJ Denmark (85 min.)

Armed with small handycams, undercover video journalists in Burma keep up the flow of news from their closed country despite risking torture and life in jail. Their material is smuggled out of Burma and broadcast back via satellite. Joshua, age 27, becomes tactical leader of a group of reporters, as Buddhist monks in September 2007 lead a massive uprising. Foreign TV crews are banned from the country, so it's left to Joshua and his crew to keep the revolution alive on TV screens all over. As government intelligence understands the power of the camera, the VJs become their prime target.

Director: Anders Østergaard
Screenwriter: Anders Østergaard, Jan Krogsgaard
Producer: Lise Lense-Møller (Magic Hour Films)
Director of Photography: Simon Plum, Burmese video journalists

FRAU MIT DEN 5 ELEFANTEN, DIE / WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS, THE Switzerland, Germany (93 min.)

Swetlana Geier is considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German. She has just concluded her lifework: new translations of Dostoyevsky's five great novels, also known as "the five elephants". Her work is characterised by a great and sensual feeling for language and an uncompromising respect for the writers she translates.

Swetlana's life has been overshadowed by Europe's varied history. Together with Vadim Jendreyko, the 85-year-old woman is making her first trip from her chosen home in Germany back to the places of her childhood in the Ukraine.

The film interweaves the story of Swetlana Geier's life with her literary work and traces the secret of this inexhaustibly hard-working woman. It tells of great suffering, silent helpers and unhoped-for chances -- and a love of language that outshines everything else.

Director: Vadim Jendreyko
Producer: Vadim Jendreyko, Hercli Bundi, Thomas Tielsch
Director of Photography: Niels Bolbrinker, Stéphane Kuthy

DAMNES DE LA MER, LES / DAMNED OF THE SEA, THE Belgium

Director: Jawad Rhalib

HASHMATSA / DEFAMATION Denmark, Austria, Israel, United States (93 min.)

What is anti-semitism today, two generations after the Holocaust? In his continuing exploration of modern Israeli life, Yoav Shamir travels the world in search of the most modern manifestations of the “oldest hatred", and comes up with some startling answers.

The film questions our perceptions and terminology when an event proclaimed by some as anti-Semitic is described by others as legitimate criticism of Israel’s government policies. The film walks along the boundary between anti-Zionism, rejecting the notion of a Jewish State, and anti-Semitism, rejecting Jews.

Opinions often differ and tempers sometimes flare, but in DEFAMATION we find that one thing is certain: only by understanding their response to anti-Semitism can we really appreciate how Jews today, and especially modern Israelis, respond to the world around them, in New York and in Moscow, in Gaza and Tel Aviv.

Director: Yoav Shamir
Producer: Sandra Itkoff, Karoline Leth, Philippa Kowarsky, Knut Ogris
Director of Photography: Yoav Shamir

HERZ VON JENIN, DAS / HEART OF JENIN, THE Germany (90 min.)

THE HEART OF JENIN takes us to Israel, into the occupied territories, to the people who have learnt to live with everyday conflict and violence, and who, even so, have not given up their hope for peace. On 5 November 2005 in the Jenin refugee camp, 12-year-old Ahmed Khatib was shot by an Israeli soldier whilst playing with a plastic gun. Despite his grief, the father, Ismael Khatib, decides to donate his son‘s organs to Israeli children. Four of those, each from a different part of Israel‘s diverse society, are alive today thanks to Ismael‘s courageous act.

Director: Marcus Vetter, Leon Geller
Producer: Ulli Pfau, Ernst Ludwig Ganzert
Director of Photography: Nadav Hekselman

PIANOMANIA Germany, Austria (94 min.)

PIANOMANIA is a film about perfection, the love of music and perfection combined with a little bit of madness. It’s a journey deep into the secret world of sounds, the everyday life of Stefan Knüpfer, the technical director and master piano tuner at Steinway & Sons. He works together with the best pianists in the world, every day. When Alfred Brendel, Lang Lang or Pierre-Laurent Aimard are taking their seat in front of the grand piano, everything has to be perfect, even the slightest nuance of the tone. Every piano has its own personality and every piece needs a special timbre, each interpretation depends on a different temper. To detect the matching instrument corresponding to the artist’s vision is an art of its own for which a special talent is essential: the rare gift of being able to translate words into musical notes. Out of a unique angle, PIANOMANIA is watching the search for the perfect sound.

Director: Robert Cibis, Lilian Franck
Producer: Robert Cibis, Ebba Sinzinger, Lilian Franck, Vincent Lucassen

PLAGES D’AGNÈS, LES / BEACHES OF AGNÈS, THE France (110 min.)

Returning to the beaches which have been parts of her life, Varda invents a kind of self-portrait-documentary. Agnès stages herself among excerpts of her films, images and reportages. She shares with humour and emotion her beginnings as stage photographer, then as early filmmaker of the French New Wave, her life with Jacques Demy, her feminism, her trips to Cuba, China and the USA, her life as independent producer and her family life. A free and curious woman!
Film Details

Director: Agnès Varda
Screenwriter: Agnès Varda
Producer: TAMARIS & ARTE France Cinéma with participation of CANAL +, with the support of Région Ile-de-France
Director of Photography: Alain Sakot Hélène Louvart, Julia Fabry, Jean-Baptiste Morin, Agnès Varda

SUMMEN DER INSEKTEN, DAS - Bericht einer Mumie / SOUND OF INSECTS, THE - Records of a Mummy Switzerland (88 min.)

THE SOUND OF INSECTS is the incredible story of how the mummified corpse of a 40-year-old man was discovered by a hunter in one of the most remote parts of the country. The dead man's detailed notes reveal that he actually committed suicide through self-imposed starvation in the preceding summer. Liechti's film is a stunning rapprochement of the novel "Miira Ni Narumade" by Shimada Masahiko, which itself is based upon a true event: a cinematic manifesto for life, challenged by the main characters radical renunciation of life itself.

Director: Peter Liechti
Producer: Peter Liechti
Director of Photography: Peter Liechti, Matthias Kälin

http://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/nominations/films