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Faya Dayi
Photo: Jessica Beshir
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Jessica Beshir's Faya Dayi won the Grand Jury prize at this year's Visions du Réel documentary film festival, which presented its online event from Switzerland.
The film, which also won the FIPRESCI award, given by film critics, considers a complex picture of modern Ethiopia and its relationship with the stimulant leaf khat.
The jury - comprised of filmmaker Thomas Imbach, Torino Film Lab artistic director Savina Neirotti and MoMA curator Josh Siegel - said: "Interweaving an ancient Sufi parable about the quest for the water of eternal life with a rigorous meditation on labour, exploitation, and exile, and moving freely among different levels of reality and consciousness, Jessica Beshir has created a dreamlike fable for our own uncertain times."
They also awarded a Special Jury prize, ex aequo to Tomasz Wolski's 1970, about a watershed moment in Poland and Ahmet Necdet Cupur's Les Enfants Terribles, examining the struggles of youngsters trying to assert their independence within a Turkish family.
The Burning Lights Competition, which aims to celebrate new voices and experimental filmmaking, gave its prize to Looking For Horses by Stefan Pavlović, described as "a compelling work made with bravery and tenderness". The Special Jury Award went to Splinters by Natalia Garayalde with an additional Special Mention to The Great Void, by Sebastian Mez.
The National Award went to Nostromo, by Fisnik Maxville, with a Speical Juray Award for Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo's Chronicles Of That Time.
The additional prizes are below:
International Medium Length and Short Film Competition - Strict Regime, by Nikita Yefimov
Special Mention Medium Length - My Quarantine Bear, by Weijia Ma
Short Film - The Communion of My Cousin Andrea, by Brandán Cerviño and If You See Her, Say Hello, by Hee Young Pyun and Jiajun Oscar Zhang
Special Mention Short Film The City of the Sun, by Maria Semenova
Youth Jury Award - Medium Length Film - Trees in Summer, by Suyu Lee
Interreligious Award - Little Palestine (Diary of a Siege), by Abdallah Al-Khatib
Zonta Award (for a female filmmaker whose work reveals mastery and talent and calls for support for future creations?) - Pushing Boundaries, by Lesia Kordonets
