Premi

The Danish-Palestinian film director Mahdi Fleifel comes from the refugee camp Ain el-Helweh, one of the oldest camps in the southern part of Lebanon. Together with his father he documents the life of the family and the camp with a camera; with an affectionate gaze and sense of humor over a time period of thirty years. The grueling and hopeless situation of the people inside the camp is obvious as the camp turns into an isolated island. Fleifels memories establish a dense picture of this life in a no man's land. The film is free of the usual patterns classifying the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians. It thus evolves into a plea for a new peace process in the Middle East. More and more people around the world have to live in refugee camps for long periods of time. They continue hoping for a life in dignity and to be able to return to their homelands.

3rd Place

How can you approach a place that was supposed to be your home, when you had to leave it many years ago. Especially if it is a Palestinian refugee camp in Libanon. Where do you go in a world that does not belong to you? Old traces blend together with present life and the wide horizon of history evolves from the personal story of the visitor. In his own voice and with great dignity, humor and compassion the filmmaker leads us through his world and is able to offer a new perspective on the conflict in the Middle East.

We live our realities through convenient systems of recording, remembering, and reminiscing. Or rather, we are only able to survive by plastering ourselves with false memories. This work is the story and record of a painstaking attempt to record in order to embrace one's life and subsistence, love, friendship, family, and longing for survival. The film depicts the sorrows and suffering of the Palestinian people, who are forced to live as refugees under an overwhelming unjust Israeli occupation-a human tragedy and history of genocide, oppression, and poverty at risk of being forgotten. At the same time, this film is a deep and expansive indictment of our forgetful memory.

"A World Not Ours" is one of those rare, hospitable films. The house we are invited into is full of pain and frustration, but because of the filmmaker and his family's and friends' great hospitality and courage to show their real faces we get to feel some of the joys and sorrows of this refugee camp for Palestinians in Lebanon. Due to the humanity and humor of the people behind and in front of the camera we get a unique chance to experience the mind-blowing complexity and desperation of living in a permanent state of homelessness. "A World Not Ours" in its own bleak way is a beautiful and very poetic film that opens doors to other worlds instead of closing them."

This year, Nordisk Panorama has with the category New Nordic Voices, offered a wide range of high quality films with a great diversity in the filmmaker's approaches of storytelling and subject matters. The jury has been taken on an enjoyable journey from realism to magical realism, from original concepts to documentaries based on unique access to previously undiscovered grounds. We have seen intriguing and strong films made by promising directors that will be exciting to follow in the years to come. One film, however, stands out. The winning film is deeply personal, yet very universal. It's political, yet poetic. It's heart-rending and tragic, yet funny and inspiring. It takes on one of our time's most central and deplorable conflicts. The filmmaker is using unique footage and archive material to tell his extraordinary story in a confident way. The director focuses on individuals, and widens the perspective by telling a story of their shared destiny. The film deals with an important question, that is, which effect it has on people not to have a country to belong to. The answer is disheartening, but the film is not. When the art of cinema is greatest, it makes us look at the world anew. And this renewed perspective is a prerequisite for real change. This year's winner does all that outstandingly. The New Nordic Voices Award 2013 goes to A WORLD NOT OURS by Mahdi Fleifel.