September 29, 2021 (SIGNIS). Neighbours (Machbarn), directed by Mano Khalil (Switzerland, 2021), won the SIGNIS Prize at the 24th edition of the Religion Today Film Festival held in Trento, Italy from September 22 to 29.
The Jury chose the winning film for the splendid representation of the spirit of communion and brotherhood among peoples and the sensitive staging of the drama of borders, often obstacles to the realisation of the lives of many, all shown through the eyes of children. The result is a message from Syria as a vision of our current world, an invitation to reflect on the problem of millions of refugees who flee, who are forced to leave their land.
The Jury also awarded a Commendation to the film Omar & Us, directed by Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehemet Bahdir Er (Turkey, 2019). The film offers a sensitive and balanced representation of the journey in all its facets: free choice, as an obligatory choice, however always an opportunity for human encounter and growth. The protagonists’ struggle to have an inner dialogue with themselves and the surrounding world is a call to feelings of reconciliation, solidarity and respect towards each other, and a way to follow justice and peace. The film won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Warsaw Film Festival in 2019 and had already earned a Commendation by the SIGNIS jury at the Popoli e Religioni Terni Film Festival in 2021.
The members of the SIGNIS Jury were Cinzia Quadratti (Italy), Ana Maria Pedroso Guerrero (Cuba), and Joachim Opahle (Germany).
