Estrellita awarded in Cottbus

The film was not in the competitive programme of the festival in Cottbus. It however won one of the awards all full-length films, presented on the festival, were competing. The jury that granted the Dialog Award said in their statement: “With Estrellita (2007) by director Metod Pevec, we have selected a film, which tells the moving story of a yound violin player and his sponsor against the background milieu of Bosnian immigrants living in Slovenia. After the death of her husband the widow donates his valuable violin to the young talented Bosnian in the face of family opposition and social prejudices. On this basis he is able to commence a musical career.

Employing impressive imagery and precise dialogue Metod Pevec’s film deals with the tension between the underclass of immigrants and the domestic upper class, and depicts the difficult, but not impossible process whereby different cultures and social layers come together. In this respect the film represents not only an important artistic work but, entirely in accordance with the Dialogue Prize, and delivers an important contribution to understanding between different cultures.”.

This year the Main Prize for the Best Film went to Bulgarian director Iglika Trifonova for the film Rassledwane (Investigation), however, most prizes, five of them, was granted to the Russian tragicomedy ‘Puteschestwije s Domaschimi Schiwotnymi’ (Travelling with Pets) directed by Vera Storezhewa. The winner of the Audience Award for the best film is the Czech ‘Vratné lahve’ (Empties) directed by Jan Sverak. Member of the international festival jury was also Slovenian producer Dunja Klemenc (photo: second on the left).

After two awards Silva Èušin won (Vesna Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role on the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož and in special mention of the International Jury on the Mannheim Film Festival), the Dialog Award id the third award for the film ‘Estrellita’. Besides all the stated, the film was also screened in the French Montpellier and it is to have a variegated festival life during the following months.