5th Golden Apricot International Film Festival Yerevan

13.07.2008 to 20.07.2008
Yerevan
Ecumenical Jury Yerevan 2008

The mebers of the Ecumenical Jury Yerevan 2008, from left: Fr. Gevork Saroyan, Denyse Muller, Jos Horemans

Alongside the four competition sections - International Feature Films, International Documentaries, Armenian Panorama, and Directors Across Borders - the festival offered retrospectives of Dariush Mehrjui, Wim Wenders, and Catherine Breillat. The winners of the Golden Apricot were Anna Melikyan, Russia, for Mermaid (Feature Films); Meira Asher, The Netherlands, for Women See Lot of Things (Documentaries); and Eric Nazarian, United States, for Blue Hour (Armenian Panorama), which also won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the FIPRESCI Prize. The Ecumenical Jury also awarded a Commendation to Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando by Hüseyin Karabey, Turkey.

Awards of the Ecumenical jury

Directed by:
2007

In four short stories the film tells how persons try to deal in very different ways with their loneliness and their sadness after losing a beloved one. The director succeeds in portraying his characters authentically by suggestive images who reveal the inner feelings and emotions of these human beings in their painful process of mourning.

Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando
Directed by:
2008

Set while America is ready to attack Iraq, the film is telling a love story between Ayca living in Istanbul and Ali from North Iraq. Ayca decides to meet Ali again. This road movie shows with beautiful pictures an original way of telling love by video. Very well played by the actress, it describes the courage, the struggle and the strong hope of a loving woman. By showing the difficulties Ayca has to overcome to reach her beloved one the director criticizes the cruel reality that human beings are always victims when frontiers become walls in times of war or conflict between countries.