Church of Sweden Film Award 2015
Still from "Every Face Has a Name"
On January 29, the Church of Sweden’s 2015 film award was presented to the documentary "Every Face Has a Name", directed by Magnus Gertten. The prize of SEK 50,000 and the Angelos icon were presented by cathedral dean Karin Burstrand from Gothenburg Cathedral parish, in conjunction with the film’s premiere during the Göteborg International Film Festival.
The winning documentary is about survivors from the Nazi concentration camps and freed prisioners of war who arrived at the port of Malmö in 1945. Filmmaker Magnus Gertten traced several of the refugees who appear on newsreel footage from their arrival in Sweden, and asked them to tell him their story. The result is a poignant testimony about the moment of liberation.
The jury’s motivation: “A painfully poignant film about people fleeing over the years. Ships arrive in two ports: Malmö in 1945 and Pozzallo today. Behind every anonymous person there is a human life. Names are put to faces and thereby their stories are, too. Only then can liberation actually take place.Magnus Gertten’s outstanding documentary asks questions that are extremely topical. Is our compassion borderless? What does it mean to be a human being? Every face has a name is a reminder of the humanistic values that give humanity hope.”
Members of the jury were Tuulikki Koivunen Bylund, doctor of theology and bishop emerita, Härnösand Diocese; Lena Runge, film editor and dramaturgical consultant in editing. Senior lecturer at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts; Mikael Ringlander, chair of the jury, pastor and project manager of the cultural collaboration Kultursamverkan at the Church of Sweden in Gothenburg Diocese; and Charlotte Wells, art historian, the Church of Sweden’s officer for cultural issues and member of the INTERFILM Board.