I had never been to Karlovy Vary before. And after the Berlinale four years ago, this is only my second time serving on the Ecumenical Jury. I am very grateful to INTERFILM/SIGNIS for this appointment.
I think it makes sense to describe the whole experience — serving on the Ecumenical Jury at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — following the stages of a "ritual party curve":
• Entrance / Crossing the threshold into a world different from everyday experience:** As always, the train journey is unpredictable and adventurous — even though this time it isn't a Deutsche Bahn train. The problem: everything overcrowded. In Berlin the train stands still for over two hours. Police have to clear it because of overcrowding. Anyone without a reserved seat has to get off. The connecting train from Ústí nad Labem is, of course, long gone. The problem is compounded because at Ústí station it remains completely unclear, right up to the last moment, which platform the train to Karlovy Vary will leave from. General confusion: the platform 3 shown on the display board down in the station hall is called platform 1 and 2 up at the tracks themselves. The destination signs at the platform displays are only filled in immediately before departure. Which means that, especially with the delay, people keep riding the escalator back down to check again: downstairs the board says platform 3, which upstairs means platform 1 and 2. Good grief. Excited and exhausted, I finally find myself sitting in the right train.
• Illuminatio: Once I arrive at the film festival, things gradually become clearer — faster and more intensely all the time. I'm driven from the station to the Thermal Hotel in one of roughly 100 brand-new BMW KVIFF Official Cars — huge limousines, almost all electric. I'm welcomed into this cinema palace by the wonderfully competent and friendly Pavlína Grässová from the KVIFF Program Department, fortified with a few bites and sips, and sent on the right path to the nearby Hotel Růže — a great location, by the way. I meet my two colleagues from the Ecumenical Jury: Valérie de Marnhac and Lukáš Jirsa. We get along wonderfully from the very start. In English — which in my case requires the technique familiar to anyone with early-stage dementia: if you can't find a word, keep describing around it until a glimmer of understanding appears on your conversation partners' faces. It works beautifully, and Valérie and Lukáš are both brilliantly knowledgeable film people.
Under Lukáš's leadership — calm, friendly, and, when necessary, also firm — we spend the following days watching the competition films, twelve in total, always early in the morning, discussing and evaluating them every other day, since otherwise we would drown in the flood of stories and images. All the more so because all three of us also watch further, out-of-competition films every afternoon and evening. The collaboration and closeness within the jury team grows dramatically day by day. Lukáš is a fantastic jury chair who helps me through all the initial difficulties of finding my footing — where do we get the tickets? Where's the best and cheapest coffee? When and where (that one's easy: at our hotel) is there delicious free food and drink every other evening? He steers our debates purposefully and successfully, so that every impression and argument gets its due. After working through all the competition films, this leads, surprisingly smoothly, to the next stage of the ritual party curve:
• Unio. From the very start of the decision-making process we agree on four films for our shortlist: *A Happy Family* (Jan-Eric Mack, Switzerland, 2026), *Only Beautiful Things to Look At* (Prameň, Ivan Ostrochovský, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Hungary, 2026), *The Guest* (Gæsten, Mads Mengel, Denmark, 2026), and *The Lion at My Back* (Tonia Mishiali, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Greece, 2026). Since by now all the film synopses from the competition of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival are available online, I don't need to attempt my own summary here — I can simply report that the Ecumenical Jury reached agreement very quickly. The Ecumenical Jury of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival awards its prize to: *The Lion at My Back*.
In dense, realistic imagery that turns metaphorical at key turning points, the film tells the story of eighteen-year-old Mariama, a refugee from Senegal, who is supported through hunger and homelessness by forty-year-old Cypriot Stella, and who develops an ever closer bond with her. Stella, mother of a small girl, is caught — after a history of drug addiction — in a destructive dependency on men who force her into submission to brutal sexualized violence. Although Mariama herself comes from a background of destruction, she possesses such great inner strength that she is able to free Stella and her daughter. She passes through male violence unscathed, is able to support other refugees, and enters into a relationship with an empathetic man. From an ecumenical perspective, *The Lion at My Back* is a gospel story. Mariama becomes a Christ figure for Stella and others who cannot, by their own strength alone, escape destructive domination.
Good. Our work is done. Now, after the high point of the ritual party curve, comes the next stage:
• Missio. Thanks to Michael, a cameraman devoted to our chair Lukáš, all three of us — Valérie, Lukáš, and I — are interviewed about our impressions and decisions, to give weight to the Ecumenical Jury's successful work and send it out into the world. We discuss things in various combinations and settings — at the wonderful farewell dinner at the luxury Hotel Pupp, with film teams, directors, actors, and guests without any particular role whom we happen to run into — about our award, which turned out quite differently from the decisions of the main festival jury: what does that mean? What speaks for the main jury, what for our Ecumenical Jury, whose weight and importance should not be underestimated?
We let memories and inner images from the intense festival days come alive and circulate — in my case, for instance: Dustin Hoffman, Juliette Binoche, and Kevin Bacon — they really exist! Not just on screen! And the venerable Juliette Binoche, one of my great idols, keeps crying again and again at her public appearances — what's going on with her? Does she need my encouragement and support, or does she simply want to show all of us how deeply moved she is? In any case, to sum it up: I am thrilled and delighted by the whole process of these wild, sleep-deprived days at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Grateful that I was allowed to experience it and to bring my own judgment to bear. And dog-tired.
• Return journey / Crossing back into everyday life. I'm sitting on the train. I've survived all the chances for disorientation at Ústí station unscathed. We haven't yet arrived at Berlin Central Station, where the train will probably again stand for hours and be cleared by police due to overcrowding. I'm writing this piece and looking forward to arriving home sometime in the night, to being able to hold my beloved in my arms, and — over pasta, wine, and a Netflix comedy (basic plot: a banker, unhappy in her job and in the big city, recently separated, her father dead, returns to the village of her childhood, takes over her father's inn/farm/carpentry business, and finally falls happily in love with the childhood friend she once unhappily left behind) — to let everyday life back into my heart.
• I am happy about the past ten days. Thank you, INTERFILM/SIGNIS, for this wonderful opportunity.