15th Oslo Films From The South

The Norwegian capital hosts the Films From the South festival, devoted to films from Africa, Asia and South America. The International Critics’ Prize went to Paradise Now by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad.

“The award goes to a film that exhibits a stylistic awareness of the relationship between form and subject. This is invested with a superb variation between close and long shots, static and mobile camerawork, and a conspicuous lack of music. The film is brave and daring in its chosen subject matter, and invests a great share of its emotional strength and political significance in its leading characters. Although this to a certain degree is a rhetorical and subjective political film, the director and screenwriter impressed the jury with a balanced inclusion of strong humanism and charity.” (Statement of the jury.)