14th PFF Awards: Double “Golden Owl” for “Terrestrial Verses” by the Iranian directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami
At last night’s Closing event of the 14th Philosophical Film Festival, the winners of the “Golden Owl” awards for the best feature and short film according to the jury committee, the special recognition “Stefan Sidovski – Sido” for a short film and the “Golden Owl” plaques for the best feature and short film were announced
The jury committee of the 14th Philosophical Film Festival was composed of Slavica Srbinovska, PhD, professor at the Department of General and Comparative Literature at the “Blaze Koneski” Faculty of Philology; the philosopher Ivan Milenkovic, PhD, from Serbia and the Macedonian director Jane Spasic.
GOLDEN OWL for the best feature film according to the jury of the 14th Philosophical Film Festival: TERRESTRIAL VERSES by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami GOLDEN OWL for the best short film according to the jury of the 14th Philosophical Film Festival: BIG BANG by Carlos SegundoSpecial mention STEFAN SIDOVSKI – SIDO for short film: MONTANEA by Charlotte Louis GOLDEN OWL for the best feature film according to the audience at the 14th Philosophical Film Festival: TERRESTRIAL VERSES by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami GOLDEN OWL for the best short film according to the audience at the 14th Philosophical Film Festival: MY GIRL FRIEND by Kawthar Younis“Golden Owl” for Best Feature Film at the 14th Philosophical Film Festival: Terrestrial Verses
The feature-length film Terrestrial Verses by directors Ali Asghari and Alireza Khatami from 2023 employs a Kafkaesque structure, developing nine absurd situations through as many vignettes. These vignettes, which are as humorous as they are illustrative of bureaucratic systems in general, explore the dynamics between the powerful and the subordinate; the slowly escalating conflicts transform from seemingly banal administrative issues into absurdities that need to be overcome. The film focuses on the position of the subordinate, as well as that of the bureaucrat or superior who holds the power to evaluate them; although the superior is visually invisible in the scenes, his presence is felt through his voice, questions, demands, and final decisions.
The stories of the various characters, while local, absorb universal questions about different aspects of oppression that degrade and reject the individual. These stories portray the expectation that the individual will be broken and defeated, rather than cast in the role of someone capable of responding, engaging in dialogue, and ultimately rejecting the pressure and walking away.
A bold decision in the film is to shoot all the vignettes in a single take, with the camera focused on the “victims” of the system, while the “oppressors”, representatives of the radical Iranian system, remain off-screen. This technique works on several levels. Firstly, it creates viewer identification with the victims due to the constant focus on them. Secondly, the camera work ensures that we never see the faces of the “oppressors”; we only hear their stern, reproachful voices from somewhere behind the camera. This choice intuitively evokes an “Orwellian” sense of the system’s presence, highlighting how radical Islam in Iran oppresses ordinary people and their basic social needs.
The vignettes predominantly showcase the oppression of female characters. The characters range from a young girl to several young women and a man with a tattooed body, all revealed through skillfully structured dialogues. These individuals are initially ready to participate in and fit into the system. However, the system, through its representatives—be it a parent, official, or employer—imposes absurd rules. The subordinate characters, through rational and powerful reactions, expose the absurdity of these rules, reducing them to nonsense with new questions. The characters’ naive entry into serious dialogue consistently leads to the exposure of the powerful’s oppressive mechanisms and the ultimate defeat of the system of rules.
“Golden Owl” for Best Short Film at the 14th Philosophical Film Festival: Big Bang
Big Bang is a short film by director Carlos Segundo, produced as a Brazilian-French co-production, and premiered at the 75th Locarno International Film Festival in 2022. It tells the story of Chico, or “the little man,” who in this narrative is literally a person of short stature. His profession is repairing stoves in Uberlândia, Brazil. Using an allegorical approach, the director successfully highlights the position of an individual from the margins of society. He does this through the visual and physical appearance of the protagonist, Chico’s profession, and his talent associated with working in the fiery bodies of the furnaces.
The film follows a well-structured and motivated narrative. Initially, we get to know Chico through his status and profession. This is followed by a pivotal moment where he comprehends and becomes aware of the meaning of the term “Big Bang.” The film concludes with Chico taking literal action based on this newfound understanding. This progression portrays how individuals from the margins can step forward, draw the world’s attention, and activate their seemingly hidden potential and power to react.
The clever use of the camera is evident in a turning point in the film. The first and only friendly, “human” conversation that Chico has with any of the other characters occurs with Marta, a woman who “descends” to his level, symbolically approaching him with understanding and acceptance. Notably, Marta’s face is the only other face we see in the film. This detail underscores the filmmakers’ adept use of cinematic tools, particularly the camera, whose language is subtle and unobtrusive yet bold, demonstrating the filmmakers’ skill.
The film’s approach relies heavily on the skilled use of Chico’s point of view, consistently maintaining the perspective appropriate to a person of short stature. The genre is hybrid, blending serious and engaged themes with humor and character actions. These actions show how Chico accepts, lives, and transforms his position from that of a subordinate to that of a man who consciously acts, causing a “quake” or “big bang.”
Special Mention “Stefan Sidovski-Sido”: Montanea
The short film Montanea by director Charlotte Louis, which belongs to the film-essay genre, embodies a poetics that aligns closely with the philosophical and cinematic perspective of Stefan Sidovski-Sido. The film essay format, frequently utilized in Sido’s work, is particularly suited for exploring complex philosophical themes related to the meaning of existence, the meaning of life, and the approach of death—all of them subjects that were central to his oeuvre.
Montanea would probably be a film that Stefan Sidovski-Sido would have greatly appreciated, and he would have considered its creator, Charlotte Louis, a kindred spirit in filmmaking. The film reflects on the stages of life through visual imagery and verbal fragments, portraying the relationship between birth and life, the transitions of life depicted through the phases of childhood, youth, maturity, and old age, and ultimately, the departure from life through death. By employing free visual allusions to time and change as mirrored in the human experience of being born, living, and dying, the film delves into the eternal theme that creation inherently entails disappearance.
Through a series of landscape and portrait shots and content that alludes to states of change, Montana highlights the universal stages of the relentless flow of time, unconditionally reflected in human existence from birth to life to death.