20 December 2015

7 Days in Syria wins Best Film in Festival award

7 Days in Syria, directed by Robert Rippberger, has won the Best Film in Festival award at the 2015 We The Peoples Film Festival. Vivienne Eka, Festival Director, announced the winners following analysis of audience responses from the ten venues participating in the festival. 7 Days in Syria followed Newsweek Middle East editor, Janine di Giovanni, as she met families struggling to survive on the frontlines of the Syria conflict.

The following films also won category awards:

Human Security: Growing Home, directed by Faisal Attrache. This featured the daily life of a Syrian barber struggling to maintain normality in the Zaatari refugee camp.

Human Development: Across the tracks, cross, directed by Catherine Feltham. This film, supported by WaterAid’s local partner in India, Shramik Bharti, explored how something as simple as a toilet can help transform lives by following the story of one ambitious mother in Uttar Pradesh.

Human Rights: Sometimes I’m afraid, sometimes I hit, directed by Yuval Auron. The film comprises interviews with the children of Nabi Saleh, a village on the West Bank in Palestine, in which they give their own unique and personal perspective of the struggle.

Cultural Differences: Le Piano, directed by Levon Minasian. Loussiné, a 13 year old orphan, lives with her grandfather in a prefabricated house built in the Armenian city of Leninakan, following its destruction by earthquake. Dumb but a talented pianist, she prepares for an international competition with a piano lent by the Ministry of Culture.