The director Maria Zidar won the award of the Sofia DokuMental festival for the best female director for her film Reconciliation. The international jury included Velislava Popova, editor-in-chief of the Dnevnik.bg website, Wolfgang Knöpfler, an Austrian producer, and Tanya Khorilchuk, a camerawoman from Belarus. They chose the winner among nine directors of contemporary, modern, daring films included in the competition program of the festival.
Nadezhda Dermendzhieva, the executive director of Bulgarian Fund for Women, presented the award and a cash prize of BGN 3,000, provided by BFW. She noted that women are not properly represented in the visual arts in Bulgaria or around the world. This deprives art of universality, point of view and emotionality. Therefore, every creative act of a woman must be supported.
“We, the Bulgarian Fund for Women, believe that it is women artists who hold unsuspected potential as leaders of various artistic and not only movements that draw attention to the many forms of social oppression, isolation, discrimination. We believe in the potential of art to change borders, destinies, lives“- added Nadezhda Dermendzhieva.
The jury was impressed by the director’s ability to say so much in so few words, mostly thanks to her fine, delicate visual style. “In a male-dominated society, the female character speaks clearly through her silence, and in the end, the woman’s word is the last word in history,” said Knöpfler, while presenting the jury’s decision.
Sofia DokuMental is organized by the Balkan Documentary Center, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Czech Center and is the only documentary festival in Bulgaria with a focus on human rights.
Photos: Sofia DocuMENTAL
