Press release * Thursday 7 September 2023
Under the presidency of Jacqui Hlongwane (SABC, South Africa)
And the URTI 2023 Jury members: Saousan Benhadid (EPTV, Algeria), Alexandre Pletser (RTBF, Belgium), Tabé Enonchong (CRTV, Cameroon), Christian Ingani (DRTV, Congo Brazzaville), Nestor Ekomie (Gabon Télévisions), Fabio Mancini (RAI, Italy), Bekim Hasani (RTK, Kosovo), Nouredden Rakib (SNRT, Morocco), Carlos Maio (RTP, Portugal).
GRAND PRIX URTI: Rebeuss, Room 11
Director: Mame Woury Thioubou - 49 min
Senegal - Wido - Soubalo Media Group (Smg)
On the night of Tuesday 27 August 2019, Cheikh Ndiaye, aged 18, and Babacar Mané, aged 19, died in the central prison of Rebeuss in Dakar.
This film questions the Senegalese prison system. Cheikh and Babacar are dead, but thousands of their fellow citizens continue to serve their sentences in undignified conditions. Rebeuss, Room 11 mixes documentary and animation to raise the debate and provoke a reaction from the authorities to these recurrent situations of human rights violations.
Silver Medal: Don’t come back
Directors: Chiara Avesani & Matteo Delbò - 66 min
Italy, France, Spain, Iraq - RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana Yuzu Productions (France), INDYCA (Italy)
2018. Soon after the demise of ISIS in Northern Iraq, Ghadeer, a young Iraqi journalist comes back from exile in Europe to create with his friends an independent radio station in Mosul. For them, it is the way of participating in their country’s rebirth. Radio One FM shall be the voice of a new generation, one of inclusion, dreaming of a peaceful future. As time passes, Mosul remains in ruins while the rest of the country descends once again into spirals of corruption and violence. Their dream is under threat.
Bronze Medal (ex aequo): Revisiting Home
Director: Jin-hee Kim - 49 min
South Korea - KBS 1TV - Korean Broadcasting System
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement in Korea and the 40th anniversary of the special live broadcast of KBS 'Finding Dispersed Families'. We covered the painful history and special homecoming of the first generation of separated families that were forgotten and disappearing.
The painful history of displaced people who have waited 73 years without knowing the fate of their separated families.
Bronze Medal (ex aequo): School of Hope
Director: Mohamed El Aboudi - 78 min
Finland, Morocco - APIMED - Illume Films, Bellota, La Prod YLE, France Télévisions & Soread 2M
In the vast expanse of desert East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end. Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground.
Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a "school of hope" built of clay.
Martine Filippi Prize for Discovery: Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife
Director: Kannan Arunasalam - 20 min
Sri Lanka - Al Jazeera English - Retold World
The Tamil Tigers surrendered to government forces at the close of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009. Ananthy’s husband, EIilan, was one of them. He was never seen again.
After more than 10 years of searching for him, Ananthy decides to run in parliamentary elections on a platform of accountability for war crimes.
She makes a plea at the UN and pushes for an international tribunal. But answers remain elusive. Ananthy stands fearless in her bid to find out what happened to her husband and thousands of others who went missing.
Digital Works Award: Rebeuss, Room 11
Director: Mame Woury Thioubou - 49 min
Senegal - Wido - Soubalo Media Group (Smg)
➔Discovery Mention: From Waste to Work
Director: Patrice Kiny Bashimbe - 9 min
Burundi - Institut Français du Burundi
I said to myself: if nothing is done to at least raise people's awareness to protect our planet, then our future is very bleak.
From Waste to Work is a documentary filmed in Bujumbura, showing Jules, a young man over 30 years old, and Franck, a very young boy who is at risk of dropping out of school due to lack of money.
These two are involved in the collection and transformation of plastic waste to produce paving stones and decorative objects.
➔Special Mention: Smouldering. The Tree of Life
Director: Nadiia Mykolaienko - 32 min
Ukraine - Suspilne Kultura (JSC "UA: PBC"
After 24 February, 2022, the mosaics, along with hundreds of thousands of Mariupol residents, became hostages of the occupation forces of the Russian Federation. The documentary film Smouldering. The Tree of Life transfers us to a peaceful Mariupol of December 2021.
Together with Stanislav we explore the city and its mosaics, being transported to the place where the time and the power of n ature seemed to be the greatest threats.
