THE LAST PEASANTS (UNITED KINGDOM)
PRIX EUROPA IRIS INTERCULTURAL TELEVISION PROGRAMME OF THE YEAR 2003 TV NON-FICTION
Entered by: October Films, United Kingdom;
Author/director: Angus Macqueen
Camera: Roger Chapman
Producer: Angus Macqueen
First broadcast by: Channel 4, UK
A trilogy about the villagers of Budesti in Northern Romania, who live in a medieval world of waterdriven treshing machines and mills. Part 1 "Tempation": Every family of Budesti has an illegal immigrant abroad. Tempation follows two families ripped apart by the lure of the west and obsrves the death of a centuries old way of life. Part 2 "The Journey" follows the attempts of Ion Damian to join his brother in Dublin. Driven by the desire to provide for his children and wife, he starts a five hour journey under a train. Part three "A good wife", shows the struggle of two families with the effects of illegal immigration to Western Europe. It brings money but also undermines a centuries old way of life.
Jury Laudatio:
'A powerful trilogy about profound changes of European living conditions: how peasants from traditional communities in the east are drifting to hardship and illegality in the cities of the west. A colourful panorama of the maelstrom of modernization, the way that make Europe go around.'
PRIX Europa IRIS 2003 TV Non Ficton Special Commendation
Might is right
Original title: La raison du plus fort
Entered by: ARTE France
Author/director: Patric Jean
Camera: Patric Jean
Producer: Lapsus
First broadcast by: ARTE
Instead of fighting poverty, we fight the poor. Following the American example, Europe is divided between its rich residential quearters and its poverty ridden suburbs where "zero tolerance" is becoming the rule. We build a prison where we close a factory. The poor in general and the young of immigrant families in particular focalize all fears. By passing through the looking glass and shattering taboos, the film shows them in all their humanity, in a prison cell, the dock of a courtroom, or the basement of a housing project, with all their feelings, desires, fears and despair. Far from the image of European democracy in which everybody has a chance, the film takes to witness France and Belgium, taking a hard look at a sometimes sordid society, our own. 'What strange times! What are we doing? Have we lost our reason?
Jury laudatio:
"A somber philosophical essay about migrant youngsters in French suburbs - their feelings of being outcast, their clashes with police, their conflicts in courts and prisons. An outstanding film with execellent camera work and rarely filmed scenes of social injustice"
