Every year since 2007, the European Parliament has celebrated European cinema that provokes public debate with the LUX FILM PRIZE. The idea is to draw attention to movies that focus on current social and political issues, to deal with European integration and to bring people together through the medium of cinema.
The three finalists for this year have already been selected. The first is Mustang, The Virgin Suicides from a Turkish perspective. It’s director Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s first feature length film, and deals with five orphaned sisters growing up in a conservative Turkish society. It was screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival to much praise, and (though I’m not entirely sure why) has been selected as France’s 2016 foreign film entry at the Academy Awards.
The second finalist is Meditteranea, an observational, topical Italian film about two African migrants adapting to life in Italy. There’s not a great deal to the plot – other than that the pair encounter hostility, violence and suffering – but Jonas Carpignano paints such a vivid picture of life for the pair, that you’re quickly drawn in.
And thirdly, the Bulgarian-Greek drama Urok (or The Lesson) has been chosen as a finalist. Urok focuses on Nade, a teacher in a small Bulgarian town. Pretty much everything is going wrong in her life, and she’s facing financial ruin thanks to her alcoholic husband, who has squandered the money they used to pay for their mortgage. Margita Gosheva is seldom off-screen as Nade, and she plays the role brilliantly.
This year, the awards ceremony will be held on November 20 in the Monopol Kino in Schwabing. If you fancy catching the films and the prize giving ceremony, you need to register in advance, here. All films are shown in OV with German subtitles.
The ceremony gets underway at 5pm and the whole thing finishes around midnight, though you can just stay for one movie if you so choose. Oh, and entrance is completely free, which is lovely!
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