The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, revealed in Strasbourg on Wednesday the name of the winning film. This is "Woman at war" by Icelandic Benedikt Erlingsson.
Benedikt Erlingsson's baroque film has just been awarded the prize for European cinema, the "Lux prize" , on Wednesday by MEPs. Antonio Tajani, president of the institution, announced it at 12.00 at a ceremony at the plenary session this week in Strasbourg.
"Woman at war" , an Icelandic-French-Ukrainian production, was released in France in July. This is a film that tells the story of a 50-year-old fan of ecological terrorism. Benedikt Erlingsson's first feature film, Horses and Men , received the New Directors Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in 2013 and has been awarded more than 20 international awards.
"This film reminds us of the real consequences of climate change," said Antonio Tajani, Italian President of the European Parliament.
The story: Halla, fifty and choir leader, could be considered an exemplary citizen. But she declared war on an aluminum factory that pollutes her environment and starts sabotage ecological while it is announced that she will finally get the adoption of a young Ukrainian. What she has been dreaming of for so long.
The Lux Prize has been awarded by the European Parliament since 2007 to support the distribution and dissemination of European films in all 28 Member States of the Union. "The cultural industry is a very important economic source , " said Antonio Tajani.
The other two finalist films, "Styx" by Wolgang Fischer and "The other side of everyting" by Mila Turajlić, will also be subtitled in the 24 official languages of the European Union and will be screened in all Member States this autumn. These two films had not yet been distributed in France until then.
A prize to bring Europeans closer
The award provides financial support for the film to be adapted for the visually and hearing impaired and promoted internationally.
In 2017, the film Samiblod ( Sang Sami ) won the Lux Prize. This Nordic coproduction focused on the Sami community in Lapland, northern Finland. This is the subject of several types of discrimination.
In 2009, Philippe Lioret's "Welcome" film was awarded. Vincent Lindon interpreted the role of a lifeguard who helps a young Kurdish refugee. This film thus addresses the subject of civil disobedience
The Lux Prize of the European Parliament is awarded once a year. The selected films must "help to diffuse different opinions on some of the main social and political issues of the moment and, therefore, to create a stronger European identity" , it is written on the website dedicated to the prize.