We have a Goethe Documentary Film Prize winner 2018! Sebastian Schultz, Noni Lickleder and myself decided on a winning film at Europe's second largest documentary film festival, DOK Leipzig, with this jury statement:
The Goethe-Institut Documentary Prize is awarded to EXIT by Karen Winther (trailer).
As a former left-wing and right-wing radical, Karen Winther is looking for other "formers" who have left extreme ideologies behind, in order to find out how they deal with their violent past.
On her journey through Europe and America, the director shows us the far-reaching consequences of such a decision.
It is impressive how Winther depicts the long way from de-radicalization to re-humanization.
This begins with self-realization and taking responsibility, but it also needs external support to continue on this path.
A film that opens the door to an uncomfortable in-between space.
The prize is awarded to a recent feature-length German documentary film from the German or International Competition at the festival, this year one out of 19.
First presented in 2003, the award comes with Euro 2,000 prize money. The Goethe-Institut also acquires the rights to the film and arranges the subtitling in eight languages so that it can be shown at the over 150 Goethe-Instituts throughout the world. Artistic criteria are as important in the decision-making as the winning film's relevance for the current German socio-political discourse, but also the degree to which it transcends its culture of origin and facilitates a global conversation.
We hope that many audiences around the world will see EXIT and discuss how individuals and societies can face and end extremism of all stripes.
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
