Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian’s FIG TREE awarded the TIFF Eurimages’ Audentia Award.
Official announcement below.
Please scroll down for film details.
To request a link for review and/or to schedule an interview with director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian, please contact: Denise Sinelov at denise@requiredviewing.net.
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EURIMAGES’ AUDENTIA AWARD
The Festival and the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund present the third Audentia Award for Best Female Director, selected by the jury comprised of Anne Frank, Reinaldo Marcus Green, and Kerri Craddock. The award goes to Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian's Fig Tree.
“Fig Tree is a stunning and illuminating debut,” the jury remarked. “Based on her own experiences, Ethiopian-Israeli writer-director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian takes us on an unsentimental journey and shows us the tragic effects of civil war on ordinary people. Confidently directed with grit and compassion, Fig Tree is a beautifully rendered, big-hearted story about a Jewish teenage girl’s attempt to save those she loves, but it’s also an intimate coming-of-age story of self-discovery and female empowerment.” This award carries a €30,000 cash prize.
Awarding an honourable mention to Camilla Strøm Henriksen’s Phoenix, the jury said: “Phoenix is a courageous debut from Norwegian director Camilla Strøm Henriksen. A visually arresting and emotionally nuanced film, Phoenix focuses on a young teen who assumes an enormous burden of responsibility in the face of her mother’s mental illness and her father’s absence. With a seamless blend of stark realism and cinematic magic realism, Henriksen’s story subtly, yet powerfully, unfolds from the perspective of her mature young protagonist.”
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FIG TREE
A film by Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian
Winner, TIFF Eurimages’ Audentia Award
WORLD PREMIERE – Contemporary World Cinema
93min – Israel-Germany-France-Ethiopia / In Amharic and Hebrew with English subtitiles
Writer/Director: Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian
Producers: Naomi Levari, Saar Yogev
Cast: Betalehem Asmamawe, Weyenshiet Belachew, Mareta Getachew
Sales Agent: Films Boutique
Synopsis: 14 year old Jewish Mina, is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli. But in times of war, plans tend to go wrong. Davidian’s coming of age film debut film is based on her childhood memories of a civil-war-torn Ethiopia.
THE GREAT DARKENED DAYS
Directed by Maxime Giroux
WORLD PREMIERE– Contemporary World Cinema
95min – Canada / In French and English with English subtitles
Directed by: Maxime Giroux
Screenplay by: Simon Beaulieu, Maxime Giroux, Alexandre Laferrière
Producers: Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant
Cast: Martin Dubreuil, Romain Duris, Sarah Gadon, Reda Kateb, Soko, Luzer Twersky, Buddy Duress
Sales Agent: Seville International
Synopsis: While a world war rages, Philippe, a draft-dodger from Quebec, takes refuge in the American West, surviving by competing in Charlie Chaplin impersonation contests. As Philippe makes his long journey home, he encounters various characters under the sway of a destructive madness borne of the chaotic times. His voyage, both violent and fascinating, is a hallucinatory initiation to the darker side of the American dream.
THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF CELESTE GARCIA
A film by Arturo Infante
WORLD PREMIERE – Discovery
92min – Cuba / In Spanish with English subtitles
Writer/director: Arturo Infante
Producers: Claudia Calviño & Ernst Fassbender
Cast: Maria Isabel Díaz, Omar Franco, Néstor Jiménez: Hector Francisco, Yerlin Pérez, Tamara Castellanos, Verónica Díaz Viera, Andrea Doimeadios, Reinier Díaz, Daysi Quintana, Beatriz Viñas, Roberto Espinosa
Sales Agent: The Match Factory
Synopsis: If you were invited to visit another planet…would you go? Celeste García is a 60-year-old Cuban who lives in present-day Havana, where hopes of a brighter future have abandoned her. Her monotonous life as a guide at the local planetarium is turned upside down when friendly aliens invite citizens from all over the world to travel to their mysterious planet “Gryok”. Celeste is one of the chosen few to be invited and, to everyone‘s disbelief, she decides to embark on this extraordinary journey. But how many light-years would you travel to find happiness?
HER JOB
A film by Nikos Labôt
WORLD PREMIERE – Discovery
89min – Greece / In Greek with English subtitles
Writer/Director: Nikos Labôt
Producers: Maria Drandaki, Julie Paratian
Cast: Marisha Triantafyllidou, Dimitris Imellos
Sales Agent: Jour2Fête
Synopsis: Panayiota, a 37-year-old illiterate housewife, leads a quiet life with her husband and their children in a modest neighbourhood in Athens, Greece. To cope with the recession that has been affecting her family for some time, Panayiota for the first time in her life, finds a job as a cleaner in a shopping mall. Despite the ruthlessness of her work-environment, Panayiota breaks free from domestic monotony and gradually gains the respect she never had from her family. When a series of layoffs starts, she will have to face again her personal dead ends. But Panayiota cannot be the same anymore.
TIFF 2022: September 8–18
