“THE TOWN THAT DROVE AWAY” AWARDED AT VISIONS DU RÉEL
The documentary by Grzegorz Piekarski and Natalia Pietsch has been awarded the Special Youth Jury Award for a Medium Length Film.
Visions du Reél has been organised in the Swiss city of Nyon since 1969. In its early days, it mainly featured Swiss films and productions from the Eastern Bloc, as they were very difficult for Western European audiences to see. Today, Visions du Reél is one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe.
Grzegorz Piekarski and Natalia Pietsch’s The Town That Drove Away centres on Kurds living in the historic village of Hasankeyf who are forced to relocate due to the planned construction of a dam. The stark beauty of Anatolian landscapes surrounds demolished neighbourhoods, which become the stage for a political game that demands obedience and submission. When everything disappears, only a bitter and unsettling sense of dignity remains.
You can find the full list of all winning films here.