Ukraine's 'Stepne' wins the Trieste Film Festival Award

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 29 GEN - Maryna Vroda's film "Stepne" won the Trieste Award at the 35th edition of the Trieste Film Festival, focusing on Central-Eastern European cinema. Set in Ukraine, the film tells the story of Anatoliy, a man who returns home to care for his mother. What convinced the jury, composed of Anca Puiu, Ivan Salatić, and Lenka Tyrpáková, was "the melancholic representation of the life of a disappearing country, of pain and vanished hopes, rendered at the same time with sweetness and authenticity." The event, which ended yesterday evening after nine days of screenings, was organized by the Alpe Adria Cinema association and included meetings, book presentations, workshops, social events, and guided tours.
    The Alpe Adria Cinema award, given by the jury composed of Graziella Bildesheim, Dmitrij Gluščevskij, Vladan Petković, goes to 1489 by Shoghakat Vardanyan, a documentary focusing on the disappearance of Soghomon Vardanyan, 21 years old, who was about to complete his compulsory military service when the Nagorno-Karabakh war broke out, in 2020. Her sister Shoghakat decided to film the research carried out by her and her parents with her phone: a job that, for the jury, "is a no-frills and raw punch in the stomach." "Land of Mountains" by Olga Kosanović - a short film about the life of a Serbian father who immigrated to Austria and his little daughter - was awarded the Tsff Shortsva for its "incisiveness and sensitivity," explained by the jury (Sarah Pennacchi, Ilija Tatić, Anne-Sophie Vanhollebeke).
    Among other awards, the Corso Salani Award 2024 goes to Lala by Ludovica Fales; the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa to the documentary "Between Revolutions" by Vlad Petri; Cineuropa to "Without Air" by Katalin Moldovai; the Youth Area Project Jury of the Municipality of Trieste to "The sea in between" by Lun Sevnik. (ANSA).