Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi‘s “My Stolen Planet,” an intimate household portrait of life throughout Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, received the Golden Alexander on the Thessaloniki Documentary Pageant on Sunday, bringing a near an emotional and politically charged week in Greece’s second metropolis.

Utilizing each the director’s private archives and 8mm recordings of strangers’ lives, the movie — which world premiered within the Berlin Movie Pageant’s Panorama strand — makes use of an essayistic fashion to current the enjoyment and vitality of life in Tehran within the Nineteen Seventies, in distinction with the oppression imposed on the Iranian individuals by the nation’s hardline regime.

The Silver Alexander award went to Lidia Duda’s documentary “Forest,” which premiered in Thessaloniki. The movie focuses on a Polish household residing subsequent to the oldest forest in Europe, making an attempt to create a secure haven for his or her kids, till they start to note refugees stranded within the wilderness, unwelcome each in Poland and neighboring Belarus.

A Jury Particular Point out went to “Stray Our bodies,” from Greek filmmaker Elina Psykou, which sparked a firestorm of protest in Greece forward of its premiere. The movie follows the lengths that girls in Europe should go to entry medical procedures which might be outlawed in their very own international locations.

The ceremony introduced a near a turbulent week in Thessaloniki, one yr after a lethal rail accident that claimed 57 lives additionally rattled the Greek doc fest. This yr’s version started with protesters disrupting the pageant’s opening evening to name for an finish to Israel’s battle in Gaza. These calls had been repeated at dozens of screenings and business occasions all through the week, with many filmmakers additionally gathering for a vigil to honor the greater than 30,000 Palestinians who’ve died because the battle started.

Festivalgoers had been additionally galvanized by a horrific assault towards a transgender couple on March 11, surprising attendees at an occasion that had a tribute to queer cinema as its point of interest. The incident, by which a mob of near 200 black-clad youths cursed, spat and threw bottles on the younger couple within the metropolis’s historic Aristotelous Sq., sparked a protest that drew 1000’s into the streets of Thessaloniki.

Pageant management and most of the filmmakers in attendance stood in solidarity with the victims and highlighted the continued threats to Greece’s queer neighborhood, even because the nation final month grew to become the primary Orthodox Christian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Accepting an honorary Golden Alexander award this week, Greek filmmaker Panayotis Evangelidis — whose work has lengthy centered on the visibility of the queer neighborhood — praised the progress his nation had made within the battle for LGBTQ rights, whereas additionally lamenting final weekend’s transphobic assault, insisting that “actuality requires us to take a stand earlier than evil knocks on our personal door.”

In the meantime, a separate controversy erupted amid protests from far-right teams over Psykou’s “Stray Our bodies,” whose provocative poster — which encompasses a bare-breasted pregnant girl nailed to a cross — was branded “blasphemous” by church officers and right-wing politicians in Greece. After threats to disrupt the movie’s premiere, Thessaloniki officers banned all protests and deployed riot police outdoors the Olympion theater on opening evening.

The premiere went off with out a hitch, and an emotional Psykou was greeted with a prolonged and rousing ovation. The controversy surrounding the movie, nonetheless, continued to rage on. Amid requires the pageant to ban shows of the film’s poster, which one Orthodox chief known as “deeply offensive to the spiritual emotions of town’s Christians,” pageant normal director Elise Jalladeau penned a passionate response, defending an outline that she stated was “pushed by the creator’s want to report the agonies of people that undergo as a result of their freedom is restricted.”

“As a girl, mom and employee, I see with concern that the world, within the yr 2024, appears to be going backwards,” Jalladeau wrote. “Violence, assaults towards ladies, femicides are continuously growing. Assaults on the weak and totally different are additionally growing. Simply yesterday in Aristotelous Sq., a stone’s throw from our pageant headquarters, we noticed with horror and indignation an immoral and violent assault towards two transgender individuals, who had been saved purely by luck. Authoritarian regimes that restrict freedom, violate fundamental human rights and problem the idea of democracy are additionally on the rise.

“Democracy is a superb establishment that invitations us to coexist with individuals who could have totally different views than ours,” she continued. “If these opinions don’t preach hatred and don’t name for unlawful acts, if they don’t threaten the elemental ideas of freedom and democracy and if they don’t violate current legal guidelines, then we should take heed to them within the context of a society of acceptance and love.”

Listed here are the principle winners of the twenty sixth Thessaloniki Documentary Pageant:

Worldwide Competitors Awards

Golden Alexander: “My Stolen Planet,” by Farahnaz Sharifi
Silver Alexander: “Forest,” by Lidia Duda
Jury Particular Point out: “Stray Our bodies,” by Elina Psykou

Newcomers Competitors Awards

Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” Award: “Glass, My Unfulfilled Life,” by Rogier Kappers
Silver Alexander: “Preventing Demons With Dragons,” by Camilla Magid
Jury Particular Point out: “Tack,” by Vania Turner

Movie Ahead Competitors Awards

Golden Alexander: “Reas,” by Lola Arias
Silver Alexander: “Need Traces,” by Jules Rosskam
Jury Particular Point out: “Avant-Drag!,” by Fil Ieropoulos

FIPRESCI Awards

Finest Documentary within the Worldwide Program: “My Stolen Planet,” by Farahnaz Sharifi
Finest Greek Documentary within the Official Choice: “Tack,” by Vania Turner