Turkish documentary ‘North’, directed by Cayan Demirel and Ertugrul Mavioglu is the winner of the 17th Mediterranean Film Festival. The best from the category of short documentaries is French film ‘The Reflection of power’, directed by Mihai Grecu, while the Audience award went to 'Houston, we have a problem!', directed by Žiga Virc.

Members of the jury for feature documentary competition Nikica Gilić, Gaby Babić and Christoph Thoke chose the Turkish film ‘North’, with the explanation that the depiction of political, military and cultural tendencies in Turkey, i.e. fights and views of the world of Kurd soldiers leave the impression on the viewers of a rich and inspiring world hidden from the world public, and at the same time asking some questions.

'Women and men in front of the camera are talking about their struggle, demonstrate a fascinating way of life and intriguing thinking and are becoming a part of a complex structure that can inspire new opinions and discussions wider than the subject of this film is. Depiction of political, military and cultural tendencies in Turkey, i.e. fights and views of the world of Kurd soldiers leave the impression on the viewers of a rich and inspiring world hidden from the world public, and at the same time asking some questions. These are not only the questions that the protagonists and authors of the film ask themselves, but also unexpected questions about the current world, social relations and life in the Mediterranean region. This is a very important and strong film, and we hope of a great influence’, stated the jury in the explanation.

The jury also awarded a special mention to the film ‘Geographies’, directed by Chaghig Arzoumanian from Lebanon for a rich approach to the visual illustration of the author’s words, a fascinating depiction of a possibility of relationship to history and poetical, personal vision of one of the  neglected historical narrations. One more special mention in the category of feature documentaries goes to Spanish film ‘On Football’, directed by Sergio Oksman, for in terms of structure, a very mindful, minimalist powerful style that discards usual pictures of family and other relationships, suggesting a strong anxiety and a deeper insight of human records.

Members of the jury for short documentary competition Amra Bakšic Čamo, Tina Bernik i Zoran GaliĆ chose the film ‘The Reflection of Power’, directed by Mihai Grecu from France for the best short film, saying that ‘In a world where control is everything, this film gives a beautiful portrayal how search for security in completely predefined and governed lives that absolve from making own choices, to the point where even the most basic instincts for survival are quenched, leads inevitably to collapse and oblivion on the pages of history.’’

A special mention of the jury goes to the documentary ‘Protrait of a Wind up Maker’, directed by Dario Perez from Spain.

‘Small film with a big soul, accompanied with minimalist, but strong music score, inventively introduces the delicate work of a wind-up maker through digital animation with a lot of attention to details that enables us to see in to the heart of his work from unique and fresh perspective’, said the jury in the explanation.

The jury in this category has also awarded a special mention to the film ‘All Rights Reserved’, directed by Anael Resnick and Laila Bettermann from Israel for which they said that ‘through the visuals and emotions entangled with memories this short film presents complicated and troublesome history and present as a simple doll house game.'

Besides the ceremony of awarding the MFF projectors and announcing the winners the last day of the 17th Mediterranean Film Festival was marked by the screening of Croatian feature film ‘Life is a Trumpet’, directed by Antonio Nuić. At this year’s Mediterranean Film Festival, that took place from 24 to 27 August in Široki Brijeg, there were 22 films in the competition program screened, six short documentaries within the MFF Retrospective program and animated films for children within the MFF Fora program.

Two feature films were screened in the open air cinema in the centre of Široki Brijeg in cooperation with the Operation Cinema, whereas the cooperation with movie network HBO brought the awarded documentary ‘Chuck Norris vs. Communism’. The documentary 'Meet the Patels' was screened within the ‘American Film Showcase’ program that was enabled in cooperation with the US Embassy in B&H.