Two timely and politically-charged films have won the top prizes at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section, the festival’s main sidebar.
Faraz Shariat’s Prosecution, a German drama about a young prosecutor trying to fight far-right violence in eastern Germany, took the Panorama Audience Award for best feature film at this year’s festival. The prize for best documentary in the Panorama section went to Alisa Kovalenko’s Traces, a look at Ukrainian women have survived conflict-related sexual violence and torture during Russia’s war of aggression against their country and who are speaking out.
The Panorama Audience Award are voted on by the Berlin movie-going public. More than 26,500 votes were cast this year.
Chen Emilie Yan stars in Prosecution as Seyo Kim, a young prosecutor confronting far-right violence in eastern Germany who becomes a target of a racist attack. She begins to investigate he own assault, with the goal of bringing her attackers to trial and exposing a wide-ranging far-right network. But her investigations lead her to question the state institutions she has devoted her life to.
Julia Jentsch, Alev Irmak, Arnd Klawitter, and Sebastian Urzendowsky co-star. New Europe Film Sales is handling world sales.
Traces follows Iryna Dovhan, a former captive turned activist who documents testimonies of victims of sexual assault in the de-occupied territories of Ukraine. Telling Iryna’s story, and that of the women she meets, the documentary weaves a portrait of a collective trauma that is also a testament to resilience. Traces is being sold worldwide by Stranger Film Sales.
The Panorama Audience Awards will be presented on Sunday at the Zoo Palast in Berlin by the Berlinale together with Berlin radio station radioeins and regional public broadcaster RBB television. Prosecution and Traces will be screened back-to-back following the ceremony.