It’s like an initiation ritual. Every year 25,000 Israeli pupils and students go on a trip to Poland, visiting four concentration camps, three mass graves and two ghettos in seven days. It’s a journey to the dead, their roots, and themselves: as Jews and citizens of Israel. They document everything on their smartphones: hotel rooms, barracks, shooting ranges, themselves, their friends. The material shared on YouTube is the basis of this film – and it’s revealing. The two Israeli directors Sagi Bornstein and Udi Nir set contemporary recordings against videotapes from the 1980s. How will the memory change when there are no more contemporary witnesses? What can the crumbling sites still reveal? When will the rituals become hollow?

The Holocaust is the narrative of Israel, the constituent element of the state, even more than Zionism. That’s what the young people are taught to believe. The concept is historical imagination and immersion. They are supposed to feel the squeeze of the cattle wagons, the hardness of the narrow pallets and the oppression of the gas chambers. Horror 2.0. The video material also shows, however, how much smarter the young people are. There are no stupid questions, documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophüls once said, only stupid answers.

Cornelia Klauß

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Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award

Eleven years ago Austrian Sign Language was constitutionally recognised as an “independent language”. But the country still has a long way to go to a barrier-free and thus inclusive life for the deaf. That goes for a simple visit to the doctor’s as well as for attending school.

“Seeing Voices” shows a world that’s often invisible to those who can hear – if only because there’s more sign than spoken language in this film. Intense images, informative and entertaining, make us sensible of different situations in life for which the deaf must develop special communication strategies. How do you communicate at a dancing class? What role does the hearing child of a deaf couple play? And what does the life of a deaf politician look like? One of the most memorable narrative strands follows a professional orientation class for the deaf and later shows one of the participants at a practical course in a tailor’s shop. Fear and the shame at not always being able to communicate are clearly mingled with enjoyment of the thing itself and a very special sense of humour. The film shows very clearly how important the formation of an identity is for these young people, in addition to learning professional skills. Sign language is the key to this. It’s worth paying attention to. Especially as a visual experience on screen.

Lars Meyer

The Alps. Nowadays there’s hardly a mountain left untouched. We have long conquered the lofty peaks and developed even the high mountain ranges as recreational landscapes. The fact that there is practically no limit to exploiting the Alps should not be taken for granted: The whole region is covered by a nearly invisible safety system. Well-camouflaged protective precautions against falling rocks and avalanches are there to ensure accessibility and habitability without fear. On the other hand, concrete fortifications around isolated farms or sculptural curved walls on the slopes to secure a whole village look conspicuous and almost surreal.

“Safety123” captures these constructions and the work that’s usually done in the background in breathtaking images. Quiet sequences show impressively how many-layered this safety system is: The landscape is ceaselessly surveyed and emergencies are simulated, whether in computer models, test facilities or large-scale disaster exercises. This observational documentary attentively follows the sometimes mysterious-looking activities and preparations to portray the human struggle against the forces of nature which are unstoppable despite precision technology.

Annina Wettstein

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Awarded with a Golden Dove in the Next Masters Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film.