Women are subordinate to men. They are born sinful and have no legal claim to their own body. Misogyny is more than a phenomenon observed across continental divides all over the world and in some cases the cause of abuse and crime. It is structurally inscribed – literally – into the core of all social systems founded on religious beliefs. In the bible, for example, we read: “I find woman more bitter than Death […] The man who is pleasing to God eludes her.”

In this lucid film, which takes a global perspective, five female protagonists talk about misogynistic behaviour they experienced, hostilities they were exposed to, crimes committed against them. Rokudenashiko, a Japanese artist, is on trial for the obscenity of her art. Deborah Feldman escaped with her son from a Hassidic community in Brooklyn, leaving her husband to whom she was forcibly married. Leyla Hussein, Doris Wagner and Vithika Yadav talk about rape and mutilation, lack of legal protection, homophobia, shame and the strange feeling that one’s sexuality and body are associated with sin from birth.

Lukas Stern

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Awarded with the Special Prize of the Interreligious Jury

“The state is like a garden,” says Putin’s old form teacher’s husband, “you have to destroy the weed so that something worthwhile grows.” “We’ll do just that,” the lifetime president-to-be answers almost shyly and leaves his teacher’s flat, which he visited to shoot an advertising clip directed by Vitaly Mansky who, as the country’s leading documentary filmmaker, was allowed to follow and record the campaign. After 18 years of concrete rule by the little man with the strong hands, the long-emigrated director looks back at the fateful year of 2000 and reviews his footage. What he discovers is breathtaking and has the emotionalising power of an almost intimate home video. The Mansky family already dread the new Mao while Yeltsin’s clan is jubilant at first and ex-Tsar Boris even sees his successor Vladimir as the guarantee of real media freedom –later he disgustedly calls the pivotal turn-back “krasnenko” (reddish). Putin himself talks about reasons of state and an autocratic life which he intends to avoid at all costs. Finally, the question whether it was right to reanimate the old Soviet hymn with quasi new lyrics becomes a bone of contention in the duel Putin vs. Mansky. The sad conclusion is that nobody was just a “witness”. Everybody played a part in the many compromises made in hopes of a “better life.”

Barbara Wurm

Parents separate, the children are left with questions and gaps: Dad cheated on Mom, so she threw him out. But didn’t Mom cheat on Dad, too? Life now happens between two homes, between two worlds. After an argument, the mother leaves for a “holiday” that is still going on a year later. It’s never mentioned. Brother and sister end up in a home after they tried to leave their mother. Their father had badmouthed her to them again and again. Taking the children, though, doesn’t cross his mind.

Coping with such experiences makes you grow up early. Surprisingly analytically and eloquently, five children of separated parents talk about their stories, only to turn back into children the next moment. With atmospheric images, sometimes impressionist and experimental, sometimes perfectly lighted like the stars on the big screen they become for a short while, the director manages to transcend the everyday life her protagonists talk about: By now, they probably know where they belong better than all the adults around them. It’s up to them and us to find out what normality means. Best to do it all on their own.

Frederik Lang

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Awarded with the Young Eyes Film Award.