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A special international jury consisting of victims
of violence and repression selected the winner of the special Rudolf Vrba
Award from the "Ecce Homo" section, which included films on
unknown heroes of our time who have shown outstanding courage and dignity
in opposing violence, injustice and repression. Jury members: Doan Viet
Hoat (Vietnam), Kurdo Baksi (Sweden/Kurdistan), Bo Kyi (Burma)
| Rudolf Vrba was born in 1924 in Topočany, Slovakia as Walter
Rosenberg. At the age of 18 he was arrested and detained for two years
in the Maidanek and Auschwitz concentration camps. In April 1944 he
escaped from Auschwitz together with another prisoner, Alfred Weltzer,
a fellow Slovak. After escaping to freedom but while still in hiding,
they wrote a report that became one of the most significant documents
of the 20th century. Their report was the first to furnish detailed
evidence of the numbers of people murdered in Maidanek and Auschwitz,
and about the methods the Nazis used to kill them. The writers had
two main objectives: to get their report as soon as possible to the
Allies, and to representatives of the Hungarian Jewish community who
were threatened with immediate extermination, but they failed on both
counts due to forces beyond their control. |
THE DIPLOMAT, Tom Zubricki, Australia,
For 24 years in exile, Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta campaigned to secure
independence for his island nation of East Timor. The documentary picks
up Ramos-Horta's story in the final dramatic stages of his long journey
home.
The Diplomat is an excellent documentary with humor in it, but also with
moments when I found myself not far from crying. The film follows the
story of Ramos-Horta, who fought for 24 years for independence of his
country. For all those years he only got bad news but he never gave up
and kept on fighting. He is always smiling and never loses his optimism.
The film-makers did a wonderful job using archival footage in a very authentic
way. What can we, the people of Kurdistan, Tibet, Vietnam, Burma and many
other regions which still strive for freedom and democracy learn by watching
this film? It brings us the important message that we must endure in our
efforts, but by preserving respect for peace and human rights. (Kurdo
Baksi)
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