news / Press release
ifs film honoured at the Poitiers Film Festival
»El Mártir« wins the Grand Prix du jury
The ifs graduation film »El Mártir« has been awarded the Grand Prix du jury in the Selection Internationale at the Poitiers Film Festival (29.11. - 06.12.) in France. Director Alejandro Mathé received the prize at the award ceremony on 6 December. The award is endowed with €3,000.
In »El Mártir« (Director: Alejandro Mathé, Screenplay: Alejandro Mathé, Jose Alberto Arias Pereira, Producer: Anna Weber, DoP: Zoe Dumas, Production Design: Luca Wirtz, Editing & Sound Design: Leo Muheim), a young man in the summer heat of a small Andalusian village explores his sexuality through the half-naked figure of Jesus Christ. Elías not only feels aroused by the images of Jesus and the martyrs, he wants to be like them. In order to get closer to God, he begins to develop a masochistic tendency that increasingly dominates his life. The drama was supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
"I'm very grateful that a film like this, which provokes such extreme reactions from audiences, is recognised and seen by an international jury - especially at our French premiere! It was incredible to talk to the audienceabout the film - about why certain art needs to provoke, and about the value of cinema that encourages dialogue. I deeply appreciate this recognition, as a tribute to the work of a team that put their hearts into telling this story,’ says director and writer Alejandro Mathé.
The jury justifies its selection as follows: "It is a film which traces the path of a quest, that of transgressing the boundaries of a body burning with desire...desire as an experience of the absolute... Throughout his production, the filmmaker confronts prosaism and the sublime, work and nature, man and the sacred. [...] It is the film of a believer whose faith in cinema has shocked us... Between Pasolini and Guiraudie the filmmaker traces his own voice so singular and so rare , we wanted to reward Alejandro Mathe for El Martyr with this grand prize".
It was only in November that »El Mártir« was honoured at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Granada in the category Best Granada Cinematography. It was already nominated for the First Steps Award 2023 in the medium-length feature film category and for the Michael Ballhaus Award.
The Poitiers Film Festival goes back to the Rencontres Internationales Henri Langlois festival founded in 1977 and is one of the oldest and most renowned international festivals for film students and works from film schools in France.
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