Awards

For confronting the unimaginable in a pure and restrained way.

For its dramatic denunciation of the use of individual and collective pathology as a political instrument to annihilate a society.

There have already been many films made about genocide, but until now none have ever shown us the perpetrators of these horrors in such close proximity. The horror is expressed through physical and verbal reenaction, helping us to approach that which can never be understood: that ordinary people could become machines, killing without emotion or conscience. All these elements contribute to the creation of a truly educational film about "ordinary executioners," and their involvement in mass exterminations.

Among other outstanding works of the highest quality the jury has unanimously decided to give the main award to the film that brings together victims and perpetrators of the genocide in Cambodia. This drama like situation questions most profoundly the roots of violence and evil. The jury was impressed by the commitment, persistency and discipline by which the filmmaker and participants forced themselves to go through the painful process of reconstruction of horrors that the human beings are capable of doing. The jury finds the film extremely powerful, disturbing, courageous and masterfully directed.

Second Place; tied with Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002) and The Village (2004)