Even if the Festival International du Cinema et de laudio-visuel du Burundi (FESTICAB) was interrupted by the countrys security crisis which erupted only after the launch of the film weeklong event, the jury has decided to generally announce the 7th edition winners.
The complete list of winners was published on the festival’s website, and the rare conclusion is that there is no award given to any of East African feature film in which the competing films were:
September by Mark Wambui from Kenya
The Superstition by Paresh Gondaliya & Aaron from Uganda
Daddy’s Wedding by Honeymoon Alodji from Tanzania.
The 4th was Ishimwe Samuel’s Crossing Lines but it was mistakenly put into Feature film category while it’s a short movie.
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After announcing such decision taken by the jury, the East African competition jury president stated that: “The jury decided not to award any feature film because we felt they were not strong enough content-wise and structurally. It is important that awards reflects the excellence we expect from East African filmmakers and the jury feels that by not awarding any film a statement is being made towards pushing the region’s filmmakers towards greater script development and directing. It is not enough to have beautiful images without a good narrative, performances and technical capacity"
The single Rwandan film out of 5 selected in the festival scooped the award, and that’s Ishimwe Samuel’s Crossing Lines which tells the story of Kayihura, a Genocide survivor who lives in darkness, and only finds refuge in drugs. When a strange man who tried to kill himself enters his life, he finds the true color of light.
Mutiganda Janvier
Kin
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