Nine razor-sharp international documentary films will be competing for the HUMAN Rights Human Wrongs Film Award and 30 000 NOK.

We are proud to present the nine strong documentaries competing for the HUMAN Rights Human Wrongs Film Award and 30 000 NOK, given by Amnesty International Norway and The Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

The nine films are all addressing human rights issues in different ways, from the battle against corruption of politicians and companies, to labor camps and refugee camps, student uprisings and rising seas . China, Austria, Indonesia, and Spain are only some of the countries these hard-hitting documentaries takes us to.

-These are films that move, engage and have interesting perspectives on the fight for justice from different corners of the world. You’ll learn how the president of Kiribati is trying to find new land for his people as his islands are set to disappear, how women all over the world are trying to seize control over their own bodies and sexuality, what happens behind closed doors in a tribunal for war crimes, and why South Africa is one of the least equal countries in the world, says head of programming Silje Poulsen Viki.

We frequently hear that human rights are threatened, but at the same time we should focus on all those who fight for those rights, which we all share regardless of who we are, and where we come from.

We hope the films in this program will inspire you!

The International Competition Program

Anote´s Ark

2018 / Canada / Dir: Matthieu Rytz / 77 min

How do you save a people from the first Atlantis of our time?

Some claim that the problem with creating popular involvement with the issue of climate change is that it is so abstract. For the inhabitants of the small island nation of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, it is as concrete as it gets: the waves are washing away their living room floors. The rising of the ocean is already so serious that the inhabitants are aknowledging that there is no hope, by the end of this century, Kiribati will be under water.

Anote’s ark is an astonishingly beautiful, award-winning documentary which follows the president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, in his tireless fight to warn world leaders that Kiribati is just the beginning of a global catastrophe, and to find a solution for his people.

#Female Pleasure

2018 / Switzerland, Germany / Dir: Barbara Miller / 97 min

Five women challenging society’s control over female sexuality.

Japan, India, England, USA, Italy: The five women we meet come from different parts of the world, with different religions, but fight for the same cause: Women’s right to own their own body and sexuality.

The documentary shows us the connections between female genital mutilation in Somalia to illegal vagina art in Japan, that the structures who suppress and oppress women is global, thus making the fight against them global. An upsetting and engaging reminder of how much remains in the fight for women’s rights.

Grit

2018 / USA / Dir: Cynthia Wade, Sasha Friedlander / 80 min

A devastating mud tsunami caused by greed and corruption.

A visually stunning story about the Indonesian disaster that hit when an underground volcano of boiling mud exploded and swallowed 16 villages. 12 years later, almost 60 000 people who lost their homes are still waiting for reparations from the mining company Lapindo, who caused the eruption through irresponsible drilling.

For six years the filmmakers follow young Dian through a political awakening, when she engages in the fight against corrupt politicians’ and greedy companies’ exploitation of the land and its people. A provoking documentation of ruthlessness, but also a portrait of willpower and resistance, set in an almost post-apocalyptic landscape of mud.

Letter from Masanjia

2018/ Canada / Dir: Leon Lee / 76 min

A letter that turned life upside down for a persecuted Chinese and an unsuspecting American.

The premise could be from a fiction: An American woman finds a letter in Halloween decorations made in China, written by a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp, asking for help. The letter causes headlines across the globe, and finds its way back to the man who wrote it, a persecuted practicioner of Falun Gong.

What will happen when Chinese authorities finds out that it is him who caused the attention of the world media to focus on the persecution and torture of innocent Chinese?

The Silence of Others

2018 / Spain, USA / Dir: Robert Bahar, Almudena Carracedo / 96 min

The hour of reckoning for the suppression of Franco’s Spain.

A shocking history about how the lack of justice after the dictatorship of Franco’s regime in Spain has forced hundreds of thousands of victims and their families to stay silent about their suffering, even today.

A turning point came in 2010, when a group of courageous survivors and their families circumvented the Spanish justice system, with aid from an Argentinian court, where they accused former people of power for crimes against humanity. Through six nervewracking years we follow the court and a growing number of plaintiffs who dare to step forward. The documentary is produced by Pedro Almodovar, and has won several awards.

Whispering Truth to Power

2018 / Netherlands, South Africa / Dir: Shameela Seedat / 86 min

The woman who brought down the South African president.

In this political thriller we follow Thuli Madonsela in her final term of office as Public Protector in South Africa, where she has the mandate to investigate and uncover abuse and violations comitted by the State. Fearlessly Madonsela goes after the highest authority of South Africa, president Jacob Zuma, and receives a political storm, and death threaths, in return.

The documentary keeps you at the edge of your seat while you follow this nervewracking David and Goliath story, with the lasting consequences of Apartheid as the backdrop.

The Trial of Ratko Mladic

2018 / Norway, Great Britain / Dir: Henry Singer, Rob Miller / 99 min

The labyrinth of justice in the former Yugoslavia.

A hard-hitting documentary on when the man behind some of the worst crimes of history finally was put on trial in 2012. That was 20 years after Ratko Mladic, the leader of the Bosnian Serb Army, gave the order to the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre in Srebrenica, with the ultimate goal to remove all non-serbs.

The trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia is an opportunity for final reconciliation, and the documentary follows the five year long trial, from both sides. It is an upsetting portrait of his crimes, but also a breathlessly fascinating meeting with the defenders, witnesses and family of Mladic.

Island of The Hungry Ghosts

2018 / Australia, Great Britain, Germany / Dir: Gabrielle Brady / 98 min

Stranded refugees and millions of crabs, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

A dark, disturbing and almost surreal portrayal of life on the remote Christmas Island, where Australia has established an internment camp for asylum seekers. The therapist Poh Lin moved to the island with her family to aid the asylum seekers, and her work is part of a deeply unjust system, which affects Poh profoundly.

There are also 40 million crabs on the island, which each year migrate to the ocean. Large resources are put in place to secure the migration route for the crabs, and makes for a stark contrast to the treatment of the imprisoned humans. The documentary is pure visual poetry with no superfluous words, where the unrest of Pho is underlined by the threatening nature.

Everything Must Fall

2018 / South Africa / Dir: Rehad Desai / 85 min

The fight against the heritage of Apartheid in the South African university system.

The captivating and fast-paced story of the 2015 student upheaval in South Africa. Ever since ANC assumed power in 1994 after Apartheid’s fall, they have promised free education. In reality, the universities have increased the fees so dramatically that it excludes an increasing proportion of the black population.

The documentary tracks the student movement #FeesMustFall, which in 2016 led to the largest violent clashes in South Africa since 1994. The film is a detailed portrayal of the complexity of a popular uprising which continues the fight for equality and justice.