The jury justified their choice by emphasising that “Anton’s Right Here” aptly depicts a multi-layered reality and complex social dynamism without misleading the audience in the process. “It is a subtle commentary to a dysfunctional public health care system portrayed in the story of an autistic teenager who has just lost his mother and faces a grim future. The director breaks with the tradition of documentary film-making and decides to actively influence the course of the documented events, winning the hearts and souls of the public. Not often can we witness the sheer camera’s power to change reality, in this case both the life of the autistic boy and the bond between him and his father.”
The other film commended by the jury was Ilian Metev’s “Sofia’s Last Ambulance”. Using the means of a classic observation documentary, Metev enraptured the jury with his simple and clear concept developed into a fluid and dramatically engaging masterpiece story. Focusing almost exclusively on the interior of an ambulance vehicle, the director (and, at the same time, the cinematographer) succeeded in making a suggestive account of everything that was happening on the outside. Metev’s documentary is a true paean to people who simply do their jobs the best they can heedless of fatigue, equipment problems and bureaucracy.
