“Der Imker” wins in Munich

The Swiss documentary film “Der Imker” won the Grand Prix of the “DOK.deutsch” Competition over nine other films at the 28^th Munich International Documentary Film Festival (May 8-15, 2013). This festival section screens works whose primary thematic and geographic focus is on German-speaking countries; the award is sponsored by the Bayerischen Rundfunk and endowed with EUR 5,000. The screenings of Khalil’s film attracted a great deal of interest in the capital city of Bavaria: not only were they sold out, the audience also participated actively.

Inspiration from bees
The film also won over the jury: “The director, Mano Khalil, never loses sight of his hero’s great capacity for emotion. On the contrary, it becomes the central motif of this highly humanitarian and humanistic documentary film, in which we learn, incidentally, that bees don’t just provide honey but also inspiration.” Mano Khalil (“Unser Garten Eden”) portrays the Kurdish beekeeper Ibrahim Gezer who had lost everything in the turmoil of the Turkish-Kurdish war and is able find his way back to his passion for bees in Switzerland thanks his unwavering trust in individual human beings.
The film’s theatrical release in German-speaking Switzerland is scheduled for June.

Creative documentary works for festival audience
The DOK.fest is a ”festival of the festivals” for the Munich audience, with an emphasis on the promotion of creative documentary films. Together with the Leipzig Festival and the “Duisburger Filmwoche,” it ranks among the most important festivals in German-speaking countries for international documentary film productions. Eleven Swiss film productions were invited to this year’s festival in Munich.

Zurich, May 15, 2013