France awards ‘This Side, Other Side’

The 2023 edition of the Bridge of Peace Film Festival, an online event organized in Paris, France has awarded Iranian animation ‘This Side, Other Side’.

The acclaimed Iranian animation was picked as one of the three best animations at the French online event.

‘Shooom’s Odyssey’ by the French director Julien Bisaro and ‘Life on the Move’ by Osbert Parker from the UK were the other animations awarded at the Bridge of Peace Film Festival.

The war drama ‘The Blizzard of Souls’ by Latvian director Dzintars Dreibergs won the special jury prize and ‘The Blizzard of Souls’ and ‘Reveille’ were awarded as the best feature films.

‘A Soldier’, a short war film by Nikesh Limbu from the UK, won the audience award and the award for best documentary was given to ‘The Third and Fourth Generation’ by Lukas Zund from Switzerland.

Directed by Lida Fazli, ‘This Side, Other Side’ shows some kids from the two sides of a borderline that make friends and play games with one another.

This amity between the kids enrages the adults and triggers them to start a war.

However, the kids continue to play with each other while the adults are fighting.

According to an iFilm exclusive interview with the director, the short film is made to convey the message that no border can limit friendship and love.

Fazli emphasized that love and kinship between kids are so pure and innocent that nothing can destroy them, even the dark shadow of war.

‘This Side, Other Side’ has gone on screen at many global events, including the ifva Awards in China, the Cartoon Club Festival in Italy, the International Animation Film Festival - Golden Kuker Sofia in Bulgaria, and the 2019 Smile International Film Festival for Children & Youth in India, where it won the awards for Best Story and Best Short Film, and the Neum Animated Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it received the best award in the category of 2D and 3D animation.

It has also won UNICEF Award at the Festival Biennial of Animation Bratislava in Slovakia, best animation award at the XXII Scrittura e Immagine Short Festival in Italy, best animation award at the 2020 C (H) ORTA - Short Film Festival of Faial in Portugal, and special award at the International Film Festival of Children and Youth in Serbia.

The organizers say the Bridge of Peace Film Festival was established “to focus the audience’s attention on the pressing problems of humanity, in order to seek and find an answer to the question of how to live in a world without wars, without oppression, how to learn to respect the traditions and culture of other peoples, how to preserve nature and its diversity for new generations.”

MG/MG