Main Award Mannheim-Heidelberg,
Best Fiction Feature Film goes to Plastic Tree
Rainer Werner Fassbinder Award
Matias Bize for "Sábado"
Special Award of the Jury
Daniel Lind Lagerlöf for "Miffo"
Special Mentions of the International Jury
Ryuichi Hiroki for "Vibrator"
Blanca Lewin in "Sábado"
Best Short Film
Andrus Tuisk for "Perebisnes"
Audience Award of Mannheim-Heidelberg
Goran Rebic for "Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea"
Prize of the FIPRESCI-Jury
Andre van der Hout for "De Arm van Jezus"
Prize for the best short film awarded by the FIPRESCI-Jury
Martin Rosete for "Revolución"
Special Mention
Matias Bize for "Sábado"
Award of the Ecumenical Jury
Vahid Mousaian for "Silence of the Sea"
Recommendations of the Jury of Cinema Owners
"Levity" by Ed Solomon
"Sábado" by Matias Bize
"Under the same sky" by Krassimir Krumov
„How can a tree grow when its roots can only take hold in cracks in the concrete?“ asks Won-young, looking from the roof of her house over the bungalows, across to the sea. She herself is like a plant with roots in a nowhere land. She lives together with Soo in a small bungalow by the sea. At first sight, the two of them lead an unspectacular life. She works as a messenger for the “Happy Post“ delivery service, bringing presents and congratulations to customers on her scooter. He is a hairdresser. They share a common secret, which we learn more about when Soo’s childhood friend Byong-ho turns up one day. But Byong-ho’s presence and his growing jealousy towards the couple disturbs the erotic balance of this strangely reticent couple. Soo is impotent and Won-young seems to have accepted this. But when she is seduced by Byong-ho, who soon after wants to assert his sexual control over her, he destroys the thin protective layer which had held the couple together. And so this quietly poetic melodrama, for which the Oscar prizewinner Francis Lai wrote the music, leads up to a sudden outbreak of violence in which the roles are recast.
Eo Il-seon’s film links poetic images in the tradition of the French „New Wave“ with brief insights into daily life in contemporary South Korea.