04/12/2013 - Michael Obert's Song From the Forest won the first prize of the biggest documentary film festival in Europe, and the German coproduction A Letter to Nelson Mandela received the Special Jury Award

The 16th International Documentary Festival Amsterdam  (IDFA, November 20 – December 1st, 2013), which is the biggest documentary film festival in Europe, was a great success for German documentaries, with two major awards in the main competition.

Director and journalist Michael Obert'sSong From the Forest won the VPRO Award of the Best Feature-Length Documentary (which includes a cash prize of €12,500). The film, produced by Tondowski Film & Friends and ma.ja.de, follows a man's return to New York City with his son after 25 years spent in the Central African jungle with a pygmy tribe. The jury praised “the lush sound design, tender images and intimate access,” which Song From the Forest [+see also:
trailer
film profile] found in order “to explore the legacy of an aging man immersed deep in a rainforest community where he has recorded thousands of hours of music.”

The German/South-African title A Letter to Nelson Mandela by Khalo Matabane, coproduced by Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion, was presented with the Special Jury Award. The IDFA said: “Using a mosaic structure, this personal film questions the process of forgiveness and reconciliation by challenging the political choices of the filmmaker’s childhood icon.”

This year's IDFA screened an impressive total of 29 German films and coproductions.