Zero Impunity

Zero Impunity is a multimedia documentary film by Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies (a.k.a. the Blies brothers). Animation was co-directed with Denis Lambert. The film explores the systematic occurrence of wartime sexual violence and assault. The film premiered at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and was subsequently released in international film festivals such as Annecy International Animation Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival (Mostra), Palm Springs International Film Festival, Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara and Moscow International Film Festival.

Zero Impunity
Directed byNicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies
Produced by
  • Marion Guth
  • Stéphan Roelants
  • François Le Gall
  • Louise Génis-Cosserat
Screenplay byNicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies
Music byHolland Andrews
Production
company
  • a_BAHN Mélusine Productions
  • Webspider Productions
  • Camera Talk Productions
Distributed byIndieSales
Release date
March 2019
Running time
93 minutes
CountryLuxembourg, France
LanguageFrench, English, Arabic, Ukrainian
Budget€2 million

Production

Zero Impunity was developed and conceptualized by Marion Guth and the director duo Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies (a.k.a. the Blies Brothers) between 2015 and 2016. The film was produced with support from Film Fund Luxembourg, CNC (Centre National de la Cinématographie). The film was developed on the basis of investigative reports commissioned by the directors into the issue of sexual violence in several countries, carried out as part of the film. Investigations have been entrusted to the French journalists' collective YouPress. Zero Impunity was launched on January 3, 2017 with the publication of six investigative reports on Médiapart.[1] (France) and 10 media partners in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The production of the feature-length documentary ran throughout 2017. New sequences were shot between September 2017 and December 2017 in Ukraine, Jordan, United States and France.

Synopsis

The film is based on six investigative reports by eleven female journalists on the impact and occurrence of sexual violence and systemic abuse in wartime.[2] The events covered include instances of abuse of civilians in the Central African Republic during Operation Sangaris, sexual abuse and torture of prisoners under the Bush administration, sexual slavery and assault by the forces of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, sexual violence in the Ukraine.[3] The film also criticizes the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. The reports are conveyed through both animated segments and live-action film segments with survivors, psychologists, whistleblowers, and investigators.[4]

Release

The film made its world premiere in March 2019 at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival [5] before being in official competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2019. The film is scheduled to make its US premiere at Palm Springs International Film festival in January 2020.

The film was planned to be released in theaters in France on June 11, 2020 and distributed by Septième Film Distribution. The release of the film was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

First part of a "Sexual Violence Trilogy »

In June 2020, the Blies brothers are invited by the Annecy Festival to give their vision of animated cinema in the « Lessons of Cinema » section. They announce that Zero Impunity will be the first part of a trilogy dedicated to sexual violence. The second part is Ghostdance. The final installment of this trilogy is Loving Less (Aimer Moins), a new variation devoted to theories of attachment and detachment.[6]

Reception

The film received mainly positive reviews.

Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter gave the documentary a mostly favorable review for calling attention to the widespread indifference to sexual assault and sexual abuse by both terrorist organizations and sanctioned governmental organizations such as the United States Armed Forces and the United Nations peacekeepers. However, Mintzer criticized the film for trying to cover too many separate stories in its runtime, and for relying on "heavy-handed aesthetics [...] to make a point that didn’t need to be so overemphasized".[7]

Allen Hunter of ScreenDaily praised the film for giving a voice to sexual assault victims and for calling attention to the international issue of sexual violence in wartime.[8] The French newspaper Le Figaro gave it a positive review, calling it "a punching film" that "left Annecy speechless" [9]

Amber Wilkinson of Eye For Film was mostly positive, although she also noted that the film was dense in places and could have benefited if "perhaps less [sic] on situations already heavily documented, such as Syria and Abu Ghraib, would have allowed them more time to focus on under-discussed topics, such as the alleged indifference of the UN".[10]

Nominations and awards

Zero Impunity won the FIPA D'OR 2017 SmartFipa in Biarritz.[11][12] The film also won the audience award at Festival du Film Politique Porto-Vecchio.[13]

List of awards won, showing year, country and competition
Festival Country Year Competition
Thessaloniki International Film Festival[14] Greece 2019 Official Competition
FIFDH[15] Switzerland 2019 Official Competition
FICAM[16] Morocco 2019 Official Selection
Lucca Film Festival[17] Italia 2019 Official Competition
Moscow International Film Festival[18] Russia 2019 Official Selection
Molodist KIFF[19] Ukraine 2019 Official Selection
Annecy Film Festival[20] France 2019 Official Competition
Fantoche[21] Switzerland 2019 Official Selection
Québec City Film Festival[22] Canada 2019 Official Competition
AnimaSyros Greece 2019 Official Competition
Freedom Film Festival[23] Malaysia 2019 Official Selection
Madrid International Contemporary Animation Festival Spain 2019 Official Selection
FIFF Namur[24] Belgium 2019 Official Selection
Human Rights Film Festival Lugano Switzerland 2019 Official Selection
10th International Animation Festival of Pernambuco Brazil 2019 Official Selection
Cambridge Film Festival UK 2019 Official Competition
Bucheon International Animation Festival (BIAF) South Korea 2019 Official Competition
Festival du Film Politique Porto-Vecchio (Audience AWARD)[25] France 2019 Official Competition
São Paulo International Film Festival Brazil 2019 Official Competition
Mostra de Valencia[26] Spain 2019 Official Selection
Festival Cinéma et Droits Humains – Amnesty International France 2019 Official Selection
FIFF Tübingen[27] Germany 2019 Official Competition
Amiens International Film Festival France 2019 Official Selection
Panorama of the European Film[28] Egypt 2019 Official Selection
Bergen International Animation Festival Norway 2019 Official Selection
Joburg Film Festival South-Africa 2019 Official Selection
Les Sommets de l’Animation Canada 2019 Official Selection
Carrefour du Cinéma d’Animation France 2019 Official Selection
Festival International du Film Politique (Carcassonne) France 2019 Official Competition
Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival Greece 2020 Official Competition
Palm Springs International Film Festival[29] USA 2020 Official Selection
FIPADOC France 2020 Official Competition
Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara Mexico 2020 Official Competition
gollark: Just pcall it.
gollark: I didn't expect anyone to *notice*.
gollark: Yes, that was planned downtime.
gollark: Anyway, the most recent conversations... tofuduck and someone asking about a server for the disqord.
gollark: I'm just looking at it, not actually *doing* anything.

References
  1. "Zero Impunity: contre l'impunité des violences sexuelles dans les conflits armés". www.mediapart.fr. Retrieved 3 July 2019..
  2. Keslassy, Elsa (2017-06-09). "Indie Sales Boards Topical Animated Documentary 'Zero Impunity' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  3. "Annecy 2019 - Zero Impunity : l'impact du cinéma au service de l'activisme". Le Film Français (in French). Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  4. "Review: Zero Impunity". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  5. "Zero Impunity". Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  6. "Annecy Film Festival Presentations Include 'Frozen 2' Doc, Lord & Miller, and 'Chicken Run' Reunion". Variety. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  7. "'Zero Impunity': Film Review | Annecy 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  8. Hunter, Allan (2019-06-03). "'Zero Impunity': Annecy Review". Screen. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  9. "Zero Impunity : lorsque l'animation se transforme en un documentaire glaçant". www.lefigaro.fr. 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  10. "Zero Impunity (2019) Movie Review from Eye for Film". www.eyeforfilm.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  11. "Le Fipa 2017 met l'engagement au cœur de son palmarès". Télérama.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  12. Sepulveda, Elsa. "Palmarès du 30e Fipa". www.mediakwest.com (in French). Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  13. Vernet, Par Henri; Porto-Vecchio, à; à 13h27, Corse-du-SudLe 27 octobre 2019 (2019-10-27). ""Freedom" primé au festival du film politique de Porto-Vecchio". leparisien.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  14. "Zero Impunity". Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  15. "Film". fifdh.org. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  16. "Zero Impunity". Ficam. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  17. Chiaro, Matteo Del. "zero-impunity". Lucca Film Festival (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  18. "ZERO INPUNITY :: Film catalogue :: Moscow International Film Festival". moscowfilmfestival.ru. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  19. "Zero Impunity (Нульова безкарність) | 48th Kyiv IFF Molodist | Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival". Кінофестиваль Молодість Україна. 2017-10-19. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  20. "Annecy > Programme > Index". www.annecy.org. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  21. dominique (2019-07-17). "Zero Impunity". Fantoche (in German). Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  22. "Zero Impunity". Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  23. "Zero Impunity - FFF2019 Programme, FFF2019 Sep 28th". Freedom Film Network. 2019-08-19. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  24. "LES FILMS". Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (in French). Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  25. (Jean-Paul-Lottier). "Freedom gagne le grand prix du jury au festival du film politique de Porto-Vecchio". Corse Net Infos - Pure player corse (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  26. "Secció Informativa". Mostra de València (in Catalan). Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  27. "Zero Impunity". FRANZÖSISCHE FILMTAGE TÜBINGEN-STUTTGART (in German). Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  28. "Panorama - ZERO IMPUNITY". www.panoramaeurofilm.com. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  29. "Palm Springs Film Fest: 'JoJo Rabbit,' Foreign-Language Oscar Candidates, Oliver Sacks Doc Join Lineup". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
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