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PRESS REVIEWS “…By far, the most impressive competition entry at Mannheim-Heidelberg was Ferenc Moldovanyi’s Masik bolygo (Another Planet), awarded the Special Jury Prize. The only documentary contending for top honors, Another Planet was seven years in planning and four years in making. Together with ace cinematographer Tibor Mathé, Ferenc Moldovanyi chronicles the “hidden face of our planet” – namely, the plight of children in Ecuador, Cambodia, and the Congo, whose lives are badly scarred by circumstances beyond their control. As much fiction as documentary, the film’s power is generated from recorded testimony with the children, which is then used as overtalk in depicting their deplorablefate as soldiers, laborers, and prostitutes.” Ron Holloway- KINO “...Few things can more delight festival and film directors than full houses on the Saturday for such diverse selections, such as Another Planet, Ferenc Moldovanyi's docu-poem on the suffering little children in some not-so-remote corners of our world, a production lovingly crafted over five years which brought tears to the eyes of some viewers, watching the piteous spectacle of under-age prostitutes or tiny-but not at all toy-soldiers conscripted in the Congo, somehow facing up to their fates with an unsettling matter-of.-factness. The Budapest-based director was returning to Mannheim after presenting a short film here a number of years ago, with a rare documentary selected for the International Competition and which was shot literally around the globe. It topped the poll of the critics published in the bi-lingual festival paper. Welcomed back as additional festival venues this year were the lovely period art-house Atlantis, as well as the smaller Quadrat kino, while in Heidelberg, besides the purpose-built Unizelt, two other permanent cinemas were in use by the festival. Admissions seem likely to surpass last year's total of 60,000 by the end of this 11-day filmic wonder. “ Phillip Bergson – Festival21.com “A disquieting sense of shame pervades the cinema following the screening of Ferenc Moldoványi’s extraordinary film titled “Another Planet”, which guides us through the unspeakably hellish everyday life of little boys and girls, living in various parts of the world, in a way that there is not one single shot less or no sequence of narration more than necessary: a small cigarette vendor girl suffering from the cold nights and loneliness in the street being treated as a slave at home too, the little shoeshine boy, another one fabricating bricks for efficiency wages and then another boy whose stepfather threw him into the street, on the pretext of the accusation that he was a witch following the death of his mother, a little girl who is raped at the age of eight and then is forced into prostitution, other small girls who are condemned to sift through rubbish for bits of plastic and aluminium on a garbage dump just to earn few dollars for food, child-soldiers … The stories follow each-other on the screen like a nightmare with no end. What we see is not an imaginary planet born in the sick mind of some monster. It is our planet and our times. Only such masterly and moderate kind of film direction can move the audience to introspection and set them thinking instead of feeling nausea. Moldoványi is able to make a sublime film out of the raw-material of horror and he raises his documentary to the heights of an essay when inserting a Tarahumara ceremony into his film performed in honour of a new-born child to whom the shaman wishes that God bless him with many a good days to come.” Rafael Vega - Norte Castilla “Ferenc Moldoványi’s latest documentary is at once hypnotically beautiful and acutely disturbing. Shot over a two-year period in four countries on four continents—Ecuador (South America), Mexico (North America), Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa), and Cambodia (Asia)—Another Planet unfolds as a cinematic tone poem in the tradition of Koyaanisqatsi, exposing the unequal distribution of wealth around the world as a major humanitarian crisis.... Throughout this journey, Moldoványi’s unwavering vision reminds us of the eternal coexistence of beauty and horror all over the world. Informed by the haunting cinematography of Tibor Máthé as well as Tibor Szemzö’s ethereal soundtrack, Another Planet crosses cultural boundaries to forge a commentary on the human condition as damning as it is open-ended.” 31st Starz Denver International Film Festival “With 'Another Planet', the Hungarian director Ferenc Moldoványi has lived up to his neck-breakingly ambitious project with a virtuous hand - and has created an intensely up-close film from a planet, which we seriously end up wishing was not our own. “ CPH: DOX - Copenhagen 2008 ...“I want you to come with me on a tour round this wonderful world, where many children live in total misery. The child soldier, the shoeshine boy, the child prostitute who was raped when she was 8 (!), the girl who sells chewing gum in the street, the scavenger. And so on. They give us their dreams. They give us their daily life. We watch it, feel ashamed, depressed, at the same time as we feel that we must believe that a change could happen. If the energy of these fine children could be transformed into something positive. If... The title comes from Aldous Huxley: Maybe this world is another planet’s Hell. Moldoványi, one of the most ambitious documentary directors that I know about, has made another unique film.” Tue Steen Müller - Filmkommentaren.dk “Shot on four continents and spoken in five languages, this docu-drama studies the problems facing Earth today. Looking at rampant ecological, political, and social unrest and injustice, Moldoványi’s two-year survey of where we are and where we seem to be going is an illuminating look at contemporary human experience.” Pusan International Film Festival 2008. “Ferenc Moldoványi’s work belongs to the category of important films. It is the kind of work that is important both locally and globally and it talks clearly to all the people on our Planet crossing all cultural borders. It will not draw conclusions instead of the viewer and it will not judge. It “only” shows.” Nóra Szabó Terasz.hu “The lives of these children and what they represent is fiercely shocking, exasperating leaving one bitter and disillusioned. It is a fact that “the income of the two richest men in the world equals the GDP of more than 40 countries in the world or that out of the 6 billion people living on our Planet 3 billion subsist on less than 1 USD per day..” Not all is lost however until films like that of Ferenc Moldoványi’s are made, maybe...” Judit Vajda- Hungarianfilm.com The Laureates of the 57th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2008 International Jury: Edgar Reitz, president (Germany), Alexander Bohr (Germany),Raisa Fomina (Russia), Martin Paul-Hus (Canada), Jaana Puskala (Finland) Announcement of the International Jury "The International Jury wants to express its high regards for the quality of the selection of the films in competition. We have seen 18 films that show in an impressive way how vigorous the auteur film is in all parts of the world and with what an admirable commitment young filmmakers try to express their relation to their personal life, to their cultural background and to their dreams. Despite their diversity all films are very personal and full of solidarity and sympathy for the lives of their protagonists." (...) Special Award of the International Jury goes to Ferenc Moldoványi from Hungary for the film Másik Bolygó / Another Planet "There are films which defy with persistence our willingness to forget quickly. "Another Planet" is such a film. It guides us, without ever striking a false note, into the depressing world of child labour and prostitution, which we never experienced before on the screen with such directness and intimacy. We admire the director Ferenc Moldoványi for his courage and his perseverance - he worked for over five years to accomplish this touching and just as much disturbing masterpiece. With its artistic forms of expression and its deep spirituality it transcends the limitations of documentary film. The international premiere of this film here in Mannheim-Heidelberg is a memorable event." 31st Starz Denver Film Festival Juried Awards: The festival’s documentary award, named after the great filmmaker brothers, Albert and David Maysles is presented each year to a outstanding documentary. The jury this year was comprised of Los Angeles Film Festival senior programmer, Doug Jones, the Director of Programming for SILVERDOCS, Sky Sitney, and filmmaker Michael Jacobs. For its masterful filmmaking and restrained approach to an extraordinarily difficult subject, the year's winner employs evocative images and sound to culminate in an emotional, cinematic experience that challenges and rewards its audience. The recipient of the 2008 Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film is Ferenc Moldovanyi's Another Planet. 18th International Film Festival Innsbruck, June 9th - 14th 2009, Jury Statement (of pupills jury, 15 people) After due consideration – and vivid discussion – we, the student jury, decided to present the Südwind-Award to a film that moved us deeply. Powerfully and skilfully, the film weaves together word and image, landscape and emotion, thereby exposing the cruel circle of children’s exploitation from both an intimate and a broader perspective. The film does not use a voice-of-God commentary, but rather purely filmic means to provide us with important insights. Its “here, there, and everywhere-approach”, its images from around the world make ANTOHER PLANET an outstanding contribution not only to this festival. Our congratulations go to its director, Ferenc Moldovanyi. The Lost Children • Time of History 31/10/2008 11:06 A little Tarahumara Indian girl walks into the forest to warn that children sometimes lose their souls there and they are unable to return. RAFAEL VEGA A disquieting sense of shame pervades the cinema following the screening of Ferenc Moldoványi’s extraordinary film titled “Another Planet”, which guides us through the unspeakably hellish everyday life of little boys and girls, living in various parts of the world, in a way that there is not one single shot less or no sequence of narration more than necessary: a small cigarette vendor girl suffering from the cold nights and loneliness in the street being treated as a slave at home too, the little shoeshine boy, another one fabricating bricks for efficiency wages and then another boy whose stepfather threw him into the street, on the pretext of the accusation that he was a witch following the death of his mother, a little girl who is raped at the age of eight and then is forced into prostitution, other small girls who are condemned to sift through rubbish for bits of plastic and aluminium on a garbage dump just to earn few dollars for food, child-soldiers … The stories follow each-other on the screen like a nightmare with no end. What we see is not an imaginary planet born in the sick mind of some monster. It is our planet and our times. Only such masterly and moderate kind of film direction can move the audience to introspection and set them thinking instead of feeling nausea. Moldoványi is able to make a sublime film out of the raw-material of horror and he raises his documentary to the heights of an essay when inserting a Tarahumara ceremony into his film performed in honour of a new-born child to whom the shaman wishes that God bless him with many a good days to come. http://seminci.nortecastilla.es/noticias/2008-10-31-los-ninos-perdidos Ferenc Moldoványi: Another Planet/CPH:DOX 14 Skrevet den 12-11-2008 09:09:53 af Tue Steen Müller We met him years ago, this Hungarian director, who stood behind the much discussed, but great film ”Children of Kosovo”. We, meaning colleague Allan Berg and I, who defended the director’s right to use extremely aesthetical cinematographic means to describe the tragedy in Kosovo. His focus was the children, as it is in this new film where Moldoványi has filmed in four continents, again with a stunning visual result, where you sometimes end up in a breathless state, at the same time as you look at and listen to the stories from children, who are suffering in their daily life. No commentary, no information about where we are, it is not what I want, the uncompromising director seems to say. I want you to come with me on a tour round this wonderful world, where many children live in total misery. The child soldier, the shoeshine boy, the child prostitute who was raped when she was 8 (!), the girl who sells chewing gum in the street, the scavenger. And so on. They give us their dreams. They give us their daily life. We watch it, feel ashamed, depressed, at the same time as we feel that we must believe that a change could happen. If the energy of these fine children could be transformed into something positive. If... The title comes from Aldous Huxley: Maybe this world is another planet’s Hell. Moldoványi, one of the most ambitious documentary directors that I know about, has made another unique film. Hungary, 2008, 95 mins.