Media artists recognised at the »International Short Film Festival in Hamburg« (IKFF)

The documentary »Imbiss« tells the story of a Greek family that operates a popular kiosk (in German, Imbiss) on the island of Lesbos. Their only customers are newly arrived refugees from war-torn areas of the Middle East. The filmmakers discovered the kiosk by accident when they were travelling the island of Lesbos in the summer of 2015 to get an impression of the refugee situation at that time. »We wanted to provide a kind of counterpoint to the often monotonous coverage of events in the German media and decided to film what was going on at the kiosk,« say Eder and Eisenschmidt about their motivation.

The documentary depicts day-to-day life at the kiosk. It confronts the viewer with the contrast between the refugees’ gratitude for the »service« with the business sense of the Greek operators. For instance, one of the most important services, the initially free charging of mobile phones, becomes increasingly expensive. At the same time the filmmakers leave it up to the viewers to make their own assessment of the goings-on. There is no off-screen narrator, just sporadic subtitles with translations of the dialogue to accompany the images.

»Through narrative and formal means, [the film] manages to avoid falling into the trap of forced political correctness. We were very impressed by the objectivity with which the subject matter was illuminated,« said jury members Willehad Eilers, Felix Grimm, and Fei Zhou in their justification. »The images, which we find wonderfully fluid and dynamically framed, show that the exceptional situation on Lesbos has long since become a fixture of day-to-day life in Europe. And from it a parable takes shape in which morality and ethical principles are made comprehensible within a small conceptual area.«

In total, the IKFF received 800 submissions, 24 of which were included in the programme. Christoph Eder and Jonas Eisenschmidt shared the first prize and the prize money of EUR 2,000 with Jochen Kuhn, who was also recognised for his production, »Central Museum«.
»Imbiss« was created as part of the project module »Short Cuts«, supervised by Wolfgang Kissel, Professor of Media Events. Christoph Eder has already completed both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

For more information, please visit festival.shortfilm.com

The details for »Imbiss«

Genre: Documentary Film
Length: 13:11 min.
Year of production: 2016
Format: HD
Presentation format: DCP, Blu-ray
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Languages: Greek, English, Arabic,

Director, camera, editing: Christoph Eder & Jonas Eisenschmidt
Colour grading: Alexander Graeff
Sound design: Johann Niegl
Mixing: Ludwig Müller
Translation: Erato Arampatzi

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