VATICAN AGENCY HONORS JEWISH FILM DIRECTOR

10-09-2008

ROME, SEPT. 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications gave the Robert Bresson Award to Jewish film director Daniel Burman, in recognition of his quest for the spiritual meaning of life.

Archbishop Claudio Celli presented Burman, a native of Argentina, the award last week in the context of the Venice Film Festival. The prelate then presided a few days later over a reception ceremony at the Argentine Embassy to the Holy See.

Although only 35, Burman has already won recognition for his work as a director. At the 2004 Berlin Festival the jury awarded him the Silver Bear for his film "El Abrazo Partido" (The Broken Embrace).
At the ceremony in Rome, Archbishop Celli explained that Burman "always gives a genuine testimony in this difficult search for the spiritual meaning of our life."
"In fact," he said, "I believe that his contribution today consists in this: He is a man who seeks all around his own identity in an ever more complex and difficult world, where it's not always easy to make room for values, feelings, and the great movements of the human heart."
The archbishop added: "We follow with great interest this director and all those who, in the field of cinema, try to follow this path.
"I believe that the cinema, this great instrument of culture of our time, can continue to make a significant contribution to this search.
"The human being increasingly needs to rediscover the meaning of life, the roots of his identity, to follow, in today's globalized context, a more truthful and profound path worthy of him as human being."
During the ceremony, Burman told ZENIT he was surprised to receive an award from the Vatican representative for communications.
"It is a great joy," he said, "given that the motives are the same that carry me each time I get behind the camera: to transmit values and to cast a personal look at personalities and the question of man."

While he was in Rome, Burman visited the Vatican Film Library and told ZENIT of the great impression the tour made on him. Some of the oldest film clips in existence are conserved there, including scenes of Pope Leo XIII from the end of the 19th century.

They are a proof, Burman said, of the Church's contribution to cinema.
The Robert Bresson Award was instituted by an Italian cultural institution that collaborates with the Pontifical Councils for Social Communications and for Culture, and the Italian magazine "Il Cinematografo."
The Robert Bresson Award was instituted by an Italian cultural institution that collaborates with the Pontifical Councils for Social Communications and for Culture, and the Italian magazine "Il Cinematografo."
http://www.zenit.org/article-23579?l=english