Female Gaze – CineOne & sPOTTlight National Award for Best Female Directors of Photography – Honourable Mention

Jury’s statement (Greta Isabella Conte, Eva Maschke, Gisela Tuchtenhagen)

With this honourable mention, we recognise the cinematographic work of Sophie Krabbe – a craft that impresses not only on a technical level but also as a space for encounter, where people can make their own lives visible and their voices heard. The docu-fiction short Halima – Eine Anleitung zum Starksein was developed by female film students at FH Dortmund together with survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM). It allows the protagonists to become authors of their own experiences, knowledge and resilience. Krabbe collaborated closely with Eido M. Abdillahi on this film. As someone who was directly affected, she made a significant contribution to the visual concept. Filmmaking here becomes collaboration, perspective becomes empathy and imagery becomes responsibility. This is a craft that does not speak about those affected, but places them at the centre – in their pain, their strength and their pursuit of self-determination. We hear voices from refugee shelters that would otherwise go unheard. The film depicts everyday racism and suffering, but above all Halima’s strength. Following reconstructive surgery, she sets out on her journey home by regional train. That journey, which frames the film, becomes a metaphor for a life full of stations she has had to navigate: war in Somalia, flight across the Mediterranean and now life in Germany, with the pain of genital mutilation a constant companion. She arrives, finally, at a refugee shelter – her temporary home. But she finds no retreat there, no peace and no real space to heal.

Excerpts from the film will be shown at the awards ceremony.