The results of Prix Marulic initially published have had to be corrected for procedural reasons.
The 19th edition of “Prix Marulić Festival – Old texts revisited!” (held on the island of Hvar, May 9-15) has presented 44 broadcasts from all over the world; 13 in the Drama Category, 19 in the Documentary and 12 in the Short Form Category.
Jury members chaired by Jane Ulman from Australia and Ljubo Pauzin from Croatia.
Here are the final results.
DRAMA CATEGORY, Prix Marulić 2015:
- (Grand Prix Marulić): Germany (Deutschlandfunk): Hans Block: “Don Don Don Quijote – Attackéee”
- UK (BBC Radio Drama): Stephen Wyatt: ”The Divine Comedy: Inferno”
- Switzerland (SRF): Gion Mathias Cavelty: “The Andouillette”
DOCUMENTARY CATEGORY, Prix Marulić 2015:
- (Grand Prix Marulić): Germany (Deutschlandfunk): Malgorzata Zerwe, David Zane Mairowitz ”Kafka Unchained”
- Australia (Australian Broadcasting Network): Jane Ulman „Wheelwork of Nature: Tesla & the 21st Century“
3. UK (Rockethouse Productions): Cathy Fitzgerald, Matt Thompson: “Skylarking”
3. Germany (Bayerisher Rundfunk): Christian Schiffer: “Under Cover of Darkness – An Expedition into the Darknet”
SHORT FORM, Prix Marulić 2015:
- (Grand Prix Marulić): Russia (RTR ): Dmitry Nikolaev: “Happy Birthday, Darling!”
- Czech Republic (Czech Radio): Bronislava Janečková, Petr Mančal, Stanislav Motl: “The Death Car Driver“
- Czech Republic (Czech Radio): Eva Blechova: “Pro Patria Mori”
Special Achievement in Radiophony
The jury has unanimously decided to specially mention the program Cantus Apium (Song of Bees) – 7 variations after Vergilius for voice and 15 bee-colonies by Götz NALEPPA for Special Achievement in Radiophony.
Short forms
“Pro Patria Mori” (Czech Radio)
Two young boys play the computer game “Verdun”, which takes them back to the time of World War I, in which the British poet Wilfred Owen, who was just a bit older than the two of them, died a week before the end of fighting. The author Eva BLECHOVA opposes their casual attitude with the verses of Owen’s famous poem Dulce Et Decorum Est, about the war that robbed him of all that these two boys experience as normalcy. Owen focuses on details of death and suffering and highlights the futility, absurdity and cruelty of war in his poem which still resonates powerfully today.
“The Death Car Driver” (Czech Radio)
Authors Bronislava JANEČKOVA, Petr MANČAL, and Stanislav MOTL bring us a historic and dramatic moment – the assassination in Sarajevo of the Austro-Hungarian successor, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Princess Sophie. Events are seen through the eyes of their Czech personal driver Stanislav Lojka. With his moving monologue and the fine use of sound, we are given a rare insight into the Princess’s death, often forgotten in accounts of the tragic events. He also provides poignant descriptions of what happened behind the scenes after the shootings. Lojka places the whole burden of guilt on himself because “If I had not obeyed, stepped on the gas, maybe everything could have been different.”
GRAND PRIX MARULIC
“Happy Birthday, Darling!” (Radio Russia RTR)
The experienced duo – dramaturge Zhanna PERELYAEVA and director and author Dmitry NIKOLAEV led a wonderful acting couple – Marina VOROZHISHCHEVA and Alexey DUBROVSKY in a playful and apparently improvised short drama game without words, a sound pantomime. Starting with the woman’s innocent soft singing in front of the bathroom mirror, the promising meeting with her lover grows into a demonic battle of the sexes. This quickly transforms into a major confrontation and struggle of international dimensions, also telling a story of modernity and everyday life in Russia. The 100 year old celebratory tune, known almost world wide, that carries best wishes, “Happy Birthday to You” becomes a macabre discord of hatred and death. But, it could have been very different…
Documentary
3. “Under Cover of Darkness – An Expedition into the Darknet” (Bayerisher Rundfunk)
With his dynamic feature, author Christian SCHIFFER explores the dark side of the internet, known as the “Darknet”, which has a reputation for being untamed, dangerous and anarchic. Most users stay anonymous and while regular internet users are not familiar with it, it’s well known to criminals, hackers and freedom fighters. The author’s journey into this strange, encrypted region is a parallel adventure to the hazardous explorations of David Livingston in Africa around 1860. But are the fears about both these places really justified? The two expeditions kept listeners captivated as they travelled into the jungles of Africa and were drawn into the Darknet’s secret places.
“Skylarking” (Rockethouse Production Ltd)
Cathy FITZGERALD and Matt THOMPSON created a vivid, beautiful and sensual sound poem about freedom, flight, air and the sky. We are led on an airy adventure by a paraglider who soars on high and an ex prisoner who talks of his yearning for the freedom of the sky he glimpsed from the tiny window in his jail cell. The piece is punctuated by brief quotations and artists’ reflections and tiny imagined cameos from levitating yogis, labradors with wings and freewheeling angels, plus a specially composed score by Joe Acheson and the Hidden Orchestra.
“Wheelwork of Nature: Tesla and the 21st Century”
As prominent author Jane Ulman says: “This program draws on Tesla’s autobiography, lectures and essays from the late 19th and early 20th century to enter into the complex charged world inside his head and across a life fused with the beat of a fierce imagination and a thirst for knowledge and meaning. Alongside, differing perceptions are offered from both archival texts and recent interviews.
Through a comic narrative provided by a couple of obsessive quiz contestants, Tesla’s proud parents, American socialites and inept FBI agents, we hear about the man’s extraordinary contradictions and something of the legacy he’s left to us and to future generations.”
Fresh and intense, with outstanding sound design and a mosaic structure, this radiophonic program creates an electric world full of strong images – the purring of Tesla’s cat, Mačak, transforms into electricity which becomes a path toward his discovery of new sources of energy. Aspects of his life are shown through short dramatic cameos and these are interspersed with documentary recordings including the voice of the Mayor of New York, La Guardia, who in his eulogy for the great scientist and visionary, famously said “Tesla is not dead”.
GRAND PRIX MARULIC
“Kafka Unchained” (Deutschlandfunk)
The internationally renowned couple of feature makers, Malgorzata ZERWE and David ZANE MAIROWITZ presented their feature subtitled “An Acoustic-Comic”, which explores the humorous side of the great Franz KAFKA. The project began as an exhibition, curated by the authors, celebrating the centenary of the publication of “The Trial”. In the program comic strip artists Robert CRUMB and Chantal MONTELLIER give their views which are complemented by a young “Kafka Rapper” and songs from Jaromir 99 and the group “KAFKA Band” from Prague. The band was formed at the initiative of the authors of as part of their project to search for Kafka “freed from the prejudice of the gloomy “Kafkaesque”. This beautifully produced radio work is entitled “Kafka Unchained” and features the Kafka Band’s song of the same name.
Drama
3. “The Andouillette” (Swiss Radio and Television SRF)
In his 2009 novel Swiss author Gion Mathias CAVELTY also took Dante’s great epic poem, “THE DIVINE COMEDY” as a starting point. He constructed an absurd, grotesque, upside-down afterlife. The protagonist begins in heaven, is plunged into hell on earth and thence into the underworld which must be endured to secure a return to heaven. An andouillette is a peculiar kind of French sausage filled with offal. Not only was one such meaty atrocity responsible for the death of our narrator but the sausage became a metaphor for a hellish region. The director and composer Martin BEZZOLA injected the crazy journey with celestial beauty, bizarre comedy and grotesque imagery through a brilliantly creative sound track, giving listeners an exciting radio experience that comments on “the entirety of the human condition”.
“The Divine Comedy: Inferno” (BBC Radio Drama)
Directors of Dante’s “THE DIVINE COMEDY: Inferno” Emma HARDING and Marc BEEBY brought all the nuances of comedy, pathos and drama to us in their version of this great epic poem. In the lively contemporary dramatization by Stephen Wyatt we travel with the shade of Virgil and the 35 year old author on an odyssey through the afterlife that begins in the terrifying depths of hell, and we join the older Dante as he reflects on the events which influenced his writing. The strength of the performances and the accessibility of the language give the well-known text an energy and immediacy. Acoustic treatments and ingenious vocal work enhance the story.
GRAND PRIX MARULIC
“Don Don Don Quijote – Atackéee” (Deutschlandfunk/Schauspielschule Ernst Busch Berlin)
A fresh and creative take on Cervantes’ famous classic connects our time with “crisis-ridden feudal Spain”. The young director and author Hans BLOCK puts a contemporary urban campaigner into a parallel narrative with the hero from 500 years past, both individualists trying to change the world. Through the two intersecting stories, the program offers a new perspective on the perennial struggle between idealism and pragmatism, as the modern Quijote says “it’s always the one guy who’s sick, never society”. Can this new utopia be created when a horseback rider appears on the asphalt streets of Berlin? Will this apparently pointless protest attract random passers-by, and then encourage them to the same rebellion? It’s a question posed by the author of this provocative and exciting radio drama, which is in itself a remarkable play with radio.
IFC AudioDocs 