The Last Shelter Wins at CIVIS Media Awards 2023

Europe’s most important media award for integration and cultural diversity honours eight formats.

The STEPS Generation Africa film and ARTE co-production The Last Refuge by Ousmane Samassékou from Mali, was awarded the “CIVIS VIDEO AWARD” in the category Information and the main prize “CIVIS TOP AWARD” with €15,000. at the European CIVIS Media Prize 2023. The documentary was shown for the first time on ARTE on 14 June 2022 as part of the documentary film project “Generation Africa”.

For the 35th time, the CIVIS Foundation honoured the best German language

audio and film contributions on the topics of integration and cultural

diversity. Almost 900 contributions were submitted this year from 22 EU countries and Switzerland.

 

For his Arte documentary film “The Last Refuge – The House at the Gate to the Sahara”.

he travelled to the Malian town of city of Gao in the Sahel region, which every year is visited

by thousands of refugees on their way to Europe. In the “House of Migrants” they are looked after and warned of the dangers of the journey through the desert. Ousmane Samassékou’s film shows the young migrants Esther and Kady, 15 and 16 years old, from Burkina Faso, who stop there.

Here’s what the jury had to say about the film:

“A masterpiece about people on the road, on the southern edge of the Sahara, about their dreams and traumas. Some are still full of hope for a happier life in Europe or elsewhere, others are stranded and on their way back home. The documentary tells of the fortunes of these migrants, empathetically but never obtrusively, close but never encroaching. A documentary, haunting like few others.

The Generation Africa project was supported by the DW Akademie and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The ceremony was streamed live and on Sunday, 11 June, ARD/Das Erste will broadcast the event.

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