Half Elf has received a special Commendation at the Ava 2021 Award.
The EASA’s Age and Generations Network (AGENET), together with EASA’s Visual Anthropology Network (VANEASA) as well as the Association for Gerontology, Aging and the Life Course (AAGE), joint by the AVA 2021 Organizing Committee and the Board of Judges with great pleasure announce the winners of the inaugural edition of the Ageing and Visual Anthropology Award (AVA 2021 Award).
The Ageing and Visual Anthropology Award (AVA 2021) is for the best anthropological works which through the employment of visual methods address the issues surrounding aging and the life course in creative ways, offering new modes of engagement and understanding. The 2021 edition has been financially sponsored by the EASA funds for Network Activities.
‘Half Elf’ was, for me, a delight, an experience of unfettered joy that was unexpected given the film deals with the how one approaches end of their life. The film follows Trausti and Hulda, an Icelandic lighthouse keeper and his partner, as he approaches his 100th birthday. We are invited to share the journey with Trausti, a quirky character whose love of singing and elves frustrates Hulda, as he goes about his daily life. We see him cooking porridge, carefully working the electric burner to set the temperature correctly; we follow him on his walks; we sit at their table, listening to their conversations. Some of the most emotionally resonant moments of the film come as Trausti visits his casket, lovingly humming and singing to it as he strokes the wood, straddling, it almost feels, both this life and whatever it is to come with a lightness of being that offers inspiration to us all.
Aaron Seaman, on behalf of the Board of Judges (Film Category)