The winners of the 24th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) were announced on Saturday evening at the Closing Gala ceremony held at the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca, with the festival's Transylvania Trophy awarded to the drama-thriller 'To a Land Unknown' by Palestinian-Danish director Mahdi Fleifel. This intense drama focuses on two Palestinian refugees who live on the fringes of society in Athens and dream of a better life in Germany. In a climate of despair and moral compromise, one of them spirals deeper and deeper into manipulation and exploitation of those around him, a statement of the organizers shows.

In a video message presented at the Gala, director Mahdi Fleifel - returning to TIFF after his debut in 2013 - highlighted the difficulty of making the film: 'It was really more survival than storytelling. We had to hustle for more than 10 years to make this film happen.' He also called out for peace, stating that: 'The problem in Palestine is not the Palestinians, the problem is the occupation - and this must end.'

The plight of the refugees is also approached in 'Xoftex' (Germany), a harrowing emigrant story which earned director Noaz Deshe the Best Director Award, worth EUR 3,500, offered by the Romanian Cultural Institute, while the EUR 1,500 Special Jury Award offered also by the Romanian Cultural Institute went to 'Debut, or Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued' (U.S.), Julian Castronovo's first feature-length film, which humorously explores the fragile boundary between reality and falsehood, but also the human need to build stories.

Actress Ghjuvanna Benedetti took home the Best Performance Award (EUR 1,000, offered by Conceptual Lab by Theo Nissim) for her role in 'The Kingdom' (director Julien Colonna, France), in which she plays a teenager raised in Corsica in the 1990s in the violent shadow of her mafioso father.

In the Romanian Film Days competition, 'The New Year That Never Came' (directed by Bogdan Muresanu), a tragicomedy set on the eve of the 1989 Revolution, received the Feature Film Award worth EUR 2,000 (DACIN SARA) and EUR 10,000 worth of post-production services offered by CINELAB Romania. The Romanian Film Days Debut Award (EUR 1,500, Banca Transilvania) rewarded the documentary Bright Future (director Andra MacMasters), a fascinating foray, through archive images, into a youth festival held in North Korea in 1989.

In the What's Up, Doc? category, the EUR 2,000 offered by Tenaris Silcotub went to Daniel Tornero's Saturno, a first-person account in which the movie director confronts the memories of his grandfather, creating 'a delicate visual choreography', as the jury explained.

The winner of the People's Choice Award (EUR 2,000) was 'Deaf' (directed by Eva Libertad Garcia Lopez, Spain), while 'The New Year That Never Came' was picked the Most Popular Romanian Film in the festival, winning the EUR 2,500 Vodafone Hearts' Award.

The Gala ended with the moving words of Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr, who was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival: 'When you make a film, you don't expect someone from the other side of the world to see it. We make films for people, for the less fortunate, for those who need a story to be told. Because, in the end, that's what we all are: human beings.' AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Marius Septimiu Avram; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)