During these three days, participants from different countries and united by one minority language use came together to share their experiences in an atmosphere of convivencia, in the perfect style of the Ostana Prize, now in its seventeenth edition. It was three days full of cultural meetings, music, and literary presentations that welcomed participants in a festive, plural and stimulating atmosphere; a unique experience in the heart of the Occitan valleys to celebrate minority languages and linguistic diversity.
Friday 27
The opening night on Friday, June 27, kicked off the festival with words full of meaning: the mayor of Ostana, Giacomo Lombardo, together with Gianluca Vignale (Regione Piemonte) and Giulia Marro Giulia Marro (Consiglio Regionale Piemonte), recalled the importance of this Prize that brings hope and beauty in the midst of a complex political and social situation.
Afterwards, the sound of the Ostana Collective (Flavio Giacchero, Marzia Rey, Luca Pellegrino, Paola Bertello) filled the hall with the song-motto of this edition: Sans raitz pas de flors – “Without roots there are no flowers” – a poetic hymn to the strength of mother tongues, sprouts that sink into ancient roots.
The Occitan Language Prize Estelle Ceccarini kicked off the three days of lectures and debates, which enchanted the audience by recounting its Camargue as a linguistic landscape of light, sounds and living land.
Especially moving was the film Neighbours by Mano Khalil, winner of the Cinema Prize 2025. The Kurdish director brought to the screen a strongly autobiographical story, which tells – through the eyes of little Sero – the reality of censorship experienced by him, his Kurdish family, and his Jewish neighbors in a Syrian village. In one of the film’s most intense scenes, his grandfather explains to Sero that if he should get lost at night, hearing a dog barking and seeing a light in the distance, it’s best to follow the dog. Sero already knows from his father’s teaching: “Sound comes before light.”
Photo: Fabio Ferrero e Luca Percivalle