The whole acceptance speech is HERE.
During World War II, my family took in an Italian refugee girl, Giovanna.
She said of herself io – I learned, this means I in Italian.
This discovery confused me!
So, everyone else said to themselves I?
But I that’s me!! I am I!
How come that everyone else is I too?
Even Giovanna?
This discovery became my first love story.
Empathy is the key to my work as a screenwriter and film-director:
It offers the chance to empathize with other “Is”.
Otherwise, how can I know what they do and say?
I even have to understand the fears and feelings of the antagonists, the “bad guys”.
That doesn’t just apply to me. Empathy is the basis for human coexistence in general.
But which of the many I’s belongs to the We?
Who is allowed to eat “our daily bread”?
My family?
Our city?
Our country?
Our skin color?
Is there a hierarchy of empathy, a ranking of selfs?
Who is allowed on the lifeboat in case of danger?
During the war, Switzerland said: “The boat is full”!
We only save ourselves, only Swiss people have space in the lifeboat.
My Italian childhood love Giovanna was sent back.
She died as a child because she hadn’t a Swiss I.
The law of the strongest cannot be the solution.
If we defend our values with cruelty, we have already lost them.
We can only survive in respectful interplay with all the other egos.
Five hundred years ago, the philosopher Nikolaus von Kues said:
“The center of the universe is everywhere.”
What wonderful openness!
The fascinating thing about my job is that – with every new topic – I can start a new study, every five to eight years.
My father was very worried because – after completing my studies – I didn’t finish my dissertation and became a film-director instead of a doctor and professor like him.
That’s why I am so humbled at the honorable gift that Franklin University is offering to me – and posthumously to my father: even with my artistic playing around I have finally reached the goal. My heartfelt thanks to the Franklin University for this rescue.
Markus Imhoof, 14. 5. 22