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At the ceremony, the film's producer said on behalf of Robert Guédiguian: "The values of Europe are, for me, linked to the idea of the Republic - this Republic which Jean Jaurès, under whose auspices my film is placed, called a 'social Republic': liberty, equality and fraternity are qualities that Europe also owes it to itself to defend [....] Please do not abandon the poor people of Victor Hugo, a symbolic figurehead of both film and Europe, in the 'icy waters of egotistical calculation'."
To read announcement at prize site go here and to read press release go here.