Roman Polanski wins best director prize in Berlin
Roman Polanski was crowned best director at the Berlin film festival for his thriller The Ghost Writer, in a move some saw as politically motivated because of his fight against US extradition over sex charges.
The 76-year old film-maker, who was unable to attend the awards ceremony because he is under house arrest in his Swiss chalet, sent a pithy acceptance statement via his producers, saying: "Even if I could be there I wouldn't, because the last time I went to a festival to get a prize, I ended up in jail."
Polanski was referring to the Zurich film festival, where he was arrested last September at the request of US authorities. Since then he has been held in custody, first in jail and later at his home, where he is electronically tagged and unable to move further than his garden. The director, who jumped US bail in 1978 after admitting having sex with a minor, has received vocal support from many of Europe's artistic elite.
Polanski took the so-called "Silver Bear" trophy for his adaptation of a Robert Harris novel about a man commissioned to write the memoirs of a beleaguered former British prime minister.
Film critics gave a mixed reaction to the decision. The Hollywood Reporter said: "Whatever the reasons for the jury's decision, the Silver Bear for Polanski will likely be seen as a signal of solidarity with the director." The German conservative Welt am Sonntag newspaper said that while the Zurich film festival had brought Polanski disgrace, Berlin had "rehabilitated him, at least artistically".
In the true style of the Berlinale, a festival that likes to deliver surprises and has a political edge rarely seen elsewhere, the jury, which was led by the German director Werner Herzog and included the actor Renée Zellweger, awarded the top Golden Bear prize, for best film, to an outsider. The Turkish film Bal (Honey), by director Semih Kaplanoglu, tells the story of a boy who goes in search of his missing beekeeper father. The film draws attention to environmental problems close to the Black Sea coast.
Son of Babylon, by British-based Iraqi director Mohamed Al-Daradji, which was filmed on location across seven Iraqi cities and chronicles the odyssey of a boy and his grandmother in search of his lost father, secured the Peace award and the Amnesty International award.One of the documentary highlights at the 10-day event was Exit Through the Gift Shop, a film by the British street artist Banksy, which offers an innovative insight into the street art scene in Britain and the United StatesUS. Festival organisers insisted that Banksy, who appears in the film only in silhouette and with a disguised voice, was present at his own premiere but was incognito.
There was no award for the feature The Killer Inside Me by British director Michael Winterbottom, which attracted much criticism for its extreme violence.
Source: Guardian Online