Bosnian drama ‘Grbavica’ wins Berlin’s Golden Bear

By Scott Roxborough

BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) – “Grbavica,” an emotional tale
of war and rape and their consequences from first-time Bosnian
director Jasmila Zbanic, won the Golden Bear for best film at
the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.

“Grbavica,” which left festival audiences applauding and in
tears after its gala premiere, tells the story of a victim of
the infamous Bosnia war “rape camps” who is forced to confess
her past to her 14-year-old daughter, the product of the
violation.

The film was a surprise winner at Saturday night’s
Berlinale gala, beating higher-profile competition entries such
as Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross’ “The Road to
Guantanamo” and Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”

“I will be very calm because I know this is a dream and in
five minutes I will wake up in Sarajevo,” Zbanic said as she
hoisted her golden statuette. She invited the entire “Grbavica”
cast and crew on stage before adding a more somber note.

“I want to use this opportunity to remind us all that
though the war in Bosnia was over some 13 years ago, war
criminals still live in Europe freely,” said Zbanic. “They’ve
not been captured for organizing the rape of 20,000 women in
Bosnia, killing 100,000 and for the expulsion of a million.
This is Europe, and no one is interested in capturing them. I
hope this film will help change your view on Bosnia.”

“Grbavica ” wasn’t the only political film to win over the
2006 Berlin Jury. “Offside,” a crowd-pleasing comic drama from
Iranian director Jafar Panahi about girls in Tehran who defy
that country’s sex-separation laws by sneaking into soccer
matches, won the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix, a prize it shared
with Danish melodrama “A Soap.”

The decision to award joint Silver Bears to a Danish and an
Iranian film can be seen as a political statement from this
year’s jury and its president, actress Charlotte Rampling.
European newscasts continue to feature coverage of protests by
groups of Muslims in the Middle East and Asia who are outraged
over controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet
Mohammed.

DIRECTING NOD TO ‘GUANTANAMO’

“The Road To Guantanamo,” perhaps the most politically
explosive film of this year’s Berlin Festival, had been tipped
for the top prize, but the docudrama about three British
Muslims falsely imprisoned by the U.S. had to settle for the
Silver Bear for best director.

In one of the evening’s most emotional moments,
Winterbottom invited the former Guantanamo prisoners, the
so-called Tripton Three, onto the stage to share the honor.

But the award for most emotional acceptance speech at this
Berlin gala would have to go to “A Soap” director Pernille
Fischer Christensen, who won the inaugural prize for best first
feature in addition to the Jury Grand Prix

“Please don’t make me come up here again,” said the tiny,
teary-eyed Christensen on her second tip to the podium. “I am
so happy, I’m so surprised.” The first-time director said she
was amazed that a film made for less than $1 million could find
such success.

Also surprising were the Berlinale acting awards, which
proved a clean sweep for local talent.

“It’s heavy,” joked Sandra Hueller as she hefted the best
actress Silver Bear she won for her harrowing performance as a
girl perhaps possessed by demons in “Requiem.”

The film, from director Hans-Christian Schmid, also won the
European film critics’ prize, the Fipresci.

Moritz Bleibtreu won the best actor Silver Bear for his
starring role in Oskar Roehler’s “The Elementary Particles,” in
which he plays a sex-addicted man looking for love. An almost
manic Bleibtreu thanked everyone from his “brave, adventurous”
director to the doormen who let him into the gala.

Juergen Vogel made it a triple play for German actors when
he won a special Silver Bear for his artistic contribution in
producing, co-writing and starring in Matthias Glasner’s bleak
portrayal of a serial rapist, “The Free Will.”

“I think we are noticing a new power coming out of Germany,
there is more courage to make different, independent films,”
Vogel said at a press conference after the award ceremony.

The Hong Kong drama “Isabella,” one of the few Asian films
in competition at this year’s Berlinale, won the Silver Bear
for best film music. The Alfred Bauer Prize, named for the
festival’s founder, went to “El Custodio” from Argentine
director Rodrigo Moreno.

The winners of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival
were announced at a gala ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on
Saturday night. The ceremony was broadcast live in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland on pubweb 3Sat.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter