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Bosnian drama 'Grbavica' wins Berlin's Golden Bear

Posted on: Monday, 20 February 2006, 18:22 CST

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

Source: REUTERS

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