Bosnian film Grbavica wins Golden Bear (2006)
Story by Jack Foley
A BOSNIAN film that examines at the aftermath of the mass rape of women during the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war has won the coveted Golden Bear Award at the 56th Berlin Film Festival.
Grbavica, by director Jasmila Zbanic, seeks to highlight the injustice that surrounds the harrowing incident, given that the war criminals responsible – Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic (former Bosnian Serb leader and army commander) – are still living freely in Europe.
“They’ve not been captured for organising the rape of 20,000 women in Bosnia,” explained the director as she accepted the prize. “This is Europe and no one is interested in capturing them.”
Grbavica was one of several movies to explore politics at the festival, including the Hollywood thriller, Syriana, starring George Clooney.
Another film to tackle controversial ongoing issues is Road To Guantanamo, which earned its British directors, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, the Silver Bear for best director.
The film tells the true story of three British Muslims caught in Afghanistan who end up at Guantanamo Bay for two years without charge.
Upon accepting the award, Winterbottom dedicated it to the three men who inspired the film.
Commenting on the political focus of this year’s entries, British actress Charlotte Rampling, the head of the jury, said that Berlin had ‘reflected the mood of the world today’.
In other awards, the Silver Bear was awarded jointly to Offside, by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, about a girl who has to disguise herself as a boy to watch a football match, and Danish-Swedish film A Soap, about a woman’s relationship with a transsexual.
German stars Moritz Bleibtreu and Sandra Hueller won the Silver Bear Awards for acting for their roles in Elementary Particles and Requiem respectively.
Read more about Road To Guantanamo