Two awards for Son of Babylon at Berlin
UK Film Council-backed film Son of Babylon has won two awards at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival which drew to a close yesterday.
London - 22nd February 2010
UK Film Council-backed film Son of Babylon has won two awards at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival which drew to a close yesterday;the Amnesty International Film Award and the Peace Film Award.
This year for the first time, the Amnesty International Film Award was split between two films; Son of Babylon and Lucy Walker's Waste Land (UK/Brazil). The award was established to raise the issue of human rights with cinema audiences and the film industry, and to encourage filmmakers to take up vital issues.
Director Mohamed Al-Daradji also received the 25th Peace Film Award in a ceremony last night at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, presented to him by German author and international reporter Carolin Emcke.
Son of Babylon is a UK/Iraqi film directed by Mohamed Al Daradji (Ahlaam), which tells the tale of a young Kurdish boy and his grandmother as they travel through Iraq searching for their father/son in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall from power. Screenplay by Jennifer Norridge, Mohamed al-Daradji and Mithal Ghazi.
Starring Yasser Talib, Shazda Hussein and Bashir Al-Majid, Son of Babylon received development and production funding from the UK Film Council, and is a multi-national collaboration between the Sundance Institute (US), the UK Film Council (UK), Screen Yorkshire (UK), CNC (France), Hivos, Doen, Nederland Fond and Rotterdam Media Fonds (Netherlands), Pyramedia and ADACH (UAE).
