Iranian film wins Golden Bear in Berlin

Xinhua, February 20, 2011

"Jodaeiye Nader az Simin" (Nader And Simin, A Separation) from Iran's Asghar Farhadi won the Golden Bear, the highest prize awarded for the best film at the 61st Berlin film festival on Saturday night. Ulrich Koehler of Germany won the Best Director Silver Bear for "Schlafkrankheit" (Sleeping Sickness).

"Nader And Simin", one of 16 competing for the Golden Bear, tells a drama about guilt and trust in an Iranian family with father, mother, child, Alzheimer's-stricken grandfather and a maid hired to take care of the old man.

"I just never thought of winning this prize, " said Farhadi in reaction to the award. The Iranian director won a best director prize for his film "About Elly" at the event two years ago.

The actress ensemble and actor ensemble of the Iranian families drama also shared Best Actress and Best Actor Silver Bears.

Hungarian director Bela Tarr's arthouse movie "A Torinoi Lo" ( The Turin Horse), also tipped as a top favorite, ended up with the Silver Bear for Jury Grand Prix.

Inspired by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's supposed encounter with a horse of a hansom cab that was being beaten by the driver on the streets of Turin in 1889, the black-and-white film described the boring daily life of the driver and his daughter in a farm in the middle of nowhere.

The host country did not go empty-handed this time. German director Ulrich Kohler was honored for "Sleeping Sickness", a story of a German aid worker in Cameroon, which won the Silver Bear for Best Director.

And Andres Veiel snatched the Alfred Bauer prize for a work of particular innovation for his first feature film "Who if not us", which is about the history of the German terrorist group RAF.

The Silver Bear for Best Script went to Joshua Marston and Andamion Murataj for "The Forgiveness of Blood."

The Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement was awarded to Wojciech Staron for the camera and Barbara Enriquez for the production design in Mexico-based Paula Markovitch's debut feature film "El premio" (The Prize) .

This year's Berlin Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, has shown around 400 films from 58 countries and regions.