The Berlinale, the first major European film festival of the year and typically its most politically minded, handed two prizes to the BiH docu-drama “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker”.
Nazif Mujić, the real-life protagonist of the picture about a Roma couple denied life-saving medical treatment, was the surprise winner of the Silver Bear best actor prize.
The ultra-low-budget film also took the runner-up jury prize. Its director Danis Tanovic, who won an Oscar for his 2001 wartime black comedy “No Man’s Land”, said his anger after reading news reports about the couple led him to seek them out.
“I’m so happy for Nazif and his family because the whole point of this film was to try and change their lives and I hope it changes their lives,” he told reporters.
Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel hailed “worthy” winners in what it described as a disappointing competition.
The Golden Bear for Netzer “reflects not only the relatively strong showing of eastern European directors this year but also the political nature of the festival”, which got its start during the Cold War, it said.
“17,000 euros and amateur actors are enough to beat the arthouse productions with budgets in the millions at a major film festival when a moving story is told well and beautifully,” the website of Der Spiegel news weekly said, referring to the meagre budget of the Bosnian film.
“That is the message this Berlinale jury is sending to all the film-makers from Eastern Europe, a region often ignored by Cannes and Venice, whose citizens are struggling with the social upheaval of post-communism.”
