The 56th Berlinale, the first major European film festival of the year, awarded its Golden and Silver Bear prizes for best film, director and actors in 2006. International productions with a political touch were singled out.
A moving portrayal of Bosnia’s post-war trauma and the lingering impact of the systematic rape of Bosnian women by Serb soldiers won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
“Grbavica” by Sarajevo director Jasmila Zbanic took the Golden Bear for best film at the conclusion of a glittery gala ceremony in central Berlin, DW reports.
The film about how a single mother and her 12-year-old daughter cope with the aftermath of the Bosnian war is a joint Austrian-Bosnian-German-Croatian production with a strong political overtone.
“I just want to use this opportunity to remind us all that the war in Bosnia was over some 13 years ago and the war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic still live in Europe freely,” Zbanic told the audience back in 2006, referring to the former Bosnian Serb leader and his army chief.
“They (have not) been captured for organizing the rape of 20,000 women in Bosnia, killing 100,000 people and expelling from their houses one million people. Nobody is interested in capturing them,” she said.
