SON OF BABYLON RECEIVES TWO AWARDS AT BERLIN! (23/02/2010)
Leeds / Iraqi film Son of Babylon has continued its successful tour of the international film festival circuit, collecting The Amnesty International Film Prize and The Peace Film Award at The Berlin International Film Festival (11th - 21st February). Son of Babylon is directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji, co-written by Mohamed Al-Daradji and Jennifer Norridge and produced by Leeds based Human Film with support from Screen Yorkshire's Production Fund.
The film unearths Iraq's hidden horrors as Al-Daradji takes his audience on a journey through Iraq in 2003....Saddam Hussein has fallen and on hearing the news that prisoners of war have been found alive in the South, Ahmed, a young boy and his grandmother, Um Ibrahim, set out to uncover the fate of the boy's father, one of the many soldiers who never came home. From the mountains of Kurdistan to the sands of Babylon, as his grandmother struggles to accept an awful truth, Ahmed retraces the footsteps of a father he never knew.
The news follows the film's success at the Sundance Film Festival, the key annual international event for independent cinema, where it screened to outstanding critical reviews in January.
Son of Babylon is the second feature film from Mohamed Al-Daradji, following his debut Alhaam, a film that represented Iraq for the Oscar and Golden Globe Awards in 2007. Son of Babylon is a multi-national collaboration of independent filmmakers that has united many well respected organisations from the US, Europe and the Middle East including: Sundance Institute (US), UK Film Council (UK), Screen Yorkshire (UK), CNC (France), Hivos, Doen, Nederland Fond and Rotterdam Media Fonds (Netherlands), Pyramedia and ADACH (UAE). Follow Son of Babylon on facebook
Mohamed Al-Daradji said, "I would like to thank the juries who are honouring SON OF BABYLON with such prestigious awards for the film and my country, Iraq. I would like to dedicate this award to our IRAQ'S MISSING Campaign. I hope through these awards we will be able to give answers to my main character Shehzad Hussen who for the last 22 years has been searching for her husband and also for my sister, whose husband disappeared 5 months ago."
During the Berlin IFF, ‘SON OF BABYLON' had 5 sold out screenings, receiving standing ovations and resulting in the film being in the top 5 for the audience choice award in the Panorama section.
Hugo Heppell, Head of Production at Screen Yorkshire says: ‘We are incredibly proud to have been able to support ‘Son of Babylon' and are delighted to congratulate the team on their fantastic achievements with the film so far.''
The producers of the film have pledged that both prize awards, which total 10,000 Euros, will go directly to the IRAQ'S MISSING campaign as they aim to communicate the extent of the genocide. The campaign will lobby for the redirection of resources in Iraq working with outside organisations and those within Iraq dedicated to issues such as these, to fund the technology needed for the identification of the bodies in a more efficient way. The Filmmakers hope that through watching the film the media and its audiences will join them in supporting the IRAQ'S MISSING campaign and help in contributing to bringing peace of mind to Iraq's millions of families who have lost loved ones over the years until now. The campaign has the backing of the Minister of Human Rights in Iraq H.E Ms. Wijdan Makha'il Salim, who at the Premiere of the film in Berlin spoke in support of the campaign.
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