The 60th Berlin Film Festival wrapped up Sunday after crowning Roman Polanski best director, although the filmmaker who is under house arrest in Switzerland over a 1977 sex case missed the premiere of his latest movie.
Polanski won the plaudit for his political thriller “The Ghost Writer , while the jury awarded the festival’s top Golden Bear prize to a Turkish family drama.
Polanski, 76, is fighting extradition to the United States over the case in which he earlier admitted having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The Silver Bear trophy was accepted by a producer of the film, Alain Sarde, at a gala ceremony late Saturday.
“I am sure Roman will be very happy, he said.
“However, when I was lamenting with him that he cannot be with us, he said to me, ‘Even if I could, I wouldn’t because the last time I went to a festival to get a prize, I ended up in jail’, he quipped.
Sarde was referring to the director’s arrest in September on a US warrant when he went to Zurich to accept an award. Polanski finished work on “The Ghost Writer while confined to his Swiss chalet.
Berlin’s B.Z. am Sonntag tabloid called the decision a “scandal , amounting to offering Polanski “general amnesty for his crime.
“The fact the Berlinale world stage is used for this second-rate spectacle leaves a nasty aftertaste and does lasting damage to the festival, it wrote.
Industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter said it was impossible to separate Polanski’s work from the criminal case in the public mind.
“Whatever the reasons for the jury’s decision, the Silver Bear for Polanski will likely be seen as a signal of solidarity with the director, it added.
Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper called the award a “political signal on behalf of the beleaguered director, who won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 1966 for “Cul-de-sac .
“One festival, the one in Zurich where he was invited and then arrested, brought Polanski disgrace. Another festival, the one in Berlin, rehabilitated him, at least artistically, it wrote.
A seven-member jury led by German director Werner Herzog (“Fitzcarraldo ) and including Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger gave top honors to the Turkish film “Bal (Honey) starring a seven-year-old boy.
The haunting picture, a Turkish-German co-production, tells the story of a struggling pupil whose father dies in a freak accident. It was one of 20 international contenders in what was seen as a fair-to-middling competition.
“Honey is the third in a trilogy by director Semih Kaplanoglu, 46, tracing the life of Yusuf and his development as an artist and human being in rural Turkey, played here by Bora Altas, now aged eight.
Kaplanoglu thanked the festival for the honors – the first Golden Bear for a Turkish film since 1964 – and called attention to Turkey’s threatened wilderness near the Black Sea coast, the setting for much of the film.
“I hope with this prize we have received this evening, we manage to protect the environment there as well, he said.
Critics showered “The Ghost Writer with praise, calling it a return to form for the French-Polish film-maker, best known for classics such as “Rosemary’s Baby and “Chinatown .
“Mr Polanski is a master of menace, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said. “He’s delivering the pulpy fun at such a high level that ‘The Ghost Writer’ is irresistible, no matter now obvious the twists.
Based on Robert Harris’s bestseller “The Ghost , the film features a stand-out performance by Pierce Brosnan as a former British prime minister modeled on Tony Blair being probed for war crimes over the torture of terror suspects.
He hires a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) to shape up his memoirs but the hired scribe soon stumbles upon a lethal web of transatlantic intrigue.
The stars of the Russian Arctic drama “How I Ended This Summer , Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis, shared the Silver Bear for best actor.
Japan’s Shinobu Terajima was named best actress as the long-suffering wife of a severely disabled veteran in the harrowing anti-war film “Caterpillar .
Last year’s Golden Bear winner, “The Milk of Sorrow from Peru, has been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film.
