POLISH-BORN DIRECTOR Roman Polanski, currently under house arrest in his Swiss chalet, has won the best director prize at the Berlin Film Festival for his thriller The Ghostwriter.
The film, starring Pierce Brosnan as a Tony Blair-like prime minister, premiered to critical acclaim at the festival, now in its 60th year. Accepting the award on Mr Polanski’s behalf, the picture’s producer, Alain Sarde, said: “I am sure Roman will be very happy.”
The producer added that Polanski was philosophical about his enforced absence from the festival. “He told 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.’”
The director of Rosemary's Babyand Chinatownwas detained last September at the Zürich film festival in connection with an outstanding US arrest warrant.
In 1978, after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, he fled the US before being sentenced and has never returned. Swiss police are examining an extradition warrant from US authorities in connection with the 32-year-old case.
“It’s sad for all concerned, but it’s also heightened the movie,” said Brosnan of the circumstances of the Polanski-less premiere. “The movie’s in the can, he’s in the can.” Critics in Berlin viewed the Silver Bear less as a nod of recognition of Polanski’s film and more as a sign of solidarity with the director, confined to his chalet with a foot bracelet tracking his movements.
The festival jury gave the Golden Bear for best film to the Turkish drama Bal(Honey), examining the environmental destruction of Turkey's Black Sea coast. The runner-up jury prize was awarded to a Romanian prison drama If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle. Meanwhile, Russian psychodrama How I Ended This Summerwon for best actor and best artistic achievement.