• "Son of Babylon"
• Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji
• Actors: Yassir Taleeb, Shehzad Hussen, Bashir Al-Majid
• Iraq, Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Palestinian Territories, 2009, 90min
• Panorama

Statement of the Jury

„A Kurdish boy from northern Iraq is searching for his father who did not come home from war. The boy’s grandmother accompanies him on his journey to the southern part of the country. She is overcome by her memories of gas attacks, of war victims, of the void in the world following the war. She keeps hoping that she will find her son so that her grandson will get his father back. The journey is difficult for the old woman; she is burdened by her big responsibility. The boy Ahmed curiously looks upon this bombed world which, for him, grows larger and richer as the journey goes along.

There are people, however, that help the two of them overcome distances and hardships. Especially one man wants to help them; a soldier of the Republican Guards who partook in the attacks against the civil population in the northern part of the country. A perpthetrator who confesses to the old woman who thus angrily chases him away.

Yet, he accompanies them till the end of the journey; to the fields full of corpses where Ahmed’s father was probably hastily buried with all the others.

It is a film about guilt, truth, remorse and forgiveness, and about the strength of grandmothers who hold the world in their hands. A long journey.“

The Jury of the Peace Film Award 2010
Mehdi Benhadj-Djilali, Harriet Eder, Jan Engelmann, Christoph Heubner, Oliver Passek, Monica Chana Puginier, Alice Ströver, Christoph Wermke, Marianne Wündrich-Brosien, Christian Ziewer

The Peace Film Award will be presented on Sunday, February 21st 2010 at 5pm in the Akademie der Künste (Hanseatenweg 10, Berlin-Tiergarten). The laudation of the prize winner will be held by Carolin Emcke, author and international reporter. After the presentation of the 25th Peace Film Award, the film „Son of Babylon“ will be shown. Following the viewing, the Jury and the filmmakers will discuss the film with the audience.

Tickets: 5 EURO at the Akademie der Künste (ticket sale begins at 3pm on Sunday, Feb. 21st)