Polanski wins best director prize at 60th Berlin film fest

Polanski, 76, missed the world premiere of his film at the Berlinale, the first major international cinema showcase of the year, due to his house arrest in Switzerland where he is fighting extradition to the United States over a 1977 child sex case.

The Silver Bear trophy was accepted by a producer of the film, Alain Sarde.

"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 in his Swiss chalet.

A seven-member jury led by German director Werner Herzog ("Fitzcarraldo") and including Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger gave top honours to the Turkish film "Honey" starring a seven-year-old boy.

The haunting picture tells the story of a struggling pupil whose father dies in a freak accident.

It 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 honours and called attention to Turkey\'s threatened wilderness, 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 had showered "The Ghost Writer" with praise after its premiere, 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," New York Times critic Manohla Dargis said in a glowing review Friday for the film\'s US release.

"He creates a wholly believable world rich in strange contradictions and ominous implications. He\'s delivering the pulpy fun at such a high level that \'The Ghost Writer\' is irresistible, no matter now obvious the twists."

The film, based on Robert Harris\'s best-seller "The Ghost", features a stand-out performance by Pierce Brosnan as a former British prime minister modelled 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 deadly web of transatlantic political intrigue.

The runner-up jury prize went to Romania\'s "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle" the debut feature of 35-year-old Florin Serban in a strong year for eastern European cinema.

His cast was comprised primarily of amateurs, including George Pistereanu, a Bucharest high school student who went through intensive drama training to play a tormented delinquent.

"The New Romanian Wave saw another new and important contributor emerge in Berlin," Britain\'s Guardian wrote in a review.

The stars of the Russian drama "How I Ended This Summer", Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis, shared the Silver Bear on Saturday for best actor.

"How I Ended This Summer" is the second solo feature for Russia\'s Alexej Popogrebsky, 37, about an intern working at a remote polar station who must tell an experienced meteorologist that his wife and child have been killed.

Japan\'s Shinobu Terajima won the Silver Bear for best actress for her role in the harrowing anti-war drama "Caterpillar" as the long-suffering wife of a severely disabled World War II veteran.

The 60th Berlinale, which ranks second only to Cannes among European film festivals, wraps up Sunday.

Last year\'s winner, "The Milk of Sorrow" from Peru, has been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film.

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.