Latin American Herald Tribune - Bardem’s Documentary Wins Prize (VIDEO)

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Bardem’s Documentary Wins Prize (VIDEO) By Virginia Hebrero SAHARAWI REFUGEE CAMP IN DAKHLA, Algeria – The documentary “Hijos de las nubes, la ultima colonia” (Sons of the Clouds, the Last Colony) produced by and starring Javier Bardem, is the winner of the White Camel award, the top honor handed out at the Sahara Film Festival, or FiSahara, that took place this weekend at this refugee camp. Directed by Alvaro Longoria, the film analyzing the political and strategic interests that are hampering the resolution of the Saharawi conflict was screened in Dakhla before it is due to hit Spanish theaters in a few weeks but after being presented at the Berlin Film Festival. In the documentary, Bardem leads the viewer through the roots of the conflict up to the current situation of stagnation and obscurity of the Saharawi people. Neither Bardem nor Longoria traveled to Dakhla, but the prize – which was awarded on Saturday by a popular panel at the non-competitive festival, the only one in the world held in a refugee camp – was to be accepted by sound technician Charlie Schmukler from the hands of actress Aitana Sanchez Gijon. The festival’s co-director, actor Willy Toledo, told Efe that it was “predictable” that “Hijos de las nubes” would take the top award because “always when there is a great film that deals with the Saharawi conflict, like ‘El problema’ two years ago, it is greatly appreciated here.” Bardem’s documentary “has a focus on high politics, the corridors of the U.N., world leaders, that had not been seen in other films with a Saharawi theme, and beyond that it’s very educational for whose who aren’t familiar with the conflict,” Toledo said. Breaking the tradition of offering a real camel to the Saharawi family who hosted Bardem at the camp during the 2008 FiSahara festival, when the idea for the documentary was born, the organizers decided to donate it to the Saharawi police force that currently guarantees the safety of the public and of the event’s invited guests. That was to avoid a recurrence of something like the dramatic kidnapping more than six months ago at the Saharawi camps of three aid workers – Spaniards Ainhoa Fernandez and Enric Gonyalons, and Italian Rosella Urru – to whom the festival paid tribute. Two special mentions will be made at the festival, one of them regarding the documentary “Gdeim Izik: detonante de la primavera arabe,” which tells about the creation and displacement, in November 2010, of the Saharawi camp in the area occupied by Morocco established at El Aaiun, a protest that some analysts felt was the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring throughout the Middle East and North Africa. EFE