Berlin fest honors ‘Shoah’ filmmaker

French documentary filmmaker and producer Claude Lanzmann received a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 14.

“I was happy, I was moved and I was proud,” Lanzmann, 87,  told some 200 people who gathered for a conversation between the filmmaker and German film historian Ulrich Gregor on Feb. 13.

Lanzmann became famous for his 10-hour documentary “Shoah,” which was released in 1985 and took about 11 years to make. A digital restoration of the film was shown at the 11-day festival.

“Rock the Casbah,” a feature film by Israeli director Yariv Horowitz about Israeli troops in Gaza, brought home the top prize from the International Confederation of Art House Cinemas. Jurors  said Horowitz showed “great intelligence in talking about a very personal situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on one hand” while also delivering a commentary on the futility of war. Set in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 1989, the film depicts several days in the life of a company of young Israeli soldiers. — jta