UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors H.R.H. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg and Mrs Claudia Cardinale attend the awarding ceremony for UNESCO’s Felini Silver Medal
16-06-2003 6:00 pm Afghan film director Siddiq Barmak is the recipient of this year’s UNESCO’s Fellini Silver Medal. The Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura conferred the award during the preview screening of his first feature film « Osama ». The film, a tribute to Afghan women, was showed on the occasion of the first plenary session of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage which took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 16 June 2003.
The ceremony took place at UNESCO Headquarters in the presence of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors H.R.H. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg and Mrs Claudia Cardinale in addition to Mr Sayed Makhdoum Raheen, Minister for Information and Culture of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and Prince Mirwais Zahir of Afghanistan.
“I am convinced that we must all be artisans of a just world, wherein women have an important role to play” declared H.R.H. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg during her address before the preview screening.
“Osama” tells the story of an adolescent girl who disguises herself as a boy to escape the intolerable conditions inflicted on women by the Taliban regime.
The first Afghan film ever presented at the Cannes Film Festival, it was selected for the Director’s Fortnight and received a special mention from the jury of the Caméra d’Or, which honours directorial debuts, as well as two other awards given in the context of the Festival, the Prix Cannes Junior and the Prix de l’Association Française des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai (AFCAE).
