Islam doco wins Dutch top prize 15:48 AEDT Sat Nov 27 2004
AP - Dutch film Stand Van De Maan, which addresses increasing Islamic radicalism in Indonesia, has won top prize at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. The festival is billed as the world's largest documentary festival, with more than 200 films shown over two weeks in Amsterdam theaters. Stand Van De Maan, or Shape of the Moon, directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich, recorded the story of an Indonesian Christian woman who leaves Jakarta for the countryside to avoid growing unemployment and increasingly fundamentalist Islamic sentiment in the city. Serious tensions over fundamentalist Islam have surfaced in the Netherlands since the murder Nov. 2 of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who had criticized Islamic practices. The killing, allegedly by a Muslim radical, was followed by more than 20 arson attacks and reprisals against churches and mosques, bringing to light previously hidden ethnic hatreds. Other films that were honored at the festival on Friday included best short documentary for Bulgarian film Georgi and the Butterflies; the public's choice award for U.S. film The Yes Men; best debut award for Romanian film Podul Peste Tisa; and the jury award for Finnish film The Three Rooms of Melancholy. A new youth film prize went to Nabila, about a young Muslim woman in Sweden who faces conflicts with her family, school, and racists over her burgeoning career as a rapper.
 ©AAP 2004
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