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Roman Polanski won best director honours at the 60th Berlin Film Festival for the political thriller "The Ghost Writer", as the jury gave the Golden Bear top prize to a Turkish family drama.
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 case of sex with a 13-year-old girl.
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.
Industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter called the decision "controversial".
"Whatever the reasons for the jury's decision, the Silver Bear for Polanski will likely be seen as a signal of solidarity with the director," it wrote.
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 "Bal" (Honey) starring a seven-year-old boy.
The haunting picture, a Turkish-German co-production, tells the story of a struggling pupil whose father dies in a freak accident. It was one of 20 international contenders.
"Honey" 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 -- the first Golden Bear for a Turkish film since 1964 -- 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."
Based on Robert Harris's bestseller "The Ghost", the film 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 stars of the Russian drama "How I Ended This Summer", Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis, shared the Silver Bear 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 daughter have been killed.
Japan's Shinobu Terajima was named 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 wraps up Sunday.
Last year's winner, "The Milk of Sorrow" from Peru, has been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film.
