AMMAN - The Jordanian film "Cherkess", depicting the meeting of Circassian and bedouin cultures in Jordan at the turn of the 20th century, has won seven awards at the Angel Film Awards in Monaco including Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Producer.
The festival, concluding in an award ceremony held this Sunday, seeks to award "non-violent" movies that promote "peace and love", a press release said.
A unanimous jury made up of prominent international movie personalities, including US film professor Carl Bardosch, French actress Celyne Durand and British actress Sophie Berenice chose to honour "Cherkess" at the expense of British, German and Swiss contenders.
Jordanian writer and filmmaker, Mohydeen Quandour, who wrote, produced and directed the movie, told The Jordan Times in a phone interview on Tuesday that the reaction from both audience and jury were "really great".
"They were shocked that a film of this quality was made in Jordan, because Jordan is not on the film production map at all," he said, adding that the audience, much to his surprise, applauded the movie as it went along.
"I expect that in Jordan [and] I expected it if there were Circassians [in the audience] but there were only three of us," Quandour, himself of Circassian origin, explained.
The filmmaker said he believed the movie was chosen for its "new fresh subject", portraying the multicultural roots of Jordan, something he said "has been totally lost".
"That was the beginning of Amman: the Circassians arrived and they interacted with the bedouins in the area and [together] they formed the backbone of modern Jordanian society," he explained.
While Quandour left with five of the seven awards - Best Feature Film, Best Producer, Best Director, Best Original Story and Best Screenplay - actress Sahar Bishara won Best Newcomer and Mohadeen Komakhov won Best Supporting Actor.
Quandour was born in Jordan in 1938, but moved to the US in 1950s to study. He later went on to work as a producer and director for television and feature film in Hollywood, but now resides in Windsor, England, with his family.
Last summer, Prince Ali invited him to Jordan to "to see what's happening with our [Royal] Film Commission", as Quandour put it. It was during that meeting when he came up with the idea of making a movie in Jordan, about Jordan.
"[The prince] was very encouraging; the Royal Film Commission was very encouraging, so I said 'why not?'" Quandour explained.
The majority of both crew and cast for the movie was made up of Jordanians, although Quandour brought in Circassian actors and a cameraman from Russia.
Although he has every reason to do so, 72-year-old Quandour is not resting on his laurels.
Instead, he is preparing a movie based on his novel "Iraq: Desert Crossings", about the smuggling of archaeological artefacts through Jordan following the looting of the Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad during the American invasion in 2003.
The movie, which will be an international production, will be in the making next year, Quandour said.
© Jordan Times 2010
