Lions Club L'Esprit du Temps presented the Lions Film Award this evening to the winner of the film chosen by the Lions jury in the 'Bright Future' and 'Made in Rotterdam' program sections: SON OF BABYLON. This film prize, the only Lion among the Tigers in Rotterdam, comes with a cash prize of €2,000. Iraqi-Dutch director Mohammed Al-Daradji personally accepted the award.

Following official selections for the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, the award-winning film is embarking on a successful triumphant tour of the world. Starting April 28, SON OF BABYLON will be showing in Dutch cinemas.
The international Lions organization stands for understanding between peoples and nations, for friendship and mutual respect, and for support to anyone in need. In doing so, special attention is paid to youth. Worldwide, Lions support educational, cultural, and other aid programs for young people. After all, it is the youth who hold the key to the future of our world. And it is the task of the mature generations of today to prepare the current youth for their future task.

SON OF BABYLON (IBAN BABIL) by Iraqi-Dutch director Mohammed Al-Daradji is an impressive film about the war in Iraq, not from the perspective of the warring parties, but from the love and longing for the reunification of the family members. A film about a grandmother and her grandson's search for their son and father, respectively, who are fighting in the war in Iraq.
A beautiful, moving, human film.

The director takes no political stance; with his camera, he describes what he sees in a country where war, as always and everywhere in times of war, dominates everyone's existence: the sorrow and also the joy of the people, their connectedness, their commitment, and their care for one another. He takes us through the beautiful landscape and the devastated cities of Iraq during the almost mythical search of the mother for her son and of the grandson for his father. Initially happy and excited because they are certain they will soon see him alive, but ultimately confronted with the unbearable reality.
Mohammed Al-Daradji handles his subject with great integrity. Nowhere do you feel manipulated as a viewer. He succeeds in naturally drawing the spectator into the disorder and horrors of war. He is the director of the 'human scale', sometimes cheerful and witty, then again with a soul-piercing suffering.

The proceeds from the annual film night of Lions Club L'Esprit du Temps benefit the INCINE project in Otavalo, Ecuador. This project contributes to the development of a distinct media and film culture among the Otavalieno Indians. They are among the few groups to have succeeded in preserving their own culture and identity. With the Lions' contribution to the INCINE project, courses and a local film festival are supported. Young film talents are given the opportunity to make and screen short films, thereby contributing to the development of this population group's own media culture.



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