Silver Bear for Polanski´s The Ghost Writer by Zuzana Zelenakova

Roman Polanski´s political thriller The Ghost Writer starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan won the Silver Bear best director award at Berlin Film Festival this Saturday. Polanski who is still under house arrest in his chalet in Switzerland´s Gstaad could not accept the award in person. French producer Alain Sarde accepted the award on his behalf. “When I was lamenting with [Polanski] 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',” said Sarde. Polanski was referring to the event of September 26, 2009 when he arrived at the Zurich film festival i! n Switzerland to collect award for lifetime achievement and was arrested at the spot. Since then he has been under arrest, where he even did the final touches on the movie Ghost Writer. "Roman Polanski spends his days, his nights, again his days, again his nights, trying to finish his film," wrote his French philosopher friend Bernard Henry Levy on his blog several weeks after the director´s arrest. In 1977, Polanski was charged with the sexual assault of 13-year-old girl Samantha Geimer. According to the testimony of the girl, he gave her champagne and drugs and raped her at the Hollywood home of actor Jack Nicholson. The director of movies like The Pianist, The Ninth Gate or Chinatown fled to France to avoid jail. In 1993, Polanski paid Samantha Geimer at least $500,000 as a compensation. After that, Geimer confirmed that they are settled. However, due to the fact that he fled the United States of America prior to sentencing back in the 70s the charges are still pend! ing. In January 2010, California Superior Court decided that P! olanski must return to the US in order to be sentenced.

related story (sgx16560): http://www.france24.com/en/20100221-polanski-finished-winnin...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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