Canadian co-pro Inch'Allah wins Fipresci prize in Berlin

InchAllah, Quebec director Anas Barbeau-Lavalettes film about a Quebec doctor working among Palestinians in the West Bank, has won the prestigious Fipresci prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

InchAllah was declared winner on Friday of the award from a group of international film critics (Fdration internationale de la presse cinmatographique).

Screened during Berlins Panorama program, the film stars Evelyne Brochu as a doctor working in a womens health clinic on the Palestinian side of the wall that divides the West Bank, while living in an apartment on the Israeli side.

She is friends with both an Israeli woman serving her military service and a Palestinian woman living in poverty, but as an outsider, she struggles against being drawn into the simmering conflict between the two sides.

In addition to the Fipresci prize, director Barbeau-Lavalette was recognized as the 2012 artist for peace by the group Les artistes pour la paix (Artists for Peace.)

The film is nominated for a Canadian Screen Award and was named best Canadian film at the Vancouver Film Festival.

InchAllah, a Canada-France co-production, is to be released next month in France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.