A movie that gives an Arab perspective on Islamic terrorism has won the main prize at one of Italy's top cinema festivals.
Tunisian director Nouri Bouzid won the Golden Tauro award at 53rd edition of the Taormina Film Fest with Making Of, the story of how an ordinary young Arab boy is lured towards becoming a suicide bomber.
Bouzid will be awarded the prize at a ceremony at the Sicilian city's ancient Greek amphitheatre on Friday night.
The movie reveals the social and psychological conditions that can make young people in Arab countries vulnerable to fundamentalists.
It has also earned praise for the way it shows that Islamic terrorism is not just a problem for the West, but also a cancer at the heart of Arab society.
Bouzid is considered one of North Africa's best filmmakers.
The 62-year-old spent much of the 1970s in prison in Tunisia because of his membership of an illegal political movement.
His first feature film, L Homme de Cendres (1986), won the Carthage Film Festival Gold Tanit, one of Africa's top cinema prizes.
Since then, he has gained a reputation for addressing touchy subjects that other Arab directors often avoid.
Bouzid's lead actor in Making Of, Lotfi Abdelli, took the 2007 Taormina festival's best actor prize.
Friday's awards ceremony will feature a concert by legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, who won a lifetime achievement Oscar in February.
There will also be a reading of stories from around the world about human rights, presented by the Robert F. Kennedy Association.
Robert Kennedy's daughter Kerry, who is here representing the association, said they are stories of "people who have fought against oppression and risked their lives for the non-violent conquest of human rights".
As well as being one of Italy's oldest festivals, Taormina is also widely respected for the quality of the major independent movies it manages to attract.
