Jordanian Documentary ‘Concrete Land’ Wins Award at London Film Festival

Jordanian documentary “Concrete Land,” directed by Asmahan Bkirat, has won one of the four main awards at the 70th London Film Festival, where documentaries claimed two of the leading honours.

The film marks Bkirat’s directorial debut. Its success placed a first-time Jordanian filmmaker among the winners in a surprising set of festival results.

The other documentary winner was “Imperium,” by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, which took the festival’s official competition prize. The film relies entirely on archival material about the former Soviet Union, without reconstructing the events it depicts.

Together, the awards for “Concrete Land” and “Imperium” gave documentary cinema a prominent place in this year’s results, accounting for half of the festival’s four main prizes.