Balloon for Allah, A

Crystal Palace International Film Festival 2011
Best Documentary

IAWRT, The International Association of Women in Radio & Television
International Documentary Awards, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 23rd November  2011
 
The Third Honorable Mention went to Nefise Ozkal Lorentzen, director of
A Balloon for Allah - Norway.

Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF)
15th annual festival 2011
RIIFF INTERNATIONAL AMBASSADOR AWARD
"Presented to a filmmaker whose work fosters communication, education and cultural understanding".

As a child, Norwegian-Turkish filmmaker Nefise, sent balloon letters to Allah. In them, she put all her concerns and thoughts in the hope of finding replies to all the questions she could not answer herself. Still looking for answers, she now sets out on a journey to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Islam. Following her grandmother's "Sufi" path, she goes on a quest to discover her grandmother's Islam - an Islamic belief not dominated by the extremist and fundamentalist ways of thinking; a belief where women are not suppressed by their faith and dominant male thinking. She talks to both extremist and liberal Islamic believers and wonders whether in fact these polarized differences is the reason for the lack of understanding that Islamic life and religion face in the Western societies.