Isabella by Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung has won the Silver Bear Award for best film music Saturday at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, which is one of greatest foreign honors for a Chinese movie in recent years.

Peter Kam, The composer for Isabella, said he took a minimalist approach in writing the score, "I liked using lots of music, very noisy music in my past movie scores, especially in Hong Kong, because we want the atmosphere to be stronger and more obvious. But what's different about this movie is, director and I tried to use less music because we wanted to let the actors act," he told Sina.com in an interview.

It was reported that many audience were deeply moved by his score and theme song, sang in Portuguese, for Isabella.

The Berlin Film Festival opened on February 9, and the committee of the festival announced on January 18 on the title list entering the final competition. Among the 23 announced titles, Isabella is the only one Chinese title, starred by Chapman To Man Chat and Isabella Leong.

Isabella is invested by Media Asia and has a production budget of HK$10 million. The plot goes around a Macao policeman who bumps into his long abandoned daughter when he is at his very low point in his life. While he wants to carry on his single life as is, his daughter insists to stay with him. This situation brings on great impact to his life.
 
Besides, The Grbavica by Sarajevo director Jasmila Zbanic took home the Golden Bear for best film at the end of the festival. And the eight-member jury awarded two other films, Offside and En Soap with Silver Bear Jury Prizes.

(CRI, hkfilmart February 19, 2006)