The Boston Film Festival closed out its 33rd annual event with six awards to Sir John Hurt’s final film Damascus Cover.
A political thriller, Damascus Cover is set in Syria and made its world premiere at the festival. It took home honors for Best Film, Best Director (Daniel Berk), Best Actor (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), Best Actress (Olivia Thirlby), Best Cinematography (Chloe Thompson) and Best Ensemble Cast. Rhys Meyers and Berk also participated in a panel discussion on the making of Damascus Cover.
The true-life spy thriller was shot in Casablanca. Rhys Meyers plays an undercover agent sent to Syria in 1989 to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of Damascus.
Produced by the UK’s Big Book Media, the film is based on the bestselling 1977 novel by Howard Kaplan. Daniel Berk directed, based on a script he wrote with Samantha Newton. Hannah Leader (Gosford Park is the producer.
