Dylan Mohan Gray’s directorial ‘Fire in the Blood’ bagged the first-ever Prize for Political Film at Filmfest Hamburg last week (on Saturday, 5th October). The award was initiated by the prestigious film festival this year, sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, one of Germany’s most respected foundations.

In fact, this is the third major award for ‘Fire in the Blood’ this year. The film has already won the ‘2013 DOXA Feature Documentary Award’ at Vancouver and the ‘2013 Justice Matters Award’ at the 27th Washington DC International Film Festival. It was also chosen from among several thousand submissions as an official selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.

The Hamburg jury cited the documentary as "superbly researched, making the omnipotence of big business interests appallingly clear... A film which challenges us to fight back."

Narrated by Oscar winner and four-time nominee William Hurt, ‘Fire in the Blood’ tells the story of how Western pharmaceutical companies and governments aggressively blocked access to low-cost AIDS drugs in the years after 1996, directly resulting in no less than 10 million avoidable deaths in Africa and various other parts of the global south. The movie portrays the monumental change brought about by the small, unlikely group of people who decided to fight back against this deeply unjust blockade.

The film is slated to release in select theatres across India on 11th October.