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A FILM about Jews’ role in opposing apartheid in South Africa took home the best film award at the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF).

An Act of Defiance, directed by Jean van de Velde, recounts the story of a group of black and Jewish men who were arrested in 1963 for conspiring to commit sabotage against the South African state.

The award — the film’s 2017 Dorfman Best Film prize — was announced at the festival’s closing event last Sunday.

Simon Chinn, who chaired the judges’ panel, said the film was “powerful and important” and aimed “to correct the record in relation to this key moment in South Africa’s history. Compellingly told, accessible, and with fine performances, we hope it will bring a little-known aspect of the anti-apartheid struggle to a broad international audience.”

The best debut feature award went to Scaffolding. Written and directed by Matan Yair, it tells the story of a 17-yearold boy who rejects the chance to inherit his father’s construction business in order to become a literature teacher.

It was the third award the film has picked up this year, having scooped the best Israeli feature film and best actor prizes at the 2017 Jerusalem Film Festival.

The UKJFF’s best first screenplay award was presented to Shlomit Nehama, for The Women’s Balcony, which centres on a tug of war within a tight-knit Jerusalem community when it learns that its new synagogue will not include a seated area for women.

More than 14,000 tickets were sold for the three-week festival, which saw 115 screenings of 74 films at venues across London and around the country. Organisers said 62 of the screenings were sold out — a record for the festival which has been running since 1997.