Oscar-winning director Roberto Benigni is about to embark on a work of controversy. His latest project, 'La Tigre E La Neve' is a comedy movie set against the backdrop of wartorn Iraq. Italian-born Benigni, who has also starred in many of his movies, will be playing the lead as a poet who gets sucked into the chaos that follows America's 2003 attack on Iraq.

It is hoped that the film will do for the Iraq war what his 'Life Is Beautiful' did for the Holocaust.

'It's certainly not a documentary. But everything, right from the beginning of the (Iraqi) conflict is extremely well documented,' explains Benigni.

In 1997, Benigni won an award for 'Life Is Beautiful', where he played a Jewish father who protects his son from the horrors of a concentration camp by make-believing it is all a game. Whilst the film catapaulted Benigni to new heights, the eccentric Italian was criticised for making light of such a poignant time in history.
Benigni defended his approach by saying that humanity is at the heart of all his movies. It remains to be seen what type of response will greet 'The Tiger And The Snow'.