A British Jewish film director has been honoured at the Boston Film Festival with its Visionary Filmmaker Award, presented last weekend.

Joshua Newton's film, Iron Cross, was the last film made by Jaws actor Roy Scheider - he died towards the end of filming.

Mr Newton, whose first full-length feature this is, directed, wrote and produced the thriller, in which Scheider stars as Joseph, a retired New York police officer and Holocaust survivor, who travels to Nuremberg following the death of his wife to reconcile with his son Ronnie (Scott Cohen).

The reunion between father and son is quickly overshadowed by Joseph's insistence that living in the apartment above, under a false name, is the now aging SS Commander (Helmut Berger) who murdered Joseph's entire family during the Second World War. Certain of the neighbour's true identity, Joseph draws his reluctant son into a plan to exact justice and vengeance.

In flashback scenes the young Joseph is played by Joshua Newton's son, Alexander, 18, who won the best young actor award at the film festival.

Mr Newton, whose late father Bruno came to Britain on the Kindertransport, is a former pupil of Carmel College.