Berlinale

{Film Team, including Willem Dafoe, at the premiere of Siberia, February 24, 2020}

Most people have heard of the Venice Film Festival. And of course, Cannes.

{Watch Cannes Oscar Berlinale here}

But many people, my family included, were not aware that there are three major film festivals in Europe.

{Hillary Clinton at the photocall for Hillary, February 24, 2020}

The third being Berlinale here in Berlin. And this year marked the 70th year of this international film festival.

{2020 marks the 70th Berlinale Filmfestival}

Last year, Dave I went to one of the films for our Saturday night date night. There was a red carpet and a hubalabu about some of the people walking down it (we did not recognize them).

{70th Berlinale Film Festival trailer}

We were excited to be there, taking advantage of another unique Berlin experience. But we didn’t truly understand the magnitude of the event.

{Philippe Falardeau, Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley at the press conference for My Salinger Year, February 20, 2020}

This year, however, I was so excited to attend the festival and intentionally blocked out time so I could go.

Over the course of ten days, I watched seven films and went to hear Helen Mirren in conversation. Two with Dave, four alone and one with Ben and my friend and her son.

I went with Dave on the morning of the first Friday of the festival to the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) on the edge of the Tiergarten, near Schloss Bellevue, where the German president lives.

https://www.adk.de/en/

{Akademie der Künst}

We were greeted by Cristina Nord who has been the head of the Berlinale Forum since August 2019.

{Our welcome to Berlinale by Cristina Nord}

We watched Soleil O, first released in 1973. It follows an educated man from Mauritania who tries to find work in Paris but encounters difficulty because of his race. We both gave it a thumbs up.

{Soleil O}

Next, I surprised Dave for our Saturday night date night by going to the Zeughauskino, part of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.

{Zeughauskino}

Here we watched La Bohème, the 1926 black and white silent film directed by King Vidor. The Film Festival honored the proficient American director by screening dozens of his films. The film we watched was accompanied by a pianist on a grand piano who played the entire 95 minutes of the film without sheet music.

Silent screen superstar Lillian Gish takes on the role of Mimi in the classic tragic love story that has inspired an opera, the Broadway musical Rent, and Moulin Rouge. And we both loved the experience.

{La Bohème}

The next day, while Dave was on a flight to Mexico City, Ben was attending a birthday party and Isaac was at a friend’s house, I slipped away to Cinemaxx in Potsdamer Platz to watch Gunda.

{Cinemaxx in Potsdamer Platz}

Gunda is a film with no dialogue, shot in black and white.

{Gunda}

It was shot in Sweden, the UK, and Spain. The movie follows the lives of a mother pig, Gunda, and her newborns, as well as cows and bulls in pasture and chickens, including a one-legged chicken, during their first time out of a cage.

{Still from Gunda}

After hearing Joachim Phoenix’s Oscar speech, which included a call for animal rights, people urged the director to show the film to Phoenix, who immediately signed on as an executive producer. It was beautifully shot and heartbreaking during the last scene when a tractor came with a cage and unexpectedly took Gunda’s ten babies from her. Gunda is then shown circling the yard, crying out to her children.

After the film, the team, including the director, Victor Kossakovsky, as well as Gunda’s farmer, took to the stage to speak and answer questions.

{Gunda director Victor Kossakovsky after the screening}

On Tuesday, I went to Cinestar Cubix in Alexanderplatz to watch Exil.

{Cinestar Cubix in Alexanderplatz}

After a frustrating day of work, Xhafer returns home to find that someone has hung a dead rat at his front gate. The question of who did it and why slowly eats at him, forever altering his relationship at work and at home. Because Xhafer is a Kosovar living in Germany, what could be seen as office politics now seems to have another, unspoken reason behind it. When Xhafer’s German wife suggests the incident might not have been because his coworkers are discriminating against him, but because they just don’t like him, Xhafer is offended — but cannot clearly say she’s wrong. After a shocking event, Xhafer is forced to confront his identity and the kind of person he truly is.

A

{Exil}

And I absolutely loved this psychodrama that proves that tensions can be an issue for immigrants at all socioeconomic levels.

On Wednesday, I watched two very intense movies.

The first was the Norwegian film Hap (Hope), which brought me back to Cinemaxx in Potsdamer Platz. Though it is a tough story, it is also a beautiful reminder that when push comes to shove, family means everything and love can prevail.

{Hope}

What happens with love when a woman in the middle of her life gets three months left to live? Anja (43) lives with Tomas (59) in a large family of biological children and stepchildren. For years, the couple has grown independent of each other. When Anja gets a terminal brain cancer diagnosis the day before Christmas, their life breaks down and exposes neglected love.

I stayed after the film and listened to the director reveal that the story was based on her life (the terminal diagnosis, it all occurring around Christmas, the six kids both biological and step). Three years later, she stood before us telling her story. It was very touching. And I really enjoyed the movie.

{View of the Alexanderplatz Bahnhof from Cinestar Cubix}

I then hopped onto the 300 bus and rode to Cinestar Cubix Alexanderplatz to watch Golda Maria.

{Golda Maria}

Golda Maria was a holocaust survivor and a beloved mother and grandmother whose past was shrouded in mystery.

Born in 1910 in a Jewish family in Poland, raised in 1920’s Berlin, she has to flee to Paris in 1933 and run again to the free zone during the war, where she is separated from her husband and daughter. In May 1944, just a few days before the Normandy landing, she is arrested and deported with her young son. After 12 months in the horror of the camps, she comes back to Paris, without her son but with a life to resume. And a family to love.

In 1994, film producer Patrick Sobelman recorded his grandmother’s story. 
Over two decades later, along with his son Hugo, they will shape Golda’s story into a loving portrait which not only uncovers family secrets but which is also a universal testimony from a courageous and spirited woman.

I cried and smiled. And it was so much more poignant watching this film in Berlin amongst Germans whose parents or grandparents could have contributed to such suffering.

{Hebbel am Ufer Theater – HAU 1 – Hebbel on the Bank in Kreuzberg}

That night, I had the privilege, with the ticket price of €13, to see Helen Mirren at the Hebbel am Ifer – HAU 1 – Theater.

{View of the crowd from my cheap seats in the upper balcony}

For an hour and a half, Helen, with the prompting of a moderator, shared stories around five of her past roles. Clips from films and a TV Serial were shown with Helen sharing stories about how she played and impacted those roles.

{My view of Helen Mirren}

I’ve always loved Helen, but now have a newfound admiration for her warmth, wit, and humor. And look forward to watching those movies I haven’t seen starting with The Station and The Queen.

{Haus der Berliner Festspiele, or House of the Berlin Festival}

On Friday, I traveled from Pankow after school drop off for forty-five minutes by tram and U-Bahn to head towards Wilmersdorf to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele to see Charlatan.

It had had its world premiere at Berlinale the night before and this had been the last of the four viewings that still had tickets available.

{Charlatan}

The film is based on a story of healer Jan Mikolášek who used his skills and experiences to heal various people with remedies. He healed not only poor people but also famous personas such as Czechoslovak president Antonín Zápotocký. Mikolášek’s activities got the attention of the Communist regime which following Zápotocký’s death imprisoned Mikolášek.

This filmed was historically interesting, beautifully shot and reminded one of the powers of plants and mindset to aid in the healing process.

{Young adult Shorts}

On Sunday, Ben and I, along with our neighbor Isabel and her son, went to Cubix in Alexanderplatzplatz for a series of young adult shorts.

{Berlinale tickets for the shorts}

We had gotten four tickets through the school at a reduced price and finished off the festival here.

https://www.platanus-schule.de/en/wir-sind-im-berlinale-fieber/

{Ben and John at Berlinale}

There were six shorts from six different countries. You could listen in the original languages using headphones as all of the films had German voice overs. The non-English films also had English subtitles.

These were complex, lovely films covering life, death, struggle, and joy. The American film, Broken Bird, was shot in Philly and I almost cried with joy when Terry Gross’s intro was played in the background as I have so missed hearing her voice.

{Shorts directors Q&A}

Ben didn’t quite understand some of the themes including Ethiopian death rituals or a trans teen struggling as he got his period for the first time, but he stuck with them and even asked to stay afterward for the directors to comment and answer questions. I love that I could share that with him.

{Potsdamerplatz}

I feel very fortunate that I was able to attend the festival. I love movies and it was especially nice to know that all of the films would have English subtitles, something that is not a given in Berlin. Looking back I realize that many of the movies had sad themes, but I still enjoyed spending my days in packed theater watching humanity unfold before my eyes.

I would have to rank the shorts as well as Exil, Hap and Golda Maria as my favorite movies from the festival. I’m so thankful to have been able to attend so many screenings and look forward to going next year.

I urge my family and friends to consider a trip to Berlin next February for this extraordinary festival.