LIGHT, LOVE, & REVOLUTION
The Theme of Berlin & Beyond 2011
The 1960s and 1970s were the start of a new ‘global’ era for Germany - a period during which the German people were beset by many changes. Increasing political unrest, mass immigration, and the emergence of modern technology threatened the survival of a nation whose identity was already at stake following its defeat in World War II. This era was also a time in which Germany, electrified by the revolutionary politics of America and other thought leaders, gained a new hopefulness for change and the seeds of contemporary Germany began to grow, showing through a mine-filled landscape of traditionalist and revolutionary conflict. In the spirit of growth and change in difficult times, this year’s Berlin & Beyond takes inspiration from this period for this year’s theme, Light, Love & Revolution.
Casting its lens upon this tumultuous political and social world, festival closing film If Not Us, Who chronicles the volatile relationship of revolutionaries and authors Bernwald Vesper and Gudrun Ensslin, later involved in the notorious Red Army Faction. In Face the Wall, five former East German citizens bring to light the shocking life stories of their attempts to flee the GDR. Joschka & Mr. Fischer finds one of German’s preeminent political figures on an eye-opening journey through Germany’s postwar history. In The Fatherless, the wide-eyed optimism of revelatory politics comes to roost in the modern era as the adult children of the leader of a failed commune in Austria attempt to reconcile their confusing past after his death reunites them.
MIGRATION & MULTICULTURALISM
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the mass immigration of Turkish guest-workers in Germany since 1961 that changed the face of both nations and inexorably joined their future. The festival is proud to open with Almanya – Welcome to Germany, a heartwarming, time-spanning account of a multi-generational Turkish/German family. Little Alien is a document of the incredible flight of a group of teenagers from crisis regions to Austria and their struggle to survive in a home that doesn’t quite welcome them with open arms. From their impoverished childhood in the shadow of Chernobyl to their rise to international boxing stardom, the astounding personal history of Ukrainian-born brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko is revealed in Klitschko.
THE LIVES OF CHILDREN | DAS LEBEN DER KINDER
In the same way as Ulrich Müle’s GDR operative Weisler in 2006’s spellbinding The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) is driven to question his own mode of living by the rich interactions of the artists upon which he is assigned to spy, the films of this year’s program seek to show how the lives of children can illuminate our own and lead us to question the lens through which we view our daily interactions. The Poll Diaries re-imagines the coming-of-age of German-Baltic poet and lyricist Oda Schaefer against a backdrop of conflicting nations and political forces. In Winter’s Daughter, a young girl begins a quest to find her birth father in the company of two others in search of something less clear. Five hospital-bound teenage boys band together in Bold Heroes to enjoy the pleasures of youth in defiance of their precarious health.
