The 2017 Berlinale Bloggers

Which films or particular moments made the 2017 Berlinale Bloggers feel nostalgic or thoughtful? In this article they jointly reflect on the subject of “Now and then”.

Borders can be geographical, physical, psychological, social, biographical, stylistic, financial... the list is endless. 

With many films at the 2017 Berlinale exploring one’s own role, the way one perceives oneself, and the way one distinguishes oneself from others. 

Two directors collaborate to film with a VHS camera , telling a story that combines Islam Chipsy, one of the most famous Egyptian local composers, and Aisha Devi, the contemporary Swiss composer.

From a global premiere at the Toronto Festival, it was celebrated by an enormous ovation at the festival in New York, then Oscar-nominated for best documentary movie, and finally crowned with the audience award for best documentary movie at the Berlinale Panorama. Some consider "I Am Not Your Negro", directed by American director Raoul Peck, to be the most important documentary movie produced in 2016.
 

Entered in the Panorama section, the documentary Chavela is an interesting portrayal of the most universally acclaimed Mexican singer. Nobody can fail to be affected by her intense biography.

Our Berlinale Blogger doesn't agree with where all the prizes went, but the evening itself was an amusing, star-studded event that made a perfect finale to the festival. 

The Berlinale handed out Golden and Silver Bears to eight films out of the 18 entries. The highest award went to the Hungarian production, "On Body and Soul".

Create a new party and become a country's third political force in less than two years? It's possible. To find out how, you must see Política, Manual de Instrucciones (Politics, Instruction Manual) by director Fernando León de Aranoa.

Bloggers from twelve countries accompanied the Berlinale, reporting daily for the Goethe-Institut. In the photo interview, one of them looks back at ten days in a bear costume and the hidden power of women.

With the joint Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Irish coproduction Kongens Nei, Erik Pop recounts Norwegian history from this exact perspective, and in a monumental manner. King Haakon VII is brought to life for 8 million euros. 

As a Berlinale Blogger, it's not all about the competition entries - here we look at the art of looking for hidden gems in the programme. 

Andres Veiel's documentary BEUYS shows the artist as a trailblazer and popstar among institutional critics. Unfortunately, the Fluxus movement with Yoko Ono, Valie Export or Marina Abramovic is not mentioned in the film.

The NATIVe programme of films from the Berlinale proved that the Arctic Circle is a cinematically rich world with a vast array of stories to tell.

Ole Giævers' second feature-length film fra Balkongen zooms, by means of Google Maps, from the Earth itself all the way to Grünerlokka and his own balcony accompanied by heroic music. His life represents the life of all people, he later says in a Q&A. 

“I Am Not Your Negro” is steeped in statements about the chasm between white and black America. “The Young Karl Marx” waxes wise about the disparity between the wealthy and the working class. Both draw their existence from the real-life utterings of men concerned with divisions in their society – and in both, words matter. So, for audiences, the timeliness of the phrases and thoughts is contained within.

Berlinale. Not just 125 films by women and 399 by men, but several fringe events, including panels, meetings and conferences. 

With "Headbang Lullaby" Hicham Lasri continues his surrealistic reading of the Moroccan history.

The German-French coproduction "Tania Libre" is the second documentary film by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Sitting in the first row, I am startled when I spy large hairs in the nostrils of Dr Frank Ochberg, an American trauma psychologist.

Álex de la Iglesia presented his new film El Bar, a horror comedy that portrays the struggle for survival by a group of people locked in a bar. 

Director Hui-chen Huang, producer Diana Chai-wen Lee and editor Jessica Wan Yu Lin came to the Berlinale to present “Small Talk¨, an tender and extremely candid documentary, in the Panorama section. The film observes the director’s mother who is homosexual but was married off at a young age.

In “My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea” and “Emo the Musical” there’s no dancing, but the two crazy films offer some comic moments. This is perhaps the right attitude at the end of this Berlinale, which has once again proven itself to be highly problem-focused.

A genre film which combines the precise psychology of kidnapping films with solid horror effects, and a “Martial Arthouse” experiment with hard-core fight scenes and fast-paced sequences: “Berlin Syndrome” and “Tiger Girl” conjure up a dangerous Berlin.

Films, and the festivals that bring them together, have long performed a crucial task: bridging the gap that separates audiences from other parts of the world.

The biggest compliment that can be directed towards "Call Me By Your Name" is also the simplest one: for 130 minutes, watching viewers don’t just witness a 17-year-old boy become infatuated with his father’s charming new assistant, nor understand it; they feel as though they’re in the exact same situation themselves.

Improvised scenes and fast cutting with brief interludes of electronic music: „Tiger Girl“ by Jakob Lass is an alter-ego film à la „Fight Club“. Berlin's answer to „Kill Bill“ with a strong identity of its own. 

Being a young filmmaker is hard work. Not only do you need to have five professions at the same time, fight the overwhelming inertia and still make a living, but the people around you also put a lot of effort into trying to clip your wings. This year's edition of Berlinale Talents brilliantly depicts all this 'friendly' advice.

Berlinale Talents is one of the most interesting initiatives at the festival. As well as networking opportunities and numerous workshops for young filmmakers, it also includes lectures delivered by recognized artists. One of the most popular was a masterclass with the outstanding Polish director Agnieszka Holland.

The feature-length film "Joaquim" and the short "You Are Seeing Things" (Está vendo coisas) compete for the Golden Bear, the Berlinale's top prize

Filmmaker Fernando Pérez searched over 20 neighbourhoods in Old Havana to find the location for “Últimos días en La Habana”, the film he presented in the Berlinale’s Special section.

Brazil's João Moreira Salles and Germany's Andres Veiel took to the stage in Berlin to discuss the essence of the documentary and the use of archival images.

Brazilian filmmakers read letter in Berlin asking for their country’s audiovisual policies to be upheld and expanded. In the letter, the filmmakers point to the advances made by the audiovisual sector in recent years in terms of public policy, thanks to the work of Ancine, Brazil’s regulatory body for the film industry. The advances can be seen in the participation of the Brazilian films in international film festivals – such as the Berlinale.

The Berlinale means not only premieres of feature films and documentaries, but also retrospectives. This year's Retrospective is devoted to SF cinema, and you have to agree that it looks impressive – including both classic and exotic titles from the genre.

"Almost Heaven" – a tender coming-of-age documentary about young undertakers at a funeral home in Hunan Province.

“The Party”, Sally Potter’s latest film, is a political satire that takes a withering look at the progressive left and concludes that all we can do is laugh. Everything goes wrong and it’s very, very funny.

“Nalu on the Border” and “Don't Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl!”, two films from the Generation programme, tell stories set in Brazilian borderlands.

Margarete Kreuzer’s “Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream” documents a German music legend. “Tangerine Dream is science fiction”: Edgar Froese said that himself; nobody could describe the futuristic sound of his music better than the uncontested head of what was for a while the most successful German band on the planet.

Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and visitors.
 

Mr. Long is a coproduction of Japan/Hong Kong/Taiwan/Germany. The Japanese director Sabu mixes contrasting elements of violence and delicious food with jumps between past and present, depicting a fantastic world where a killer finds a temporary peace through his exchanges with other people, and coincidence and fate return humanity to a lost soul.

„Pendular“ and „Venus – Filly the Lesbian Little Fairy“, films shown as part of the Panorama programme, inhabit the intersection between dance, sculpture and poetry.

One of the generally permanent roles of Cinema and Documentary Film, in particular, is connecting the past to the present. Searching through the past generations’ log books for tales not known to ordinary people, and straightly extending the lines of those tales to confirm what we all know, that humanity has recurring faces and that the suffering of humans shall continue across generations as long as its reasons remain.

Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and visitors.

There have always been “hybrid” documentaries, but at this year’s Berlinale they are especially prominent. Of course, it is difficult to clearly define the concept: not only do the films deal mainly with diversity, but they also differ tremendously from one another.

Since its formation in 1951, the films in Berlinale's official competition have taken viewers on a journey that ranges much further than the trip from their home to the cinema.

Luca Guadagnino’s film “Call me by your name” is the only Italian offering at the Berlinale. It is a shame that it has not been entered for an award. 

Two very different films at the Berlinale follow the story of British people creating borders in foreign nations, confronting an uncomfortable history of colonialism while calling for compassion and respect.

In “Helle Nächte” (Bright Nights), Director Thomas Arslan made tangible to me the extent to which father Michael hurt his son Louis through his absence – and how irreversible this is.

Given Berlinale’s previous years’ choices of films that achieved the honour of opening the session, we may remark on the great courage of its administration this year in choosing the French film “Django” by Etienne Comar to open the festival’s 67th session.

The Brazilian films "Como nossos pais" and "Vazante" present two different points of view of the role of women in the 19th century and today.

While handsome, “Final Portrait” is never formally daring and rarely exciting. For a film that speaks of art being uncontrollable, surreal and rebellious, it feels a little too tame, too emotionally straightforward.

2017 does not shape up to have a record German showing at the Berlinale. While 2016 was a great overall Berlinale year with Meryl Streep as opinionated jury president, a George Clooney-starring new Coen brothers film as opener, and Fassbinder-cum-Hollywood cinematographer Michael Ballhaus as the homage honouree --an outstanding German festival year it wasn’t by any stretch. 

Female characters play a dominant role in the recent films of Chilean director Sebastián Lelio. We saw this at the 2013 Berlinale, where his female-themed film “Gloria” took home awards and was a critical success, and we’ve seen it again this year with “A fantastic woman”. 

What is beauty? In his first feature-length film, “Pieles” – which elicited loud applause from the audience at this year’s Berlinale – director Eduardo Casanova tries to answer this age-old question with a slap in the face to the viewer. 

A migrant worker returns to his hometown, a godforsaken region strewn with ruined buildings and forlorn-looking streets, which feels more like a ghost town than home.

TV has carved out its place at most major international festivals and the Berlinale has been at the forefront of the new wave. 

What is being loved? And where is the line between that and sex? These are the questions been asked of the three characters in “Close Knit”, Naoko Ogigami’s fourth appearance at the Berlin Film Festival.

These two films open this year’s section “German cinema perspectives”: “Gabi” and “Back For Good” are mini-treatises on the subject of identity – women’s identities, in both cases.

​February 9th, the Berlin International Film Festival is here. It's a clear day and the temperature is -3℃. Last night Potsdamer Platz was busy with preparations for the event, but today it is quietly waiting for the festival to begin. This will be the first time I have participated in the Berlin International Film Festival so I want to absorb as much of this scene as possible.

"Ciao Ciao" portrays the reverse culture shock experienced by a young girl who returns from the megacity of Guangzhou to her hometown in Yunnan.

‘Danny!’ a mass of people yells as a man enters a building via a side entrance. ‘Diego!’ someone exclaims as an actor takes his seat in a crowded theatre. At one of the biggest film festivals in the world, star spotting both on and off the red carpet outside of the Berlinale Palast is a regular occurrence.

Filmmaker Hui-chen Huang shows her personal journey towards reconciliation of her childhood. It is also an analysis of her encompassing society’s connection to gender equality and varying identities and sexual orientations.

 

For Australians, “telly” is a regularly used term for the small screen. When Melbournian in New York Naomi (Emily Browning) slips it into a conversation, however, it causes the American son of her mother’s college roommate, Buddy (Jason Schwartzman), to laughingly call for a translator.

The director Davi Pretto takes us on a journey to Brazil’s rural south. Shown in the Forum section, his film is about the powerlessness of the individual in the face of land speculation and the tough reality of rural life – and features the aesthetics of a western. 

“Django”, the film about the celebrated jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, opened the Berlinale. Nevertheless, this biopic focuses less on his musical abilities – and instead concentrates on depicting his life as the son of a Sinti family during the Second World War.

Once again, the international film world will be all about bears for the next ten days, as the Berlinale 2017 has begun. 

I’ve been to festivals before in my home country, Scotland, so I knew a little bit of what to expect, but the Berlinale is a totally different beast to anything hosted in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Of the 24 films presented in this year's competition or out of competition, no less than five are set in the world of the arts. Escapism? Or a sign of the times? 

What brings an Australian dog to Berlin? When the pooch in the spotlight is a rust-coloured kelpie known for his wandering ways, that’s a surprisingly easy question to answer. Six years after the first film enjoyed its world premiere in Germany, the sequel returns to unleash another account of Red Dog’s exploits.

Stonehead, as part of this year’s Generation Kplus section, describes the tale of how a brand new football carries hope, desire and signifies the plight of “left-behind children” in a small village of Guangxi Province.

Everyone says it’s the favourite. And it is almost inevitable: Aki Kaurismaki is the quintessential “festival” director – one of those directors both jury and public can’t help but love.

Georgia has many stories to tell, and it wants to share them with the world: the films from the former Soviet republic at this year’s edition of the Berlinale are perfect in form and very critical.

Alexanderplatz, 9 a.m. Thursday 9 February 2017. We are sitting on a train on the U2 line towards Potsdamer Platz. Normally, all of the passengers would be looking into their mobiles. However, a gentleman next to us is reading a newspaper. The page is open on an article entitled “The most eagerly awaited stars in Berlin”.

Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog “German Film @ Canada” on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, actors, curators, industry promoters and visitors.

From 9 to 19 February 2017, Germany's biggest film festival once again welcomes filmmakers from all over the world to the nation's capital. Our bloggers will be reporting live.

Brazil is making its mark at the Berlinale by showing films in the most important sections of the programme. The feature film "Joaquim" by Marcelo Gomes will be screened in the Competition section.

Part of a series of mini profiles on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, industry promoters and visitors.