Berlinale 2011

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 10 February 2011 11:29

Written by Lynne Shannon

The 61. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (61st Berlin International Film Festival), aka Berlinale, runs February 10 - 20, 2011 in Berlin, Germany at the CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz and several other theaters in Berlin. All of these theaters have a rich past -- even the newer ones -- and while several date back to the 1920's, two opened in 1912 and 1913, and one even opened its doors in 1888!

This festival is not only the city’s largest cultural event, but also one of the select few most prestigious, must-attend events in the world of film.

The Festival is comprised of different sections:

Competition – major international movies
Panorama – independent and art-house films
Generation – films for younger audiences
Perspektive Deutsches Kino – buzzworthy new German films
Forum – films from more remote countries and experimental forms
Berlinale Shorts – short films
Retrospective – films re-discovered and/or celebrated as classics
Homage – spotlighting the life work of a cinema notable

In conjunction with the film festival is the European Film Market (EFM), the film trade fair that has also become one of the most vital film business events.

A Special Presentation is Solidarity with Jafar Panahi, the Iranian director. Festival Director Dieter Kosslick states: “We invited Jafar Panahi to be on the International Jury in 2011. But then in December 2010 he was sentenced to six years imprisonment and banned from filmmaking for the next 20 years. We are going to use every opportunity to protest against this drastic verdict.”

Several of Panahi’s films are being shown through the festival, one in each section.
Included are:

Offside – screening on February 11, 2011, the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. A female football supporter in Iran, dressed as a boy, tries to enter a football game and is caught, as are several other women who are enthusiastic about the game, and held at an enclosure near the stadium. After the game, they will be handed over to the vice squad. (Winner of the 2006 Berlinale’s Silver Bear Award.)

The White Balloon / Badkonak-e Sefid – Panahi’s directorial debut, the film follows a 7-year-old girl to a fish store at Iranian New Year as she tries to keep her hard-won money from slipping out of her grasp a second time.

The Circle / Dayereh – Several unfortunate women come together, each one fleeing a painful circumstance due to the harsh sexism of Iran.

This year, the Retrospective section salutes Ingmar Bergman. The 14 films selected include Autumn Sonata, Cries and Whispers, and Fanny and Alexander, but the rest are lesser known. A couple are his documentaries, and one film which he wrote, Faithless, was directed by his longtime star and partner, Liv Ullmann.  Included are:

Crisis / Kris, Bergman’s film directorial debut in 1945. A small town woman has lovingly raised a foster daughter whose natural mother suddenly appears, her lover in tow. Not knowing who the man is, the foster daughter becomes attracted to him, much to the distress of her foster mother.

A Ship to Indialand / Skepp till Indialand (also known as Frustration) (1947). A sailor returns home after several years. His brutal father had brought his mistress to live with the family, and she and the young sailor had fallen in love.  He now returns for her, braving the rage of his father.

The Touch / Beröringen (1970), Bergman’s first English language film. A housewife is living a normal life with her husband until she meets an archaeologist, with whom she has an affair.  With Elliott Gould, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow.

The Serpent’s Egg / Das Schlangenei (1977). An out-of-work Jewish trapeze artist discovers the sinister truth about a professor’s experiments in 1923 Berlin.  With Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, Gert Fröbe.

This year’s Homage honors the award-winning actor Armin Mueller-Stahl, with yet another award: the Honorary Golden Bear. In addition to a personal appearance for a Conversation with Susan Vahabzadeh (in German), 11 of his films will be screened. They range from his early East German stardom (until a political clash compelled him to escape to West Germany in 1980), through his prolific and ongoing career in Germany, with forays into English language films with directors Jim Jarmusch, Barry Levinson and David Cronenberg, as well as Costa-Gavras, whose film Music Box was Mueller-Stahl’s American film debut. His performance in Shine, directed by Scott Hicks, earned him his first Oscar^® nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Screening are:

Angry Harvest
dir. Agnieszka Holland (West Germany 1984/85)
In Upper Silesia in 1943, an escaped Jewish girl finds refuge with a farmer. Co-stars Elisabeth Trissenaar, Wojciech Pszoniak.

Avalon
dir. Barry Levinson (USA 1990)
Chronicle of three generations of a family spanning a century in Baltimore. Co-stars Aidan Quinn, Kevin Pollack.

Eastern Promises /Tödliche Versprechen
dir. David Cronenberg (US/UK, 2007)
A London midwife’s research leads her into a world of drugs and enforced prostitution, and to a restaurant where a charming but brutal patriarch holds sway over London’s Russian mafia. Co-stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts.

Five Cartridges / Fünf Patronenhülsen
dir. Frank Beyer (East Germany, 1959/60)
In the Spanish Civil War, Five members of the International Brigade have to deliver a message that has been divided up into five cartridges.

Invincible Love / Königskinder
dir. Frank Beyer (East Germany, 1961/62)
In 1930s Berlin, a young couple are in love, and during the war the young man is assigned to a penal battalion. At the front he meets an old friend who had joined the Nazis, and they defect to the Red Army.

Lola
dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (West Germany, 1981)
A high-minded building commissioner arrives in a small Bavarian town and soon falls in love with a prostitute while attempting to expose corruption. Co-stars Barbara Sukowa, Mario Adorf.

Music Box / Die ganze Wahrheit
dir. Costa-Gavras (USA, 1989)
A Hungarian immigrant to the USA is charged with having murdered Jewish compatriots during the Nazi regime. Costa-Gavras’ film won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1990. Co-stars Jessica Lange, Frederic Forrest.

Night on Earth
dir. Jim Jarmusch (UK/Japan, 1989)
All kinds of individuals in five cabs in five different cities during the course of a single night. Co-stars Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder.

Shine
dir. Scott Hicks (Australia, 1995)
The story of Australian concert pianist David Helfgott who suffered a breakdown after a childhood of abuse. Co-stars Geoffrey Rush.

The Flight / Die Flucht
dir. Roland Gräf (East Germany, 1976)
When his superiors at the clinic call a halt to a medical scientist’s research project, he decides to continue his work in West Germany and seeks assistance.

Utz
dir. George Sluizer (UK/Italy/Germany, 1991)
The people are demanding power in Prague as a scholar is dying, and his life is recalled in flashbacks.  Co-stars Brenda Fricker, Paul Scofield.

Another aspect of the festival is the Berlinale Talent Campus, in which about 350 young filmmakers from all over the world are invited to meet with experienced film professionals and personalities for a week of workshops and discussions. This is Berlinale’s contribution to the future of film as the seasoned pros share what they have learned with the pros of tomorrow.

Add to all this the rest of the 400-odd films, and one could say that for this festival, 10 days is not enough.

For more information, go to www.berlinale.de.

61st Annual Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale)
February 10 - 20, 2011

CinemaxX Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Strasse 5
10785 Berlin

and several other venues around Berlin

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