Berlinale 2019 7-9 Feb 2019

Berlinale 2019 - 8-9 February 2019

Berlinale Palast

Hi all! Here we are again at the 69th Berlinale Film Festival!

As always it's a pretty hectic schedule from the minuter you hit the ground - early rises to get into the queue to book onto screenings for Festival films (that's all the films that are in one of the competitive sections -see the Festival website for information on the various sections and what they are here





So far I've seen 6 films (arrived too late on Thursday night to see anything so just a late supper and up early on Friday) - so this is from the first couple of days at the Festival:

Queing to get into the Friedrichstadt Plast

In Competition  
Sytemsprenger (System Crasher)
Grace a Dieu
Ondog


Panorama Section
Temblores (Tremors)
La fiera y la fiesta (Holy Beast)



Forum Section
Querencia







Hot films for me from the above are:

Systemprenger (System Crasher) *****
Director: Nora Fingscheidt, Germany 2019

Q&A with Director and Cast Members

Radio Berlin interview with
Director and Albrecht Schuch

Incredibly gripping and moving film from Germany led by young actor Helena Zengel who is totally captivating in the role of a 9-year-old protagonist, 'Benni' (Bernadette). Zengel's Benni is a troubled child who is as disturbing (following earlier trauma and abuse) as she is endearing. Now in a temporary group home (her mother unable to cope with her boundless energy and sudden bursts of anger), the dedicated, but increasingly despairing professionals who surround her are fast running out of options to provide her with a stable environment in which she can hope for a more settled emotional state. Benni, however, persistently kicks out in the hope that the failure of the 'system' to contain her will result in her being returned to the mother whose affection she longs for. Several relationships become increasingly important to her - her case worker, Mrs Bafane (Gabriella Maria Schmeide) and youth worker, Micha (Albrecht Schuch) who undertakes to offer Benni a 1:1 survival holiday in the forest - which could turn out to be a total disaster or the experience of a lifetime ..... Interesting cinematography and use of editing to create a sense of 'psychological' impact; stunning performance by Helena Zengel and altogether excellent handling of difficult subject matter in a sensitive and insightful way.
See Press Conference highlights here. See trailer here. See Variety review here.

Grace a Dieu *****
Dir: Francois Ozon, France 2019

From inside Berlinale Palast

Compelling dramatisation of the campaign to bring justice for the victims of a paedophile Catholic
priest in Lyon who was finally charged in 2016 (based on the real case of Father Bernard Preynat charged with the sexual assault of some 70 young boys in the 1980s).  This moving film creates drama through deft empathetic portrayal of the adults who gradually overcame the range of emotions which prevented them previously reporting the abuse they experienced by this predatory priest. A searing critique not only of the abuse itself, but of the hypocritical institutional cover-up by the Church which failed to take action to sanction and eradicate the behaviour it officially censures, and allowed the perpetrator to continue working with children until this campaign brought the matter to trial. Excellent acting and chillingly restrained treatment of flashbacks to the memories of the priest's young victims.
See trailer here. See Press Conference highlights here. See Hollywood Reporter review here.

Ondog *****
Dir: Wang Quan'an, Mongolia 2019

A very original film from Mongolia in which a minimal narrative presented with role humour and stunning cinematography delivers a unique movie.

The discovery by local police of a body in the freezing wilderness of the Mongolian steppe leads to the encounter between the rookie cop who is left overnight (!) to guard the scene of the crime (and the corpse) overnight and 'Dinosaur' as she is known - a local woman who leads a solitary existence as a herder of sheep and wild horses, and who is a crack shot at dealing with the wolves that roam the steppe. Their encounter becomes an unexpected learning experience for the rookie cop, and an opportunity for the self-sufficient 'Dinosaur'... A delightfully unusual film which has attracted a lot of attention at the Festival and seems to be the leading favourite for the Golden Bear award.

See Press Conference highlights here. See Variety review here.

Great place for late night street food near the Berlinale Palast!

A word or two about the other films seen to date:

Temblores (Tremors) ***
Dir: Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France/Luxembourg 2019
Managed to get into a Press screening of this on Friday.

Berlinale Radio broadcast live from the cafe in the Cinemaxx
multiplex which is one of the main Berlinale venues.
A good place to see and hear interviews with directors, actors, local journalists each evening live.

Pablo (Juan Pablo Olyslager) leaves his wife and well-to-do, devoutly evangelical family to move in with his lover, Francisco (Mauricio Armas Zabadua) who inhabits a very different  world - the liberal Demi-monde of Guatemala City. Pablo's attempts to reconcile the two very different parts of his life and maintain a relationship with his young children meet with a mixture of incomprehension and horror in the family and they turn to their church for help and advice. The film follows their efforts to 'heal' Pablo of what they regard as a 'sin' and an 'illness', and which a strict regime recommended and led by the pastor of their church can 'cure'... Compelling performances by all.
See Hollywood Reporter review here.

La fiera y la fiesta (Holy Beast)
Dirs: Laura Amelia Guzman & Israel Cardenas, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Mexico 2019
An hommage to Dominican filmmaker Jean-Louis Jorge (1947-2000) with Geraldine Chaplin in the lead.
I'm afraid I found this disappointingly pretentious and stagey.......
See Variety article on this film in January here.

Querencia
Dir: Helvecio Marins Jr., Brazil/Germany 2019
A slightly underwhelming film, though quite interesting to have a glimpse of life in a small-town Brazilian community where cattle-ranching is the staple economy and the  rodeo competition is the passion for the locals. Rather disconcertingly starts off in documentary mode but then adopts a rather contrives narrative to structure the film.


We also managed to fit in a visit to the Me Collectors Room gallery in Augustrasse - a gallery which has a range of pieces from private collections. Quite an eclectic mix - and several real curiosities!  They also have a really good cafe!!

Me Collectors Room cafe (from the gallery)

A Gerhart Richter photorealist piece - interesting to see some of his work - an artist that we'd been looking at in the Cambridge Art Workshop recently

Now here's a real curiosity!

More in the next few days!!