Quadruple Bingo!
✔ Scores for Can Con and book-on-film: Denis Côté did Canada proud in competition, even if he didn't get a bear. The 16mm-shot supernatural Quebecois village drama Ghost Town Anthology, adapted from Laurence Olivier’s 2015 novel of the the same name, has tension, struggles, compassion, heart and humour, qualities sorely lacking in many a 2019 film so far.
✔ Finally, I cried and I laughed and got an unexpected sort-of-happy-ending all in one breathtaking film by an exciting new filmmaker-to-watch
(another score): The documentary Born in Evin by Berlin director-actor Maryam Zaree rightly got the Compass Award for Best Film in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino. “We are very excited to be able to honour a film that moved and impressed all of the members of the jury with equal intensity. It is an important film, as personal as it is political, and we hope very dearly that this combative filmmaker will take us along on many a new journey in the future!” as the jury members shared after reaching their decision. “In Born in Evin, Zaree takes us along on a search for her own past, in a gruesome chapter of Iranian history. Resolute and sincere, brave and moving, the filmmaker relentlessly hunts for answers to unasked questions, in the process drawing us ever-deeper into her story and to a collective blind spot. She takes a stand, undaunted, and assumes responsibility for breaking the silence for an entire generation.”
Fields I should have added to score even more:
✔ (Transit)
strike, which took out bus and subway travel on the second festival Friday.
✔ Political scandal -- like two Chinese films being pulled at the 11th hour for "technical difficulties" or right-wingers attempting to watch a Holocaust film, at the explicit invitation of the festival director, beaten up in front of the cinema by left-wingers.
"Plagiarism" is the sincerest form of flattery -- thank you Fluter magazine for adopting & adapting my #BerlinaleBingo and for playing along
My final #BerlinaleBingo dilemma:
The Berlinale has no volunteers I could thank. There's staff (unionized, protesting low pay in front of the Cinemaxx) and there are (paid) festival interns. So instead, cheers to this year's festival team, especially the fast and helpful press department, for a smooth ride. See you 2 weeks later than usual in the moved-down Berlinale 2020 with a new leadership team.
by
Jutta Brendemühl
