Image: Berlinale
The Berlin Film Festival, or Berlinale, is just one of the many highlights in a city that is full to the brim with culture. In February every year, for two weeks the capital is transformed into a film lover’s paradise, offering workshops, lectures, ritzy star-studded premieres and of course, more film screenings than you could ever hope to possibly attend. It’s incredibly easy to get lost in the chaos that is ticket reservations, let alone the scrimmage for the best seats that occurs as soon as doors open. Still this doesn’t put thousands of people off, native Germans and foreigners who descend on mass especially for the fortnight. It’s dizzying just to think about how much planning goes into an event not only of Berlinale’s size, but also its calibre. The festival programme is packed with films from all around the world in just about every genre, and the audience are really spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding their movie-going schedule.
That is, of course, if you’re lucky enough to get tickets for the films you want to see. The most popular films are always those in competition and the Panorama selection which tend to draw the most high profile films and sell out sometimes in a matter of minutes, this year including Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Clooney’s new effort The Monuments Men, and the controversial director’s cut of Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac Part 1. The best advice is to avoid all the films that will be released in the immediate future and instead seek out things you might not have the chance to see otherwise. With a programme so large there are bound to be a plethora of films that never receive international distribution, which of course makes film festivals all the more exciting. What’s more is that all the films are screened in their original language with English subtitles, catering to the international audience that the festival brings into town.
Despite a week of getting up every morning early to fight the online booking system, I only managed to get tickets for five screenings, but considering I thoroughly enjoyed every film I saw, I can’t really complain. I also got to experience first-hand the fact Germans do not know how to queue, which meant arriving early was pretty pointless and anarchy ruled with the free seating policy. This however is only one of two complaints I have about the festival (the other relating to a very bizarre decision to have a man in the room at one of the screenings with a microphone translating the whole film from Swedish to German, which meant the whole film had a loud, unpleasant echo.) On the whole it was one of the best two weeks I’ve had in the city, packed with discovering new films, marvelling at the transformations of some of Berlin’s most beloved institutions being transformed into makeshift cinemas, and knowing that everyone around is there because they love cinema too. Below are my three favourite festival films from the ones that I managed to catch, all of which I’d highly recommend.
Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, Ireland)
After the success of his debut film The Guard in 2011, McDonagh teams up once again with the marvellous Brendan Gleeson to present this black comedy focusing on a priest who is given a week to live after being threatened in the confessional booth of his church. Simultaneously incredibly funny and incredibly bleak, the performances given by Gleeson and the film’s supporting cast are brilliant, particularly Chris O’Dowd’s first foray into deeper territory than the rom-com life post I.T Crowd has seen him in. I saw Calvary with an Irish friend and she commented on how perfectly the film captured the essence of the country, but for anyone familiar with small town life, Calvary will probably hit home.
’71 (Yann Demange, Britain)
A thought-provoking and incredibly atmospheric look at one horrifying night in the life of a young British soldier sent to Belfast during the riots of 1971, it’s an uncomfortable watch at times but incredibly important. Care has been taken to ensure neither side is looked upon particularly favourably so that the film avoids falling into propaganda territory, and in fact transcends its time period to become a more universal anti-war story. Jack O’Connell, of Skins fame, gives a stellar performance in the main role, proof that there is life after E4.
Beyond Beyond (Esben Toft Jacobsen, Sweden)
Johann is a young rabbit who lives on a boat with his father after witnessing his mother being taken away years earlier by a mysterious monster known as The Feather King. He sets off on an adventure to find her, but his journey has unexpected and potentially world-changing results. Beyond Beyond is an incredibly sweet tale, reminiscent of the works of Studio Ghibli or the wonderful French film Ernest and Celestine, although the animation in Beyond Beyond couldn’t be more different. At any rate it’s a beautifully crafted film that manages to achieve that rare thing in children’s cinema of being enjoyable for all audiences.
If you ever find yourself in Berlin around the beginning of February the Berlinale cannot come recommended highly enough, but for those a little closer to home Yorkshire is host to a bevy of excellent annual film festival programming, including Leeds International Film Festival, Bradford International Film Festival, and Sheffield Documentary Festival, or Doc/Fest. They may not be as big and glitzy as Berlinale, but for film fans who crave something a little off the beat and track, they’re all well worth a look.
Hannah Woodhead