Berlinale gets underway

First in major international film festivals features eclectic fare

The Berlin International Film Festival was in full swing this week, despite disappointment at the absence of Hollywood stars Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger and Jude Law who were originally poised to attend the screening of their opening-night film Cold Mountain.
Nearly 400 films from 44 countries are competing for attention the judges' top prize, the Golden Bear, to be awarded tomorrow night (February 14). Cold Mountain, which already received seven Oscar nominations, is not an official contender in the festival competition.
Instead, 23 other feature-length films are competing for the prestigious Golden Bear. A principal focus of this year's competition is on films from Latin American and South Africa, to mark the 10th anniversary of free elections following the end of apartheid in that country.
This year's jury again consists of seven international film experts from a variety of disciplines. This year's President of the Jury is actress Frances McDormand who'll be adjudicating prizes alongside Ethiopian filmmaker Maji-da Abdi, Italian actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf, German producer Peter Rommel, Italian director Gabriele Salvatores, and American distributor Dan Talbot.
The films in competition are from 18 countries; 19 are world premieres, two are directing debuts. In Samaria (Samaritan Girl), bodies are prostituted to finance a journey to lands of greater prosperity. In the Argentinean competition entry El abrazo partido (Lost Embrace), some of society's losers try to improve their lot by changing their nationality. In Sylvia Chang's 20 : 30 : 40, three women from Taipei dream of another life. In Maria, Ilena de gracia (Maria Full of Grace), the main character Maria takes on a job as drug runner to escape her gloomy existence. And in the last film of the Competition, 25 degrés en hiver (25 Degrees in Winter), the hero yearns for a reunion with his beloved.
The 26-year-old Lebanese director Omar Naïm, who is based in the United States, will present the world premiere of his directing debut, a futuristic thriller entitled The Final Cut. In a near future, organically implanted microchips record a person's life and are removed and edited by a "cutter" postmortem to create a reel depicting the life of the departed for a commemorative ceremony, called a Rememory. One "cutter" discovers a dangerous secret that forces him to question the power of his own memories, and re-evaluate his own life. Robin Williams, Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino co-star in this film.
In Lightning in a Bottle, Antoine Fuqua documents a concert at the New York Radio City Music Hall, where musicians of all genres and generations gathered to pay homage to the Blues. The film was co-produced by Martin Scorsese, who recently produced a seven-part TV series on the Blues.
Famed South African director John Boorman is presenting his new feature, Country of My Skull, about an American journalist's encounter with the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche.
Cult British filmmakers Ken Loach and Peter Greenaway are both there screening their latest films. Also from Europe, Fatih Akin presents Head On, a movie about second-generation Turkish immigrants in Germany. The only Italian in the main competition is Matteo Garrone's Primo Amore (First Love).
From the U.S. there's more edgy or indie-flavoured fare, with Patty Jenkins' Monster; Richard Linklater's Before Sunset; and even Ron Howard's atypical The Missing.
Other Italian films at the festival include Sandro Dionisio's La volpe a tre zampe (The three-legged Fox) (Kinderfilmfest programme), which recounts a tale of everyday life in Naples during the 1960's as seen through a child's eyes; Gianni Minà's Travelling with Che Guevara (Panorama programme) which documents Ernesto "Che" Guevara's motorcycle trip through South America in 1952 and how it politicized him; and Francesca Comencini's Mi piace lavorare (Mobbing) (Panorama programme).

Publication Date: 2004-02-15
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3655