The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival was held, as a live event, from February 10-20 2022, and despite the fairly subdued mood this year, due to continuing pandemic restrictions, the Festival was considered to be a resounding success.

Over 250 films were screened, spread over a total of twelve sections from Panorama to Forum, all the way to Main Competition. The Awards Ceremony took place on February 16, when the Festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear, was awarded to Spanish director Carla Simon’s Alcarrás by Jury President M. Night Shyamalan. Interestingly, the ceremony was dominated by female filmmakers, who won six of the eight Bears on offer.

A number of premieres took place throughout the duration of Berlinale, covering a diverse variety of genres and themes.  Among the festival highlights was Leonora addio, from Italian director Paolo Taviani.   90-year-old Taviani is a legend of Italian cinema, who, together with his brother Vittorio, has won many prestigious awards, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes (Father Master) and the Golden Bear at Berlinale (Caesar Must Die). In 2018, Vittorio passed away and Paolo Taviani now returns to the cinema in a solo role. Once again, his film Leonora addio delves into the life of Nobel prize-winning playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867 – 1936), to whose works Taviani and Vittorio have turned on more than one occasion.

 

Leonora addio tells the extraordinary story of the adventures of Pirandello’s ashes and the tortuous journey of his urn from Rome to Sicily, his homeland, leading up to his eventful burial that took place fifteen years after his actual death. The film goes beyond that, portraying Pirandello’s final story, The Nail, written twenty days before his death, in which a young boy, Bastianeddu, is torn from his mother’s arms in Sicily and forced to follow his father across the ocean, incapable of healing the wounds that drive him to an irrational action.

In a recent interview, the director explained in response to questions about Leonora’s identity that in the film’s initial script, there was a scene based on the short story Leonora addio, during which the main character sings an aria from Il Trovatore to her daughters, “Leonora addio, Leonora addio…” In the editing, the scene was cut. However, the title of the film was not changed, even though there is not a single note of Verdi in the film, as Taviani believes it is one of Pirandello’s most exciting titles.

Leonora addio is a surrealistic drama depicting unusual stories about funerals, using a mix of archival footage from 1940s Italy and clips from masterpieces of Italian cinema. It is easy to recognize the master’s hand through the beautiful narration, intertwined with underlying humor, and therefore no surprise that impressed FIPRESCI critics awarded the film a prize at Berlinale.

Another highlight was the French film The Passengers of the Night  (Les Passagers de la Nuit) directed by Mikhael Hers. This family/drama offering was, probably, one of the most gentle, warm and romantic films screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.

On election night in 1981, celebrations spill out onto the street and there is an air of hope and change throughout Paris. But for Elisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg), her marriage is coming to an end, and she is struggling to support herself and her two teenage children. She finds work at a late-night radio show, hosted by Vanda (Emmanuelle Beart) and encounters a troubled teenager named Talulah (Noee Abita) whom she invites into her home. Through this, Talulah experiences the warmth of a family for the first time. Although she suddenly disappears from Elisabeth’s life, her free spirit has a lasting influence. Elisabeth and her children grow in confidence and begin to take risks, changing the trajectory of their lives.

The director says that his inspiration for the film came from a program on France Inter radio station: Jean-Charles Aschero’s Les Choses de la Nuit, which ran through most of the night and included a slot titled What’s Your Name? where a guest would talk about their life, after promising to tell the truth. The only thing they could lie about was their name. The presenter could not see the guest, who was in the studio but hidden behind a screen.

It is difficult to disagree with the director when he says that the film is about revisiting the past in the light of the present, which it continues to pervade. It is his way of finding peace with the question of demise and mourning. He also says that another reason he makes movies is to create a semblance of eternity. 

Whispers, the soft voices of Beart and Gainsbourg on the radio, piano notes, popular hits from the ’80s and the heartfelt performance of Abita, combine to create a certain fragile and open-hearted atmosphere, where every character goes in search of their own truth, without forcing others to do the same.

The film is definitely recommended viewing for all audiences, but especially for those who love films that are atmospheric, cozy and sincere to the core.

 

 

 

Indonesian director Kamila Andini’s Before, Now & Then also struck a chord in Berlin. The film is set during the 1960s in  Indonesia, a time of unsuccessful coups d’état and reprisals against communists which did not bypass the family of the main character, Nana. Her husband was kidnapped and although she herself managed to avoid a forced marriage, the incident cost her father his life and thrust Nana into poverty. A few years later, she is living comfortably as the second wife of a wealthy Sundanese plantation owner. But the past continually comes back to haunt her in her dreams.

Director Kamila Andini is a mother and filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Concerns over social culture, gender equality and environmental issues led to her passion to make films with a distinctive narrative perspective. 

Her third feature, Yuni, (2021) won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. Before, Now & Then is her fourth feature film.

“Women are the real victims of our times,” she declares in her director’s statement. “But in every era, there is always the figure of a woman who has never once made herself a victim, even if she cannot be separated from making sacrifices. Before, Now & Then is the story of a woman who is the victim of an era – war, politics, rebellion and the patriarchal society – and who wants to find the meaning of her own freedom, as a woman. Independence for Indonesia did not guarantee freedom for its people; pressure comes in ever-changing forms. With this film I want to show the many forms of pressure that continue to oppress women today.”

The meditative combing of hair, the looks, the walk, the slow pacing are similar in many ways to elements in the films of Ang Lee and Wong Kar Wai in terms of sensuality and image creation. Nana (Happy Salma) carries herself through all conceivable difficulties with superhuman dignity and grace, and yet remains faithful and honest to herself until the end, constantly reminding herself “to be like water,” before, now and then. Indonesian model and actress Laura Basuki who plays Nana’s husband’s mistress with whom Nana becomes friends, deservingly won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for her role.

Another much talked about film portraying the unenviable position of women in society, but told in much more brutal language, was the Audience Award-winning Kazakh film Happiness, directed by Askar Uzabayev and starring Laura Myrzakhmetova.Laura Myrzakhmetova

Happiness tells the story of a vicious circle of domestic violence in a small border town in Kazakhstan. A couple have been married for 23 years, during which the wife has been constantly abused and raped by her alcoholic husband. Their daughter is about to get married and inevitably fall into the same marriage trap as her mother. Is there any way out of these tragic circumstances? 

More than 80% of Kazakh women convicted of murder have committed the crime in self-defense against their abusive husbands or domestic partners. Each year 400 women die from domestic violence in Kazakhstan. Every month there are approximately 120 rapes, 5232 beatings, 14 murders and 48 suicides. And these are just the reported cases. Domestic violence against women and children is a universal problem facing women and children across the world every day.

The Happiness filmmakers are telling the story, not of a single family, but of a problem that women face every day and everywhere. They emphasize that in no way had their goal been to exaggerate the level of violence in the film in order to have a stronger effect on the audience. Bayan Maxatkyzy, one of the Kazakh producers and the personality behind the film, is by far the biggest celebrity in Kazakhstan. In 2016, after 22 years of marriage, she became a victim of her then husband’s violence. He inflicted numerous stab wounds on her body and face. After months in hospital, Bayan survived while her ex-husband went to jail. 

The Berlinale Panorama Jury stated that “this film shows us what it costs to escape the trap of misogyny.” Director Askar Uzabayev expressed his conviction that the filmmakers had managed to convey their message to the audience: winning the Panorama Audience Award was confirmation of this. “To receive a prize, not from the jury, but from the audience, from people who felt our pain, is the best thing that could ever happen in relation to our film. The audience prize is the most valuable prize, in that audience recognition is the goal every director strives for,” he summed up.

Terrifying in their cruelty, some scenes from the film are unforgettable and difficult to watch but, hopefully, such films can help to open a dialogue and lead to future happiness in reality within a hypocritical and victimized society.

Finally, the Festival’s Panorama section screened the world premiere of Сonvenience Store (Russia, Slovenia, Turkey) directed by Michael Borodin, a story of modern-day slavery exposed to thousands of indifferent witnesses.

Mukhabbat (Zukhara Sanzysbay), lives and works in a typical convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. Just like the other workers in the store she does not receive a single ruble for her work and is not allowed to take even a short break. Mukhabbat decides to put an end to this type of life after the owner of the store abducts her newborn son. Overcoming despair and fear, Mukhabbat wins back her freedom and saves the other workers. But in so doing she has to leave Russia. Back home in Uzbekistan, Mukhabbat starts fighting to get her child back at any cost. However, she has to face many challenges and obstacles along the way, dealing with pain, loss and horrifying compromises. 

The film is based on true events. In the early 2000s, a woman was arrested in Moscow after keeping people in her grocery store and forcing them to work for her without payment. Her slaves were immigrants from Central Asia. This case, which occurred in the Moscow district of Golyanovo and is known as that of “Golyanov Slaves,” is a widely known case of enslavement of people in modern day history. The victims of enslavement were citizens of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, mostly women, subjected not only to labor, but also to sexual exploitation and abuse.

“The story of Mukhabbat, a migrant woman struggling for her dignity and freedom, is very personal for me,” said the director. “I came to Russia from Uzbekistan in the early 2010s at the age of 22, and straight away found myself deprived of all civil rights. I was not able to get a resident permit and registration, potential employers could not hire me officially, and many would turn me down because they did not trust a guy with an Uzbek passport.”

The film’s violence takes place behind the scenes, but the viewer’s imagination makes it seem all the more horrific. We need to ask ourselves, is there a universal morality or a law of survival, and is there a defining, justifying component of human existence? Are there situations when a human relationship with another person is not possible because you live in hell?