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Cinema entertainment entertainment news

Shooting Stars 2023 at the Berlinale      

The 73rd Berlinale European Shooting Stars Awards were presented at a festive gala on 20th February, 2023. The evening awards recognizing new talent were moderated by journalist Nadine Kreutzer. During the weekend before the event, the ten Shooting Stars nominees participated in promotional interviews. Black and Paper talked to three of them.

Shooting Stars
Gizem Erdogan
Shooting Stars
Thorvaldur Kristjansson
Shooting Stars
Judith State

Judith State from Romania had classical ballet training and is now a professional actress, choreographer and dancer. She says, “I always see myself first and foremost as a dancer.” In 2016, State made her screen debut in Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada. She considered her involvement in the film as a “beautiful accident”. After premiering in Cannes, she was also nominated for a Romanian Gopo Award for Best Supporting Actress. She adds, “Ever since that moment I have been involved and have been lucky to now combine my careers in dance and film.” 

State received a Gopo Award for Best Actress in Marius Olteanu’s 2018 debut film Monsters, and Cristi Puiu’s Manor House in 2020. Both films premiered at the Berlinale and Cristi Puiu also won the Encounters Award for Best Director. In 2020, State also starred in Daniel Sandu’s The Father Who Moves Mountains and Liviu Marghidan’s Refuge. The dance film Zenith, by Hungarian director Gyuri Kristoff, followed in 2021. In 2022 she played the lead role in Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., which premiered in Cannes. Otherwise, State doesn’t feel Romania appreciates home grown films despite international awards, adding “It is quite painful!” 

Gizem Erdogan’s Turkish parents moved to Sweden in the 1970s, where she was later born.  She studied at the Conservatory in Sweden then did a couple of years on stage. In 2014 she got the part in her debut feature film Dream On. For the film, Erdogan was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Guldbaggen Swedish Academy Awards. In 2020 the TV series Caliphate made her a national star. She has since won three Best Actress awards and says, “Caliphate was a breakthrough role for me.”    

“I am afraid of going back to the theatre,” Kristjansson

This is Erdogan’s first participation at the Berlinale. However, she confessed, “I had been dreaming about Shooting Stars since I went to drama school.” She also admitted that it is a busy schedule for the participants. Erdogan added, “I hope Shooting Stars will give me the opportunity to do international co-productions.” One such co-production is scheduled soon, but is something she can’t talk about at the moment.  

Thorvaldur Kristjansson started out in the theatre, admitting there were initially less opportunities in film. His first film role was Black’s Game in 2017, earning him a nomination for Best Actor at the Eddan Icelandic Film and TV Awards. In 2020 Kristjansson won Best Supporting Actor for The Minister, a TV Series. Roles followed in the locally popular films I Remember You and Life in a Fishbowl. He then provided voice-over for the 2021 animated short Yes-People, the film receiving an Oscar nomination. In his latest film, A Letter from Helga, he adapted the Lee Strasberg method acting style. The film topped the Icelandic box office in 2022.  

Last year Iceland had four films at the Berlinale but nothing this year. Kristjansson explains, “We are a growing industry but it’s such a small market, funded by the government.” However, he is happy they are now making independent productions, hence more variety. Currently based in Stockholm, Kristjansson is focusing on his film and TV work. He says, “I am afraid of going back to the theatre, to be honest. It is a muscle that you have to exercise.” However, with film, he adds, “You have to be in a perfect mode of focus. You need to go out and then go in (again).”  

Meanwhile, at the Berlinale, Finnish stage, TV, and film actor Alina Tomnikov won the European Shooting Stars Award for 2023. Her current film is the comedy drama The Worst Idea Ever. 

By Steven Yates     

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Cinema entertainment news Feature

Personal Favs From The Berlinale

Berlinale

After the announcements of the main awards of this year’s Berlinale, other films also deserve recognition. In the Encounters section, The Klezmer Project was directed by Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann. Although it did not win (Here, by Bas Devos, took the prize), The duo’s work deserves stand-alone appraisal. Leandro, a frustrated Jewish wedding cameraman in Argentina meets and falls in love with a clarinetist. To spend time with her he contrives a documentary project commission for television. This project will take him across the remotest parts of Eastern Europe.

The Klezmer Project is original in that it adds a linear fictional narrative onto what is otherwise a documentary. It also manages to do this very seamlessly to provide double interest and entertainment. The quest to find the lost klezmer melodies that have been safeguarded by the Romani people both educates and fascinates. The film was recognized by winning the GWFF society Best First Feature Award. The prize of 50,000 € guarantees the safeguarding of Film and TV rights. A Special Mention from the GWFF was also given to The Bride, directed by Myriam U. Birara and in the Forum Competition section.

Berlinale
The Klezmer Project-From Encounters Section

Tótem, directed by Lila Aviles, played in the Competition section failed to win any of the main awards. However, this Spanish take on melodrama both charmed and delighted. A family celebrates the birthday of a young father, also a painter. Sadly, he is also facing his impending mortality. The child protagonist, played by newcomer Naíma Senties, could easily have won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. The award went to another child protagonist Sofía Otero for 20,000 Species of Bees. Tótem, however, won the prize of the Ecumenical Jury. The well received work finished ahead of Golden Bear winner On the Adamant, awarded Special Mention at the festival.

One film in the Competition which surprisingly failed to win a prize was Limbo, directed by Ivan Sen. A detective called Travis Hurley arrives in a small Australian outback town. Staying at the Hotel Limbo, he has come to investigate a 20-year-old unsolved homicide of an Aboriginal woman. The only evidence he has is a number of tape recordings. Meanwhile, the victim’s family is reluctant to give much information, particularly to a white cop.

Berlinale
Limbo-From Competition Section

With patience, Travis will uncover some unpleasant truths, highlighting the injustice faced by Aboriginal Australians. Indigenous Australian film director Ivan Sen had previously won the Premiere First Movie Award at the Berlinale in 2002 for his first film Beneath Clouds. In Limbo he has created a hypnotic “desert noir” that makes excellent use of the landscapes. The choice of black and white further enhances the backdrop and static progress of narrative resolution.

A personal nod also goes to the following films: Blackberry, The Shadowless Tower (Main Competition); Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, Kiss the Future (Berlinale Special – Out of Competition); Calls from Moscow, Notes from Eremocene, Cidade Rabat (Forum Section).

By Steve Yates

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Cinema

Berlinale Winners Recapped

Berlinale

The 73rd Berlinale: A Look at the Main Prize Winners

The Berlin International Film Festival 2023 Award Ceremony took place on 25th February. Actress Kristen Stewart served as president of a seven-person international jury. The prize ceremony has often had some unusual choices for winners and this year was no exception. 

The Golden Bear for Best Film went to On the Adamant, directed by Nicolas Philibert. As always, it is the film‘s producers (here, Céline Loiseau, Gilles Sacuto and Miléna Poylo) who are credited for the prize. The documentary focuses on a day care center on the River Seine in Paris. During the course of the film we get to know the bond between the care workers and patients

.   

Berlinale
Sofía Otero
Berlinale
Nicolas Philibert

Christian Petzold has always been a popular director at the Berlinale. This year he won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for Red Sky (Afire). Four young people are staying in a holiday home on the Baltic Coast. One of them is a writer, struggling to finish his latest book. Meanwhile there are warnings of a heat wave and potential forest fire nearby. Petzold is successful here in making character interactions become a study in existential psychology. Also notable is the building of tension in what is otherwise a slow-paced but compelling film. 

The Silver Bear Jury Prize was awarded to the Portuguese film Bad Living, directed by João Canijo. It concerns five women who have run an old hotel with ongoing conflicts. When a younger person arrives, old wounds are reopened.  

Philippe Garrel, the French director (and sometime actor), is popular at the Berlinale and beyond, with films also regularly featuring in competition at Cannes and Venice. This year The Plough won him the Silver Bear for Best Director. The film concerns a traveling family puppet theater. After the father and grandmother die, the remaining family struggles to keep the legacy alive. It deserved the award for depicting the passion and realities of a puppet theater in the modern age. 

Other main awards benefitted from the renowned Berlin accolades for fringe or special interest topics. Sofía Otero was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance in 20,000 Species of Bees. Directed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, a distraught child and her mother experience life changing experiences in a summer house. At just eight-years-old, Otero has made history as the youngest Berlinale winner.     

Thea Ehre won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance in Till the End of the Night by Christoph Hochhäusler. In the crime thriller, Ehre plays a Trans character just out of prison on probation. Meanwhile, Angela Schanelec received the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay for Music, a perplexing film that will likely divide audiences. Concerning the Oedipus myth and containing little dialogue, its accolade therefore seems somewhat controversial.  

Finally, the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution was awarded to Hélène Louvart for her cinematography in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy. A film not without some flaws, the prize for original cinematography was nonetheless well deserved. 

By Steven Yates      

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podcast Travel

Clipper Inspired Is BACK.

Clipper Inspired Podcast for ITB

We mothballed the travel podcast, but in celebration of the ITB Berlin returning, Clipper Inspired has been revived. From the German capital we’ll be reporting all the news about the travel world. The places to go. When to go? Where to go? How to go?

Gambia Stand at ITB
ITB Berlin KOREA
Korea Stand at ITB
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Cinema entertainment news

Diversity in Potsdamer Platz

Bridgerton Cinematographer

The star studded 73rd Berlinale came back to life after Covid and hybrid physical events. My interaction with the to Potsdamers Platz fest was limited to invited events. Staying with the times, “Diversity” was front and enter at many professional get to togethers. Giving voice and opportunity to those who were normally excluded from the industry came front at center. Show business needs to do better. As a person of color who has been both in the business as well on the periphery in different rolls, I hope this topic develops into a tangible advancement for the benefit of entire field.

MasterCard Diversity Conference
Sony Camera and Hawks Lens
Sony Camera with Hawks Lens at the Anamorphic Club Cafe
Diversity in the film Industry
Actress Thelma Buabeng and
Director Sheri Hagen
Diversity in the film Industry
Cinematographinnen-Women Cinematographers
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Cinema entertainment

A Balancing Act at the Berlinale #73

Berlinale

The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival is the first fully in-person Berlinale event since 2020. 

Before the festival, Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian spoke about their objectives this year. Overcoming the impact of the pandemic and closer ties with the U.S. are two such challenges. Meanwhile, there has also been a funding boost from the German government. The pair also explained how their program selection attempts to balance harsh realities with escapism. 

The festival opened on February 16th with a grand red carpet ceremony. The television and stage show was produced by the German public broadcaster ZDF/3Sat. Their filming included the exterior red carpet, the hallway of the Berlinale Palast, and the theatre interiors. The ceremony started at 7.30pm local time. Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian were joined on stage by Jury President Kristen Stewart and further speakers.   

The Rebecca Miller directed She Came to Me was the special opening ceremony screening. A composer in a creative crisis meets a tugboat captain by chance in a Brooklyn Bar. From here a seemingly unlikely strong bond grows between the two. This funny and sophisticated comedy drama is set against a backdrop of a socially divided America. Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei and Anne Hathaway are the leading stars who shine in their roles. Ultimately, this was a heartening and entertaining way to begin the festival. 

Eighteen films from around the world will compete in competition for the Silver and Golden Bears. There are also sixteen films also in the second competition, Encounters. The program conspicuously omitted films from Russia this year. However, Sean Penn’s documentary Superpower represents the omnipresence of the Ukraine conflict. Otherwise, films like Honary Bear inductee Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans are intended to be a lighter affair. 

One film in the main competition, Blackberry, is adapted from the bestselling book “Losing the Signal”. Directed by Matt Johnson, it chronicles the rise and rapid fall of the world’s first Smartphone. Glenn Howerton and Jay Buruchel are the central characters who play the fallen business partners. Commendable in art direction is the authentic period detail from the early 1990s to the late 2000s. Moreover, Blackberry humorously portrays the world of fast-paced business, corruption, and the pressure of staying ahead

This year’s Berlinale Award Ceremony will take place on Saturday 25th February. 

By Steven Yates      

Categories
Feature

On Hunting Mushrooms

Today, there was a national holiday in Germany. The weather has changed to fall with trees adding splendid colors. Venturing to the forest an hour outside of Berlin, to Brandenberg, mushroom hunting is a popular past time. This month the fungi were few and far between in comparison to past years.

Furthermore, the most noticeable aspect of being in the forest, clean air.

  • Brandenberg
    Hunters Tower
  • Brandenberg
  • Brandenberg
    Not Edible mushroom
  • Brandenberg
    Spider
  • Edible Mushrooms
Categories
Travel

BER Works, Sort Of Not

Airport BER

WORTH IT?

The Berlin Airport continues to be an embarrassment. So much for German Efficiency. After a tortuous process, many false opening dates, BER finally opened in 2019. The new airport has been plagued by one crisis after another. Limping its way along from one step from insolvency to bacteria in the water. The recent head shaking headlines make us all wonder, was building a new airport worth it?

  • Direct Train to BER
  • Chic wood, bad design.

Berlin as a city felt it needed a world class airport to match its oversize ambition to get on the world stage. Ambition and ability do not go hand in hand.

Once, Berlin had 3 small airports; Tegel, Templehof in the West and Schonenfeld in the East. After reunification, plans were made to build one large facility.

Former Mayor Wowereit started the construction of the BER in 2006 for a 2011 opening. The expression “the best laid plans” fits what happened over the years. Were the 3 Stooges in charge? An endless joke of gaffes plagued the project.

Nine years later, “better late as hell” than never, a quiet opening with middle level fanfare. No politician would dare be so closely associated with a glass white elephant.

  • Gate Sign

I finally used the airport on a trip to Naples. From the moment I got off the train, the problems were obvious. Moe, Larry and Curly in comedy film short “Sitter Downers”. The slapstick trio “build” a house for themselves and their future wives. The result: one beam in the middle brought the whole structure down. The train station platform is too narrow for people getting on and off a wagon with luggage. Where is the escalator?

The escalator is in the wrong direction from the train station exit. The departure board is at the front of the upward escalator. The problem: stand in front of the board searching for your flight, while others are coming up from behind, all piling in small space.

Functions,,,WELL,,,

Thankfully, the day we traveled the airport was quiet. We managed to get through without pain. However, recent articles of passengers stuck in four hour long lines

unable to make flights have compounded more travel headaches. Even celebrities have been affected. Rapper Kayne West missed his flight cause of line delays.

Charging Station
Just in case you want to leave your phone in the middle of an airport. A sad charging station near nothing.

Off to the EasyJet flight, sounds easy. NOT! The gate was on the bottom floor behind a locked door. All the passengers were cramped in a stairwell waiting for news. We managed to make it on the flight but the chaos was a a bit unsettling, nothing compared to what happened on Ryanair.

  • To Gate A

More Nerve Racking!

I never know what to expect on a Ryanair flight. Flying to Milan from BER for the first time I got to the waiting area, downstairs, fine. After thirty minutes more people arrived. Well, the gate boarding attendant looked around, then booted up the ticket station. Something told me to ask the guy where will the boarding line start. He said, “Here!” PROBLEM! No space for all these people traveling on a full plane. PLUS, it’s a cramped stairwell. Additionally, everyone passed the turnstile to sit in the waiting area. Confusion is coming.

I waited next to the airport ticket guy. Suddenly, there was a flight announcement. Bedlam arrived. Where was the line to check in and board? There is no space to move. So much for social distance. Imagine a fire-cracker in an ant hole. The Italian passengers in a state of shock asked, “Is this Germany?” A Crowd Control DISASTER!

Arriving back at BER was just as confusing, but thankfully, I had experience navigating the dysfunctional design. Why is this important? Time. Down the escalator, turn 180 degrees, head for one of the two train platforms to Berlin. The regional express train takes 20 minutes to Berlin. The S Bahn takes 50 minutes to the center. I picked the wrong one, ran back upstairs, down to the other train just in time to jump on the express train service.

First timers at the airport are going to struggle, because they do not know the difference between trains. Why the airport does not have clearly marked signs is beyond me.

How to build a poorly planned airport in the 21thcentury? Ask Berlin. The city’s leaders excelled at it. 

I am taking the train from Berlin to Paris.

Categories
Fashion Feature

The Pain & The Pleasure

KADEWE

AGAIN! Another reopening, in time for the summer. We have been through this before. A part of me thinks these lockdowns are a trail run for a societal behaviormodification program. But, a least the city opened again. Life is sort of normal. Whatever that means in 2021. 

I decided to meet a good friend at the KaDeWe department store for lunch. How middle class! I got to the front entrance. If only it could have been so simple. NOPE! I woke up early to get a Covid test valid for 24 hours.

Nice Service
Bags

A new app has taken the stores by storm, or holding it prisoner, LUCA. All shoppers have to scan the Google bar code before entering establishments. I did not get the memo. A tall handsome blonde security person told me I could not enter without the new tracking tool.

After a twenty minute ordeal of trying to download this tracking app, the door person told us we can show the negative notice and register inside. Really Pamela Anderson! Telling us this information AFTER all the trouble. OK!

Line one for the entrance registration took 3 minutes.

Up to the food floor. All the culinary sections were roped off, one way in or out. Getting to an area was the same as a mouse in a maze searching for the cheese in the center. We decided on the Kartoffelacker, known for potato plates. But first, we had to show our Covid Status, AGAIN! Then filled out another form. Thankfully, the restaurant service was exceptionally attentive. 

Champagne
Cakes
Another form
Another Form

After 90 minutes of food, wine and chatting we decided to do some shopping in the 7 floor cathedral of consumption. Down we went to the menswear area. Sadly, nothing was on sale. On the ground floor, heaven and fun. “Dream as if you’ll live forever”, James Dean said. Talking to the sales people at Fendi and Tiffany sales people. My shopping partner loves the Blue Box jeweler. 

Suddenly, I remembered an event that required a gift. Back upstairs for coffee. Guess what! AGAIN! Another form and we had to show the staff our status. 

Chanel Shopping
Chanel and Coffee

Thankfully, there is a stationary department on the 5thfloor with cards and pens. My life was saved. 

Would I go back to the KaDeWe during these times? 

Categories
Feature

Failure into Failure

The systemic failure of many European leaders is not glaring. Last year this time Chancellor Merkel with a her scientist background basked in the glow of keeping Germany safe during the initial stages of the Covid-19 outbreak. Whereas Donald Trump chose to deny, then bluster his way through the crisis. The German leaders calm path through looked to be the wining strategy. What a difference a year makes. 

Suddenly, the technocratic Merkel feels lost, out of touch with the desperate reality. The EU’s largest country is struggling to get a grip on the pandemic. Policies have gone off the rails, from the vaccine rollout, fail tracking apps, to never ending lock downs, Berlin’s plan is murky. As confidence in Germany’s weakening leader takes grip, the question now becomes what is next? Clearly, someone in charge needs to devise a new approach to the always shifting course of the pandemic.

Titanic

Remember the scene from James Cameron’s Titanic? The mighty passenger cruiser hit an iceberg, passenger and crew are in panic while the captain wonders about in a state of shock. Germany is not at this point, but the country cannot take being unsinkable for granted. With politicians giving endless deer in the headlight press conferences, the population is losing faith. Exasperated by the fact that after 12 months of lockdowns, nothing has changed, voters are turning on the CDU. The latest poll places the big tent conservative party only 2 points ahead of the Green party, at 25%.

I have to hand it to the 66 year old head of state, a master tactician to the end. A policy u-turn, an apology, TV appearance, what does she offer? Noting new, but repackaging the same old failed plans with new words. Even her most ardent supporters would have to start asking, “Is Angela Merkel up for the job?” After 16 years in office, a new way of thinking is needed, fast.

Meanwhile, German national elections happen in 6 months. It’s going to be a long summer.