The Berlinale must have a deal with Airbnb. Another creative head is relocating to Berlin, the fourth in five years. After the September shock resignation of Chatrian, German Culture Minister Claudia Roth announced she and a replacement committee would actively seek one artistic head instead of a duo team. Minister Roth felt the festival needed a new direction after years of going to the principle office soberness. Finally, the recognition a sweeping overhaul was needed. After a long wait, I feel vindicated.
Tricia Tuttle takes charge of the film festival this spring from outgoing head Carlo Chatrian. The American born fest organiser ran the BFI London Film Festival.
This begs the question, why did the Berlinale have two heads? At the 2019 announcement, the team had the chemistry of a vegan touring a McDonald’s Burger Patty factory. In Carlo and Mariette’s defence, the two inherited a film festival in steep decline, with a resistant to change thin skinned staff structure, then the Covid Pandemic hit, not ideal situations for even the most seasoned leaders. Carlo headed the creative side, his cinema views veered more toward art house, shunning the glamour, while Mariette, a Berlin insider, would handle the admin tasks. Rissenbeek jumped in March 2023. The behind the scenes drama of the Berlinale have overshadowed the festival itself.
As a former attendee, I was to be placed me on a “no go” list for my, now proven right, 2019 Berlinale critiques. I thought major change was warranted at the February film affair. This was a festival basking in its own high-minded pretensions, yet had fallen behind both bigger and smaller cinema gatherings. The size of the festival emphasised quantity, screening up or over 300 or more films in different sections, at the expense of quality.
Berlin has never been a service friendly city. The city has been called “A service desert”. The festival lives up to this reputation. In comparison to other festivals, cinema curating was never a strong point in the German Capital. Forget about asking the Berlinale coordinators about the films showing, they were too busy telling everyone how busy they were. The way to learn if a good film was unspooling: 1. Fest gossip 2. Insider trading 3. A compass.
Berlinale posters on the way to the EFM
Tricia could be a much needed shot in the arm for the Berlinale. The powers in Germany decided on her because they want a festival on par with Cannes and Venice. Tuttle has a more commercial sense regarding cinema and certainly with a loaded rolodex of names to the creative world. Her approach will be different than the past on how to organize a cinema gathering, perhaps leaner, more glitz. However, she will have to overcome organisational challenges in trying to revive the fortunes of an increasing less relevant film festival.
The saying “Hope is the last thing ever lost.”
The 74th edition of the BERLINALE starts February 15th, 2024.
Every father and son relationship is different. The “Ward Cleaver” image from 50’s American TV was a work of the Perfect Eisenhower era fiction. Father’s can show their love, sometimes in imperfect ways. TWO FOR THE RODE from Lochlainn McKenna is an award-winning short film about a parent and childhood bound manifesting itself in some irregular child rearing scenarios.
A Black and Paper interview with filmmaker Lochlainn McKenna.
The opening scene/shot sets the tone for the film and relationship, why did you choose this for the opening scene?
I used to spend the weekends driving all over Ireland with my Dad! I was in every county before I was 10. Ireland’s not a very big country but sometimes those drives might be 4 or 5 hours. He would pick me up on a Friday evening and then drive late into the night and stop somewhere secluded for us to sleep before morning. For me it made sense for the film to start on Saturday morning. I wanted the audience to wonder where this child was? Why is he asleep in a car? Who’s he with? It adds a sense of jeopardy to the story before we establish the narrative of the story.
A Weekend
Steve Wall and Ewin Morris as a father and son on a weekend road trip.
What was the writing process like? Do you have any personal ties to the story line?
I wrote the original story ‘Guinness & Coke’ during the pandemic and that laid the foundations for the screenplay. It’s all based on my own childhood. There was certainly a lot of thought that went into the characters and the scenes and actions. I try to be as detail specific as possible in my filmmaking and I tried not to skimp on any details. The biggest difference between the short story and the film script is that, in the story, a lot of the dialogue is internal in Oscar’s head where as in the film there’s a lot more external dialogue. It was a case of using that external dialogue to better accentuate the narrative. That dialogue is necessary to push the story along.
Chaos, adventure, risking, experiencing life, I’m curious to know if this is how you would describe a weekend with your father?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. But there was also a lot of consistency, care, curiosity and companionship. Our weekends were always very physical. We were always doing. Whether that was exploring the countryside looking for old Celtic ruins or chasing thunderstorms… sometimes we’d traverse the coast looking for spider crabs. Other weekends we might be breaking rocks open looking for fossils. Some weekends we would play pool and go to the pub… sometimes motorbike rallies or airplane shows or go to the fair. It was very varied. There was a lot of camping.
Love does not come in a Perfect Box
Steve Wall as Hugh
There is the dynamic of the relationship switching to the son being the adult, looking after his father. Do you think the viewer has less sympathy for the father? My first thought was “Get that kid away from him”.
It’s always been my intention to make sure the father character isn’t vilified. I want the viewer to come out of the film feeling kinda conflicted. We should feel sympathy for the boy but also understand that the father is trying his best, despite wrestling with his own demons. There’s a lot of love between them, despite the obvious complexities. Naturally though, I think depending on people’s personal circumstances and their own relationships with their own parents or children, you’re going to have a strong reaction to it, right? And I think it’s great that you felt that strong a reaction. I don’t think anyone is watching the film and thinking, “ah, that’s fine, good for them”. But I think it’s a sliding scale as to how bad it all is really and I think that grey area is what makes the film intriguing.
How did you work with Eoin on the shooting style?
Eoin McLoughlin did such an outstanding job on this film, honestly. It just makes me so happy every time I watch it back, it’s exactly what I had hoped it would be. I always wanted the film to look and feel like a 90s memory. So the decision to shoot on 16mm was pretty much set from the outset. A big reference for me was Lynn Ramsey’s short film Gasman. There are these scenes in the pub where they use long lenses to pick off really natural moments of action which I just really loved and wanted to emulate. In general the thinking behind our approach was that whenever Oscar is feeling free and having fun we’re on long lenses. The camera is hand held, moving, roaming. When things get serious or dangerous for him, the camera is locked off, very static, very sharp and generally very wide.
Are you planning on making a feature film on the same subject?
I am! I’m currently writing a book which will be based on a number of other weekends with my Dad across a number of years. I’m hoping this anthology of stories will be the basis for the feature film script in due course.
TWO FOR THE ROAD has qualified for the 2023 Academy Awards Best Live Action Short.
Chat Cinema talks to director Turan Haste about his Oscar Qualifying short film THE MOISTURE. The Venice Film Festival entry is a story of challenging relationships for a teacher in a remote Turkish village.
For this episode of Chat Cinema we talk to film maker Ahmad Alyaseer about acceptance even in death. His acclaimed, winning 102 prizes so far, short film OUR MALES AND FEMALES has qualified for the 2024 Academy Award.
What is the expression? “Be careful what you wish for.” It might come true. CYPHER could be a cautionary work about modern fame and its downside. Tierra Whack from Philadelphia, found online fame rapping on the streets. Her journey to the top had a fairy-tale angle, a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks goes on to become famous. Director Chris Moukarbel observes the double edge of fame, from the adulation to the cra-cra. As the Cypher unfolds, rooting for the rapper suddenly goes to “Girl, you are in danger!”
Cypher
Gentrification has hit every urban area in the world. Finding affordable housing in any city is the same as trying to guess seven winning lottery numbers. MOUNTAINS by Monica Sorelle tells the story of a Miami affordable neighborhood being gentrified. Atibon Nazaire stars as Haitian Xavier Sr., a man contemplating a foggy future for him and his family. Atibon strong presence balances subtle performance as a man looking at an oncoming storm.
Not that we needed a film about how strange the world was during Covid and the lockdowns. Brazil’s A STRANGE PATH captures the moment by showing the peculiar monotony of life of doing nothing and waiting with a feeling of fear and seeking out comfort. Lucas Limeira stars as a filmmaker returning home only to be confined to a dingy hotel room during the closures while a dysfunctional relationship with his father goes beyond repair.
A Strange Path
Headlines Made Me Watch
Why was I drawn to IT’S BASIC? The political headlines of Dr. Cornel West announcement of his candidacy for president of the United States in 2024. As poverty and inequality grow in America, a desperate populace is looking for new answers. Marc Levin points his camera at subjects weighed down by an unsympathetic system. The “working poor” in the country have been ignored. Cities finding themselves unable to ignore the harsh realities of neo-liberal government policies have come up with new solutions to address the problem of an ever larger underclass: a basic income.
It’s Basic
An honorable mention goes to DEEP SEA. China’s ambitious underwater animated adventure from Xiaopeng Tian. I had problems with the fast pacing and lack of sympathetic characters, but the visuals were top-notch.
Canada’s HEY VIKTOR got so silly I started to laugh out loud. Cody Lightning’s comedy about self-serving comeback while making a low or no budget film had moments.
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.
Gizem ErdoganThorvaldur KristjanssonJudith 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.
Iranian Luxembourg filmmaker Cyrus Neshvad’s work THE RED SUITCASE recently received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Short Film. The Paris educated director’s somber story of forced decisions builds a subtle rush.
Short listed for the 2023 Oscar, ALMOST HOME is a the present day topical sci-fi short film from Nils Keller explores decisions and relationships in the future on spaceship.
A interview with director Nils Keller.
A very today reference set in the future, how did you develop this storyline?
The idea for ALMOST HOME was inspired by a newspaper article I read in March 2020 about a cruise ship’s odyssey due to the mounting fear of Covid 19. What really shook me was the mention of people who, after being trapped aboard their floating steel prison for weeks and despite the prospect of finally being able to leave it, wondered if it was safer to stay. Absurd at first glance, I immediately wondered what this might say about our lifelong struggle to draw a line between safety and freedom. The idea of using certain aspects of this article and turning it into a more universal short film story that departs from Covid’s reality and takes the form of a character-driven coming-of-age drama set in space evolved over the next few days.
Almost Home, the choices and conflicts in the story, you stayed away from the good guy, bad guy, can you explain this?
In creating the film, which at its core was meant to be a metaphor for our lifelong struggle to determine the right balance between freedom and security, two things were very important to us: we wanted to ask questions, not provide answers – and in order to achieve that, we wanted to create multidimensional characters with very good but very contrary intentions. Let’s face it: life would be so much easier if it consisted mostly of circumstances where there was a clearly good and a clearly bad option. But in fact, that is rarely the case. Most of the things we must decide on are tremendously complex and become even more complicated as more people are involved in the calculation and emotions as well as individual perceptions start playing their parts. The pandemic has given us a very global and painful example of this. And in some ways ALMOST HOME draws from this confusion while intentionally moving away from Covid itself and asking more general questions about growing up, handling social conflict, sharing and taking responsibility and navigating life-changing situations where it’s hard to know what long-term consequences will arise.
Why did you decide on a sci-fi film with CGI as a project, not exactly an easy choice.
As a director, my passion goes towards these grounded yet cinematic genre films that focus on the characters and highlight their drama. I think it’s one of the most magical powers of cinema that narrative distance can pave the way to talk about essential issues in our lives that would otherwise be buried under too many strange or personal circumstances, or too hurtful to address. I also like the entertaining and world-building part of genre narratives, where you’re a little freer to tell your story. In the specific case of ALMOST HOME, the main reason for setting the story in a futuristic and isolated environment was to distance it as much as possible from Covid 19. The spaceship is meant to provide a confined cinematic stage to reflect on what it means to be dependent – on our parents or other people who try to have a saying in our life choices – and how hard it can be to break away from that while not destroying the relationship. It’s that very physical yet metaphorical expression of not being able to run or hide. I wanted to focus on our characters and their dramatic conflict and see the larger implications of life in that.
Of course, we knew from the beginning that it would be very difficult, some even said impossible, to create a no-budget sci-fi film with so many challenging elements. There was an ongoing pandemic, little money, the need to build a full-scale walkable spaceship and tons of visual effects. On the other hand, the fact that we were students offered us a unique chance for support, funding and trying things out. People tend to love these passion projects and there were so many great filmmakers and supporters helping us with almost no payment involved. Among them companies like ARRI giving us their cameras and lights for free, our film school (the University of Television and Film Munich) etc. Since DoP Georg Nikolaus and I had done some commissioned CGI projects before, we were also confident, that this could be a manageable thing. Of course, everything turned out to be much more difficult. But thanks to the great team and the hard work of everyone involved, our dream didn’t crash but started flying. And it’s an amazing honour for all of us involved to receive such great feedback now on such a high level. It really is beyond our wildest dreams.
Obviously you worked closed with a veteran cinematographer, what was the relationship?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that Georg Nikolaus is a veteran cinematographer, even if he has the calm and many impressive skills of one. I think it was very important for this project that he and I know each other since the beginning of film school. We did almost all our short films together and worked on some commissioned productions for commercials and television together. There has always been a shared understanding that story and characters must come first when we think about visual language. In the case of ALMOST HOME, we discussed the possible layout of the spaceship early on to make sure we had the right mix of a narrative stage for our story and enough opportunity to visually approach the characters and their environment in an intimate way. Further down the road, we used the 3D model of the spaceship, created by our incredible production designer Pan Patellis, to work out literally every shot, the blocking and camera movements. The spaceship was so cramped, the shooting time so short and the technical demands so advanced, that we had to exactly know where to put the camera and determine what walls and ceilings had to be disassembled for certain scenes. Yet we also often took a step back from planning and considered how to visually help express Jakob’s emotionality and his longing for Earth as it felt important to convey a human and poetic note in a cold environment like ours. Through highlighting Jakob’s personal items with their used surfaces, the presence of the earth through moving sunlight glimpses through the windows with the blue marble in sight etc. As a result, there was a lot of planning together with the art department as well. We also stayed true to the idea of letting the camera playfully float at the beginning of the film where Jakob feels free and optimistic in zero gravity. Advertently, when gravity sets in, the visual language becomes as stiff as his body. In order to emphasise the relationship between Jakob and his mother and their shifting understanding of each other, we discussed every angle, inch and trick possible inside a confined set like ours. It was of incredible help here, that ARRI Rental supported our work with their amazing equipment like the ALEXA Mini LF, lights and much more. Later in post-production, Georg continued to be an integral part of our naturally understaffed project, having ongoing conversations about the right perspectives for visual effects, dispelling, preparing the colour grading, creating screen inserts, artworks etc.
ALMOST HOME has been shortlisted for the Oscar 2023.
Presenting varied International Short films that are Oscar eligible. The standard of these films are original and mostly excellent.
Starting with Tech to the Future by Sandro Monetti, not surprisingly, it is something otherworldly. The only non-fiction film here, the mood is like a news item straight out of Robocop. On-screen narrator Francis Hellyer proclaims that technology will lead us to a brighter future. His defiant sound bite: “Forget all the dystopian doom and gloom.” Subsequently, he visits various innovative tech industries. These range from a flying car development to AI digital replicas – a cloned Bruce Willis anyone?
Nakam from Ukraine is based on a true story in World War Two. It cultivates a good use of period setting, atmosphere and mise-en-scene. Ultimately it seems to question the circumstances and morality of killing, regardless of justified conviction.
The Bangladesh entry Moshari (a Mosquito net) hauntingly builds up suspense and tension well. This is achieved by allowing the psychology and paranoia its own freedom of projection. Most importantly, it pulls back from the border of implausibilities. These mature qualities serve the denouement well.
Meanwhile, The Silent Echo is a bitter-sweet snapshot of aspirations to escape remote life. A young Nepali singer travels by long-distance bus for a music talent contest. However, his performance does not get the response he hoped for. His dedicated efforts in vain, he travels back home, to the beginning again. Silent Echo won London’s Raindance Film Festival Shorts in 2021.
The Tommaso Acquarone-directed I miei occhi (My Eyes) concerns a woman caught up in traffic. Speaking on her mobile phone, she is already containing private tension. Soon, she offers a lift to a street performer she has seen before. The rest of the film promises greater suspense but ultimately reaches a juncture. Therefore, a good idea gets stuck in a dead end.
A wayward teenager in The Wake is frustrated by his live-wire father and passive mother. Accompanied by his deaf younger brother he seeks an outlet for his emotions. Breaking into houses and stealing token items he dubiously achieves this aim. However, an inexorable trajectory occurs after he finds a gun in a local house. The somewhat unexpected ending rounds off an original take on the suspense drama.
Finally, War of Colors is a heartfelt plea for sympathy for those born with the albino condition. A pretty, intelligent, and sensitive young woman finds discrimination even within her own race. Her brave and disheartening struggle for acceptance is both compelling and thought-provoking. Diandra Forrest excels as the central character in this another worthy Oscar short contender.
