The Berlin International Film Festival has always been a political stage for filmmakers, and the 69th edition is no exception. Three entries stand out, even though they are out of competition.
Image: Kolja Brandt
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The Berlinale has always had a reputation for being one of the most political film festivals in the world, and it's due in part to Berlin's history. During the Cold War, while the Berlin Wall still divided the city, the Berlinale was a place to build cultural bridges between the East and the West, both for filmmakers and for the public.
Still political in global era
The festival has defended its political reputation, even if the global situation has changed. It's mainly in the Berlinale's side events, where films are shown outside of the main competition, that political films, mainly documentaries, are screened. But there are always a few political films in the running for the Bears.
The motto of this year's Berlinale is, "The personal is political," and the Berlinale is running at least three films which live up to that motto. The most prominent is Vice, which opened in the US in December.
Dick Cheney: Master manipulator
With Vice, director Adam McKay offers what on the surface appears to be a classic political film biography, covering the life and work of the American politician Dick Cheney. Yet this film goes deeper.
Cheney was George W. Bush's vice president from 2001 to 2009, and many political experts now recognize Bush's VP as a powerful puppeteer. McKay presents Cheney as a shrewd manipulator who pulls the strings and makes everyone, including the president, dance to his tune. The screenplay and direction clearly depict Cheney's unscrupulousness and how he mixed personal business interests with political duties.
Vice also shows the influence of American documentary director Michael Moore on filmmaking, with the film's wit, razor-sharp satire, picture and sound all recalling Moore's best work.
And it's the film that everyone is talking about at the Berlinale, because Christian Bale is hauling in international prizes for his portrayal of Cheney — and is considered a favorite to win the best actor Oscar.
Christian Bale stars as Dick Cheney in 'Vice'Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Annapurna Pictures/M. Kennedy
Israeli spy thriller asks big questions
Israeli director Yuval Adler's classic spy-thriller The Operative offers more political drama. Adler directs his Mossad intelligence agent, played by German actress Diane Kruger, on a journey through Iran, Israel and Germany. The film digs deep into the machinations of the Middle East conflict and tells a tale of espionage and terror through the eyes of the Israelis, Iranians, Germans, the British, and Americans.
The Operative deals with the human questions and moral conflicts at the highest level, asking how far someone can go in their work as an agent and yet retain their innocence.
Shadows of Turkey's gender politics
In A Tale of Three Sisters (Kiz Kardesler) from Turkish director Emin Alper, politics play out on a different level.
In this family drama set in Turkey, politics lurk in the background, primarily in the form of gender politics. Three sisters return to their Anatolian mountain village after unsuccessful and servile foster experiences with well-to-do families in the city. Alper tries to show how these three women survive in a male dominated world in which they have almost no rights.
Emin Alper's film 'A Tale of Three Sisters' examines gender roles in Turkey's patriarchal societyImage: Liman Film/Komplizen Film/Circe Films/Horsefly Productions
When the repressed rage that these sisters feel with their situation bubbles over, they direct it at one another and not at the men and the patriarchal society which imprison them in set roles. They wait in the village, isolated by snowdrifts all winter, until spring arrives and they can leave. But their plans of what to do when they escape will essentially take them back to the situations they originally fled.
Festival politics always controversial
All three films are being shown in the competition series, yet they're not eligible for official prizes — a strange festival statute that no Berlinale spectator and no one in the cinema profession understands. Why not simply show these films in one of the festival's many side categories? It seems to be a question of festival politics — and that's sometimes even more intransparent than world politics.
The personal is the political: Marginalized voices tell their story at the 69th Berlinale
Women directors and loads of political statements: With nearly 400 films from around the world, the 69th Berlin Film Festival promises to be both thematically diverse and aesthetically challenging.
Image: Markus Koob/dffb
Female filmmakers from divided Germany
This year's Retrospective section focused on film history is devoted to female filmmakers. "Self-determined. Perspectives of women filmmakers" features German films by women made between the years 1968 and 1999. "For women — Chapter 1," a film by women for women is one example of the works shown. Shot in 1971, it addressed the lack of equality of opportunity between the sexes in West Germany.
Image: Deutsche Kinemathek/DFFB
Women front and center
The role of women in filmmaking — both in front of and behind the camera — has been the subject of much reporting recently. It is not only about the MeToo movement and equal opportunities but also a re-evaluation of film history. Fitting that the Golden Honorary Bear of the Berlinale 2019 goes to a European cinema great, Charlotte Rampling — seen here in "Max mon amour" by Nagisa Ōshima (1986).
Image: Studiocanal
'NATIVe' programming
Berlinale audiences will encounter often uncharted worlds in the "NATIVe" program section. The 16 long and short feature films and documentaries shown in this series are set in the South Pacific region and provide glimpses of the life of indigenous peoples in areas with relatively little cinematic presence — like the film "Tanna" from Australian-Ni-Vanuatu that portrays a local marriage dispute.
Image: Kairosfilmverleih
A church scandal
The competition for the Golden Bear this year includes 17 films from around the world. The new film from French director Francois Ozon. "Grâce à Dieu," is likely be one of the most explosive contributions in the competition. Ozon tells the true story of three men who were abused by a priest during their childhood and whose past catches up with them.
Image: Jean-Claude Moireau
40-odd years in the making
Berlin is celebrating the premiere of many much-anticipated films, including Sydney Pollack's long-unfinished "Amazing Grace." The film documents Aretha Franklin's appearance in a Baptist church in Detroit in 1972, during which the Grammy-winning, multi-platinum gospel album "Amazing Grace" was recorded. Unedited for over 40 years, the film is finally taking its bow in Berlin.
Image: Amazing Grace Movie, LLC
Upcoming talent
The Perspektive Deutsches Kino program has introduced young German filmmakers for 18 years at the Berlinale. "The films in Perspektive Deutsches Kino are subtle, idiosyncratic and fearless. Here you can try, play and also provoke," says the Berlinale. This year, Miriam Bliese's debut contemporary drama, "The Components of Love" ("Die Einzelteile der Liebe") will feature as part of the series.
Image: Markus Koob/dffb
A Danish opener
Opening the Berlinale on Thursday, February 7, is "The Kindness of Strangers," by Danish director Lone Scherfig. Featuring an international ensemble of actors,the film is set in a Russian restaurant in wintery New York and is a good representation of the festival's global nature — and this year's focus on women in the industry.
Image: Per Arnesen
Women in film heritage
An increasingly important task of major festivals all over the world is to promote film heritage by showing restored cinema classics to new audiences. "The Wayward Girl" from 1959 is one such film to feature in the Berlinale Classics section this year. Directed by Norwegian filmmaker Edith Carlmar, it features the young Liv Ullmann in her first leading role.
Image: National Library of Norway
New formats
A relatively new addition to film festivals that has become a standard feature is the premiere of television series on the silver screen. Only later are they broadcast on television or via popular streaming portals. Eagerly awaited in 2019 is the debut of "M — A City Hunts a Murderer," which is based on Fritz Lang's legendary film of the same name from 1931.
