Berlinale Bloggers 2017
Gender Issues in a Bearskin

Bloggers from twelve countries accompanied the Berlinale, reporting daily for the Goethe-Institut. In the photo interview, one of them looks back at ten days in a bear costume and the hidden power of women.

Julia Thurnau spent ten days at the International Film Festival as a “Berlinale blogger” reporting for the Goethe-Institut Norway. Her trademark: a bear costume. As a companion to the Berlinale mascot, Julia Thurnau wants to draw attention to the festival’s hidden power of women. The actor and artist takes a critical look at gender issues in the film industry.

We captured Julia Thurnau’s impressions of the 2017 Berlinale.

The Berlinale jury decided to award the 2017 Golden Bear to the female Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi’s love story On Body and Soul. Two films about strong women were also honoured with a Silver Bear, Félicité and A Fantastic Woman. What are your first thoughts?

Four films in the 2017 Competition section were directed by women; that is less than a quarter of the 18 films in all. Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick talked about women accounting for 42 percent overall. But of the 399 films screened at the 2017 Berlinale, only 125 were directed by women.
 

At the Berlinale panel staged by the “Pro Quote Regie” association of female directors at the Akademie der Künste, you gave a “stereotype performance“ and ran “Director for a Day” workshops following a method created by Diane Torr – with a false beard and beer belly…
 

One major topic at the 2017 Berlinale was the relationship between politics and art. Should, can or must films be political?
 

As a Berlinale blogger for the Goethe-Institut Norway, you have spent ten days watching and writing about all kinds of films. How are you feeling now?
 

As an actress you have appeared in all kinds of cinema films and television series. In 2013 you directed a film yourself, namely the short film Ondinas. Would you one day like to show a film of your own at the Berlinale?
    

The interview was conducted by Corinna Mayer.