Our plane took off just a few hours before the first of two historic storms hit Montreal. The Berlinale 2024 interns had boasted of the German capital's mild weather in February, yet it was in the snow that we discovered the city's motley architecture.
By Marwan Benyamina
Walking along the ice-covered sidewalks, we almost felt like we were in Montreal! While the temperature on the thermometer was often below 0 degrees Celsius, the city's social and political climate was much warmer. That's because this year's Berlinale was held in the midst of an extraordinary election period. Election day coincided with the last day of the festival, February 23. The climate was tense, not least because of the AfD, Germany's far-right party, which seemed to be on an historic roll, amassing almost 20% of the vote. So we came across many demonstrations in opposition to this rise of the far right. And we were in the city at the time of the attack on the Jewish memorial in Berlin on February 21. This climate enabled us to engage in rich discussions with the people around us on the state of the world today, and the often anti-war films we saw at the Berlinale fuelled these debates.
It was against this backdrop that we visited the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the small suburb of Oranienburg, about 45 minutes by train from the capital. It was a heavy visit, but a necessary one, especially given the context. Our exceptional guide, Chris, was constantly building bridges between what happened around the Holocaust and what's happening now just about everywhere. The horror of the camp is summed up in the last sentence of a condemned man's letter to the firing squad: “I hope they shoot well”. The guide explained the importance of learning about this place, as in 40 years or so, there will be no survivors and no infrastructure to mark these places of memory. In short, it was one of the highlights of the trip, a difficult but essential experience.
Devil's Mountain
On a slightly happier note, we were lucky enough to visit Teufelsberg, the Devil's Mountain! It's an artificial mountain created from the ruins of the town following the bombings of the Second World War. The Americans set up an electronic listening station here during the Cold War. Now abandoned, the post-apocalyptic-looking station has become a sanctuary for Berlin's street artists, a symbol of the city's cultural identity. After crossing the Grunewald forest, you can visit this abandoned power station and admire dozens of gigantic works by the city's greatest artists. It was a brilliant experience, probably the only one of its kind in the world. Finally, our ultimate favorite: the food! Turkish food culture, mainly kebabs, is very present in the city. We waited almost two hours in line, in the cold, to savor a kebab from Mustafa's, a Berlin institution. It was well worth the wait! In addition to the international dishes that are very much in evidence throughout the city, we were able to savor local flavors such as currywurst and bratwursts. In short, it was an extremely enriching trip, on every level. We're already missing the capital and the hustle and bustle of the festival...
