Berlinale 2023
A few surprises at the end of the festival
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The audience is back, Steven Spielberg does a dance, and the Golden Bear goes to a French documentary film. What else has been happening at the Berlinale?
By Ula Brunner
Virtually no one guessed that the Golden Bear would be awarded to the Competition’s only documentary film – clearly even the director was surprised. “Are you crazy or what?”, was Nicolas Philibert’s reaction when the winner was announced.
His doc Sur l'Adamant (On the Adamant) focuses on day-to-day life in a psychiatric hospital housed within a barge moored on the River Seine. The 72-year-old French film documentarist (Être et avoir, 2002) spent several months living alongside the patients. They speak openly about their fears and desires. Jury president Kristen Stewart referred to Sur l'Adamant as a “masterfully crafted film” at the closing gala.
“Sur l’Adamant”. Director: Nicolas Philibert
| Photo (detail): © TS Production / Longride
Sturdy craftsmanship
But the film wasn’t considered a favourite in the run-up to the awards ceremony. In total there were 19 submissions from 19 countries competing for the Golden and Silver Bears, including a large number of arthouse films but also thrillers and melodramas. There was even an animated film (Suzume) amongst them. The Competition programme was diverse in both content and form, but artistically speaking mediocrity prevailed. More innovative and trailblazing cinema could be found in other sections. Was it even possible to identify a work of outstanding brilliance in this Competition category characterised by its sturdy quality? In the end the jury of seven, headed by US film star Kristen Stewart, mainly went for established directors.Family stories
Philibert’s fellow countryman Philippe Garrel (Le sel des larmes, 2020) received the Best Director gong for Le grand chariot (The Plough). His film tells the story of a family of puppeteers experiencing an existential crisis, in which the director has cast three of his real-life children. So it’s a story within a story, something that could be original if it wasn’t so laboriously delivered.
Three Silvers for German films
Three out of the five German Competition entries netted a Silver Bear to take home. Regular visitor to the Berlin Film Festival, Christian Petzold, received the Grand Jury Prize for his wonderfully lightweight tragicomedy Roter Himmel (Afire) – an honour that was long overdue for the exceptional Berlin director. This film follows Undine as the second part of his romantic trilogy, in which Paula Beer plays a leading role again.
Youngest Bear winner
However the jury awarded this trophy to Sofía Otero. In the Spanish coming-of-age film 20.000 especies de Abejas (20,000 Species of Bees), the nine-year-old convincingly plays a child on a quest for their sexual identity. The atmospheric and sensitive debut of Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren would also have been a convincing candidate for the Golden Bear.
Now the youthful star of the film, Sofía Otero, has become the youngest Berlinale award-winner of all time. Silver for Outstanding Artistic Contribution went to Hélène Louvart for her cinematography in Competition submission Disco Boy, starring Franz Rogowski.
Building sites everywhere
It was the fourth Berlinale festival under the direction of Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlos Chatrian. And it was, as they kept telling us, her first one not to be held in the shadow of the pandemic. But despite being able to attend in person without wearing masks, the festival enjoyment was not completely unclouded: the Berlinale Palace, the traditional festival centre, was in the middle of a building site, with routes into the venue obstructed by fences and barriers. The Berlinale cinemas have been spread across different districts, so visitors expecting to watch a lot of films had to shuttle back and forth. And unfortunately the city transport services didn’t make travelling easy for festivalgoers: there were replacement buses for the S-Bahn trains, while the underground was running at irregular intervals.Politics and celebrities
By this point the visitors were undeterred, and event organisers reported high ticket sales. Another reason might have been that the festival directors involved an unusually high number of celebrities: Anne Hathaway came to the opening film, Steven Spielberg did a little dance after accepting the Golden Bear, Sean Penn presented his Ukraine documentary Superpower, and jury president Kristen Stewart, aged just 32, spent ten days as the face of the Berlinale.
With its slick mix of arthouse programme, political mission and an array of stars, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian are bang on in many respects: like any other major festival the Berlinale is not just measured by its films.