Berlinale Bloggers 2021
Berlinale-Bloggers 2021

The Berlinale's first online competition features powerful contemporary cinema, with the winning film resonating with our current state of mind.

Shengze Zhu’s film A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces, featured in the Forum section at this year’s Berlinale, portrays Wuhan, a city transformed by the pandemic.

Hong Sang-soo, winner of the Silver Bear at the 70th Berlinale in 2020, is back for this year’s Competition with his 25th feature to date. Introduction, part of which was shot in Berlin, is the Korean filmmaker's sixth black-and-white production.

A further Berlinale jewel is the film Bloodsuckers (German title: Blutsauger), by German director Julian Radlmaier.

In many films, female characters who conform to the male gaze reflect a society that has been teaching women to please for centuries. Maria Schrader unravels the regimen of the male gaze in her witty and astute film “Ich bin dein Mensch” (I'm Your Man).

From the Black Forest to Hong Kong: Perspektive Deutsches Kino, the section for debut films, looks beyond the horizon to take in the great wide world.

From science fiction to historical film: the Berlinale competition's reduced selection nevertheless offers an astonishing range of German films.

A digital industry event in March, an audience event in June – this year's Berlinale has to tread unconventional paths due to the pandemic. It is all the more important that it is being held nonetheless.