Berlinale Bloggers 2023  Berlinale Shorts – A Gathering of Nationalities and Cultures

The Berlinale Shorts is the colorful short film program of the Berlinale. Blogger Ahmed Shawky watched "Berlinale Shorts 5", a compilation of four films very different in form, content and country of production, each impressive in a different way.

The Cubix cinema at Berlin Alexanderplatz used to be a secondary location for journalists covering the Berlinale, either for those who had missed a press screening or who were looking to experience a film amidst the crowd. But since the CineStar Sony Center closed its doors in 2019, and the location Potsdamer Platz became limited to the International Competition, the Encounters and the Specials, the Cubix has been growing in importance to the press. Journalists are flocking here on an almost daily basis to watch the entries of the Panorama section and the Short Film competition.

Among other parts of the programme, I watched the Berlinale Shorts V at the Cubix. It included four short films which in their substance, style, and country of origin could be hardly any more different. But even within each of these films, there is a strong leaning towards cultural diversity, an observation that rings true for the majority of short film candidates this year.
 

Latin America and Africa

IFor “The Waiting,” German animation artist Volker Schlecht joined forces with the American biologist Karen Lips to find a unique way of alarming the world to the disappearance of various species of frogs in Latin America. It is a visual essay, where Schlecht’s stunning animation intimately transports the emotional connection between the narrator (Lips) and the threatened animals. The second title, “A Woman in Makueni,” is a German production by two Russian directors, Daria Belova and Valeri Aluskina. The events unfold in Kenya, where the two directors attended a workshop and created this film as a result. It follows the life of a female inmate in a Kenyan prison and the attempt of her husband to visit her. When he fails in his attempt, he finds an unexpected way of telling his wife what he had wanted to say to her in person.

An Arab Director and Australian Indigenous People

The only Arab participant in this group of films was “Back,” a very short 7-minute film by Syrian director Yazan Rabee, who lives in the Netherlands. Through his work, Rabee is trying to come to terms with what he experienced in his hometown and what led him to flee to Europe. In a series of manifold clips, he gives expression to a recurring nightmare, which, as he discovers, does not just haunt him alone but many who were forced to flee their countries. Last but not least, “Dipped in Black” is the longest of the shorts, a 25-minute documentary by the two Australians Matthew Thorne and Derik Lynch. The latter is the protagonist of the story, a trans*person from the Yankunytjatjara people, who returns to his hometown in search of traditional spiritual healing. In only four short films, which together hardly exceed an hour, we witness the encounter of cultures from across the world - from Eastern to Western Europe, and from Latin America to Africa and to the Indigenous Peoples of Australia. It highlights the importance of the Berlinale as a place of gathering and dynamic interaction of cultures, as everyone who has the chance to visit will understand.

February 2023