This year’s Berlinale resembles a balanced and austere diet, without excesses, but also without a chance to get fully fed. The main competition has featured current-interest documentaries, social and family dramas, love stories, and even science fiction films, though not all of them were convincingly presented.
For the moment, Tunisian Mohamed Ben Attia’s debut work Hedi and famed Italian Gianfranco Rosi’s newest documentary Fire at Sea look like favorites.
Ben Attia is a protege of living classics of social realism, the Dardenne brothers (Belgium-France). They aided him at all stages, from the scriptwriting to the montage, so the resulting film looks very much like a typical Dardennes’ movie – well played, with thoughtful director’s work, but also somewhat staid. The protagonist, a 25-year-old clerk, finally decides to start a life of his own, despite all the pain which this decision brings his family and himself. Substantially, the film is a reflection on the Tunisian revolution as seen through the prism of a private life. Given its influential backers, the film has a good chance of winning the Golden Camera for the best debut.
AS PART OF THE PANORAMA PARALLEL COMPETITION, DOCUMENTARY MARIUPOLIS (LITHUANIA-GERMANY-FRANCE-UKRAINE) PREMIERED, MARKING THE FEATURE-LENGTH DEBUT OF 39-YEAR-OLD MANTAS KVEDARAVICIUS
Meanwhile, Rosi’s debuts are long past, but the sharpness of his gaze remains free of any age or status limits. Fire at Sea’s action happens on the island of Lampedusa, which is the arrival point for thousands of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. The nominal protagonist is 9-year-old unruly boy Samuele, who makes magnificent slingshots, is a mediocre student, and tries to become a sailor despite his seasickness. Other characters also have unique roles to play. The doctor who treats locals, including Samuele (a lung examination turns into a very funny scene). The taciturn elderly diver who dives daily looking for some special treasures. The local radio DJ who plays songs on order. The elderly housewife who orders these songs. All of them are funny, touching, and incredibly artistic at once.
But then, there are refugees. Over the past 20 years, 400,000 of them arrived in Lampedusa, while 15,000 died in transit. The director has a special way to show them in the film. Despite the hot nature of the theme, Rosi avoids journalistic excitement: Fire at Sea is a formally perfect artistic expression, designed in the tradition of neorealism brilliantly reconsidered by the director. This film is guaranteed to win a major prize at the Berlinale, the only question remaining is whether it will be the Golden Bear itself.
Ukraine joined the Berlin contest on February 14. As part of the Panorama parallel competition, we saw the premiere of documentary Mariupolis (Lithuania-Germany-France-Ukraine), which marked the feature-length debut of 39-year-old Lithuanian Mantas Kvedaravicius. Before the viewing, a rally in support of Oleh Sentsov was held right at the Cinemaxx movie theater, organized jointly by Amnesty International, the German and European Film Academies. The protesters lined up in the lobby of the theater, holding Sentsov’s portraits and posters reading “Telling the truth is no crime.”
Kvedaravicius filmed his documentary in Mariupol during the spring and fall of 2015. Visually crowded and of uneven quality, Mariupolis, however, offers a convincing panorama of life in what is effectively a frontline city.
An interview with Kvedaravicius and a detailed analysis of his film will be published in the coming issues of this newspaper.
