53rd Berlinale 2003
With the words "Towards Tolerance" prominently displayed on the front cover of the catalogue for the 53rd Berlinale (6-16 February 2003), accompanied by an appropriate essay by festival director Dieter Kosslick on the Berlinale contributing to "a greater understanding between cultures," the impending Iraqi war hung over the heads of the international jury like a Damocles sword.
So the jury, headed by Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan, appropriately awarded the Golden Bear to Michael Winterbottom's >In This World< (UK), a fiction-documentary about two young Afghans leaving a refugee camp in Peshawar to embark on an arduous journey along the ancient Silk Road - from Pakistan through Iran and Turkey to Istanbul and eventually London. That the film was shot with a digital camera (Marcel Zyskind) on actual locations adds to the immediacy of the journey, but it's the sound recording (Stuart Wilson) that sends some chills up your spine when the boys are confined in a container in the dark hold of a freighter. Programmed on the second day of the festival, >In This World< set the tone for the entire Berlinale as "a statement for peace" that was to rise to a crescendo when a half-million Berliners turned out on the closing day of the festival to march through the Brandenburg Gate in an anti-war demonstration. It was also awarded the Peace Prize and Ecumenical Prize.
The three German entries in the competition represented only the tip of the iceberg. Altogether, 59 German films had been booked by the festival, and extra screenings had to be scheduled on the spot to handle the overflow crowds in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section programmed by Alfred Holighaus. Immediately after the competition screening of Wolfgang Becker's >Goodbye, Lenin!<, a satire on a special phenomenon known in Germany as "Ostalgie" (to wit: nostalgia for "how wonderful it used to be in East Germany"), the film soared to the top of home box office hit-list. >Goodbye, Lenin!< was awarded the Blue Angel Prize for Best European Film. More impressive as a statement on social conditions in eastern Germany today was Hans-Christian Schmid's >Lichter< (Distant Lights), awarded the International Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize. Set on the border between Germany and Poland, >Distant Lights< sketches the fates of five "losers" in an interlocking narrative that never loses sight of the tragicomic no matter how bitter it is for the protagonists to face the truth. Another compelling though flawed statement on the human condition was Oskar Roehler 's >Der alte Affe Angst! (Angst)<. A personal, somewhat autobiographical, study about a stage director's laming psychosis in work and marriage, it drove many from their seats after the first drawn-out, heavy-handed, yelling-and-screaming marriage spat. Later, however, when the spectre of death enters the picture - the director's father, a haggard old writer, phones to say he is dying of cancer - the story takes on the depth needed to minimize the presence of scary ghosts in the closet. For my taste, the best German film at the Berlinale was programmed in the Panorama: Christian Petzold's >Wolfsburg<, the third in his trilogy on moral ethics and individual conscience - after the award-winning >Die innere Sicherheit< (The State I Am In) (2000), about a terrorist family still on the run, and the equally acclaimed telefeature >Toter Mann< (Dead Man) (2001), about a woman's pained quest to avenge the murder of her sister. A devotee of the psychothriller, Petzold makes sure that each shot counts not just to push along the narrative, but also to uncover layers of personal guilt and remorse, deceit and prevarication, doubt and vacillation. In >Wolfsburg< a successful car salesman (Benno Fürmann in his best role to date) accidentally kills a youngster on a country road, leaves the scene of the accident without reporting it, and thereafter has to drag his hit-and-run conscience along with him everywhere he goes - until, finally, he meets the single mother of the victim and forfeits all that he formerly stood for. "Wolfsburg", produced for television, where Petzold is apparently assured of more artistic freedom, was awarded a International Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize.
Japanese cinema made waves as never before at the Berlinale. The photo on the front cover of the International Forum of Young Cinema booklet was taken from Lee Sang-Il's >Border Line<, a remarkable compilation of interwoven stories about people living on the borderline of existence: economic, psychological, self destructive. The high-water mark of the Berlinale was the retrospective tribute honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of Yosujiro Ozu (1903-1963). Ozu's acclaimed classic, >Tokyo monogatari< (Tokyo Story) (Japan 1953), was highlighted in the official program. This, in addition to four more seldom seen Ozu films programmed in the Forum: >Umaretewa mita keredo< (I Was Born, But.) (1932), >Ukikusa monogatari< (A Story of Floating Weeds) (1934), >Banshun< (Late Spring) (1949), >Bakushu< (Early Summer) (1951) - all of which aptly demonstrated his maturing skill as he approached the making of Tokyo Story. The best of the Asian films programmed in the Panorama was also a Japanese feature: Junji Sakamoto's "Bokunchi" (Bokunchi - My House), based on a popular comic strip about Little Itta and his younger brother who don't realize that their elder elegant sister, who has returned to the island for a visit, is actually the younger boy's mother.
Considering that the Forum had booked 19 Asian features and six documentaries, the NETPAC Jury did not have an easy time reaching a decision. The prize was awarded to Sabu's >Koufuku no kane< (The Blessing Bell) (Japan). Celebrated first a popstar - he was awarded Best New Actor in Katsuhiro Otomo's >World Apartment Horror< (1991) - Sabu has rapidly developed into a cult director in seven feature films to date. The Forum introduced him to the Berlin public with >Unlucky Monkey< (1998), a comic portrait of an unlucky yakuzi gangster, followed by >Monday< (2000), the amusing story of a man waking up in a hotel room with but one clue (ceremonial salt in his pocket) as to who he is or how he got there. His overriding theme of "comic coincidences" is given full throttle in The Blessing Bell, whose main figure is a Japanese deadringer for Buster Keaton. Nothing seems to bother Igarishi (Tarajima Susumu) - neither the fact that he loses his new job on the first day of work, nor that he arrested by the police for happening to be present when a yakuzi boss commits suicide, nor that he finds in his hand the winning ticket of a bounteous lottery, nor that the money is stolen by a young mother whose daughter he has saved from a burning house. One humorous twist follows another, as Igarishi, the stoic, takes everything in stride. The last twist comes when he returns home - at full gallop, as all the scenes of fortune/misfortune are revisited again like pushing playback on a video cassette. The NETPAC Jury gave a Special Mention to Garin Nugroho's >Aku Ingin Menciumu Sekali Saja< (Bird-Man Tale) (Indonesia), a sensitive political statement on religious beliefs and national ethics in Papuan Indonesia during its current independence movement. Another Asian standout was Park Chan-Uk's >Beksoneum naegut< (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) (Korea), a compelling psycho-drama exploring the theme of vengeance by people caught in a web of fateful events. Hailed by critics as the best Korean film of the season, it's directed by the same filmmaker whose >JSA - Joint Security Area< (2000) set a modern-day Korean box office record.
AWARDS
INTERNATIONAL JURY
Golden Bear
In This World (UK), Michael Winterbottom
Silver Bear, Grand Jury Prize
Adaptation (USA), Spike Jonze
Silver Bear, Best Director
Son Frère (His Brother) (France), Patrice Chéreau
Silver Bear, Best Actress
Ensemble of Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, The Hours (UK), Stephen Daldry
Silver Bear, Best Actor
Sam Rockwell, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (USA), George Clooney
Silver Bear, Individual Artistic Contribution
Li Yang, screenwriter and director, Mang Jing (Blind Shaft) (Hongkong/China/Germany)
Silver Bear, Best Film Music
Majoly, Serge Fiori, Mamadou Diabaté, Madame Brouette (Canada/Senegal/France), Moussa Sene Absa
AGICOA Blue Angel Prize, Best European Film
Good Bye, Lenin! (Germany), Wolfgang Becker
Alfred Bauer Prize, for Particular Innovation
Ying Xiong (Hero) (Hongkong China), Zhang Yimou
Golden Bear, Short Film
(A)Torzija ((A)Torison), (Slovenia), Stefan Arsenijevic
Silver Bear, Short Film (ex aequo)
En Ausencia (In Absentia), (Argentina), Lucia Cedron
Ischov Tramwai (The Tram No. 9 Goes) (Ukraine), Stepan Koval
OTHER AWARDS
FIPRESCI (International Critics) Awards
Competition: Lichter (Distant Lights) (Germany), Hans-Christian Schmid
Panorama: Wolfsburg (Germany), Christian Petzold
Forum: Edi (Poland), Piotr Trzaskalski
Ecumenical Awards
Competition: In This World (UK), Michael Winterbottom
Panorama: Knafayim shvurot (Broken Wings) (Israel), Nir Bergman
Forum: Edi (Poland), Piotr Trzaskalski
Prix UIP Berlin - Short Film
Competition: (A)Torzija ((A)Torison), (Slovenia), Stefan Arsenijevic
Prize of Guild of German Art House Cinemas
Competition: My Life Without Me (Spain/Canada), Isabel Coixet
CICAE Awards (International Confederation of Art Cinemas)
Panorama: Knafayim shvurot (Broken Wings) (Israel), Nir Bergman
Special Mention: Polígono sur (Seville, South Side) (Spain/France), Dominique Abel
Forum: Amarelo manga (Mango Yellow) (Brazil), Claudio Assis
Special Mention: Power Trip (USA), Paul Devlin
Peace Film Award
In This World (UK), Michael Winterbottom
Readers' Award of Berliner Morgenpost
Competition: The Hours (UK), Stephen Daldry
INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF YOUNG CINEMA AWARDS
Wolfgang Staudte Prize
Rengeteg (Forest) (Hungary), Benedek Fliegauf
NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award
Koufuku no kane (The Blessing Bell) (Japan), Sabu
Special Mention: Aku ingin menciummu sekali saja (Bird-Man Tale), (Indonesia), Garin Nugroho
Don Quixote Award (International Federation of Film Societies)
Edi (Poland), Piotr Trzaskalski
Caligari Award (German Association of Communal Film Work)
Salt (Iceland/USA), Bradley Rust Gray
PANORAMA AWARDS
LVT - Manfred-Salzgeber-Prize, Innovative European Feature
Pure (UK), Gillies MacKinnon
Panorama Short Film Award
Misdemeanor (USA), Jonathan LeMond
New York Film Academy Award, Short Film
Moglem byc czlowiekiem (I Could Have Been Human) (Poland), Barbara Medajska
Special Mention - Underdog (Israel), Eran Merav
Panorama Audience Award
Knafayim shvurot (Broken Wings) (Israel), Nir Bergman
Teddy Awards
Best Feature Film: Mil nubes de paz cercan el cielo, amor, jamas acabara der ser amor (A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle The Sky, Love, You Will Never Stop Being Love) (Mexico), Julian Hernandez
Best Documentary: Ich kenn keinen - Allein unter Heteros (Talk Straight - The World Of Rural Queers) (Germany), Jochen Hick
Best Short Film: Fremragende timer (Precious Moments) (Norway), Lars Daniel Krutzkoff Jacobsen, Jan Dalchow
Special Teddy 2003 - F.W. Murnau
Readers' Award of Siegessäule Magazine
The Event (Canada/USA), Thom Fitzgerald
CHILDREN'S FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS
Prizes of Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk
Best Feature Film: Kald mig bare Aksel (Call Me Axel) (Denmark), Pia Bovin
Special Mentions: Elina - Som om jag inte fanns (Elina - As If I Wan't Here) (Sweden/Finland), Klaus Haro, and Drentgen der ville gore det umulige (The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Bear) (Denmark/France/Norway), Jannik Hastrup
Best Short Film: Le trop petit prince (Pipsqueak Prince) (France), Zoia Trofimova
Special Mention: Houdinis Hund (Houdini's Hound) (Norway), Sara Johnsen
Crystal Bears - Young People's Jury
Best Feature Film: Elina - Som om jag inte fanns (Elina - As If I Wan't Here), (Sweden/Finland), Klaus Haro
Special Mentions: Miss Entebbe (Israel), Omri Levy, La viaje de Carol (Carol's Journey) (Spain/Portugal), Imanol Uribe
Best Short Film: Le trop petit prince (Pipsqueak Prince) (France), Zoia Trofimova
Special Mention: Birju (USA/India) Heeraz Marfatia