Berlinale comes to life in its final days (Feature)

By Andrew McCathie Feb 16, 2011, 22:05 GMT

Berlin - It normally only takes a handful of well-received movies to help fire up a film festival's main competition.

Indeed, this certainly seems to be the case with the Berlin Film Festival with a small batch of films suddenly emerging to ride to the rescue of what was shaping up to be a disappointing Berlinale.

With the 10-day showcase now its final days, the mood surrounding the 16-movie race for the festival's coveted Golden Bear award for best film has changed from rather sullen to something more encouraging after the screening of films from Iran, Turkey and Hungary.

In particular, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's compelling Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation) about a couple whose lives begin to spin out of control after a court rejects their divorce, has emerged as the frontrunner for top honours at the Berlinale, which is one of the world's A-list film festivals.

Veteran Hungarian director Bela Tarr's solemn black-and-white A Torinoi Lo (The Horse of Turin) also seems to stand a chance of securing one of the festival's awards, which are to be handed out in a gala ceremony on Saturday night.

The same is true of Turkish director Seyfi Teoman's Bizim Buyuk Caresizligimiz (Our Grand Despair), about how the peaceful coexistence of two men in their thirties comes under pressure when they allow a friend's sister to move in with them.

The three movies represent only a fraction of the about 400 films shown this year in the Berlinale's various sections. The festival's main lineup includes 13 world premieres.

The international premiere of Teoman's new film came against the backdrop of the six-year jail sentence handed down to renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi.

The 50-year-old Panahi, who had been invited to be a member of the Berlinale jury, has also been banned from filmmaking for the next 20 years on charges of working against Iran's ruling system.

The oppression of Iranian filmmakers has made Tehran the target of the world's major film festivals and one key focus of this year's Berlinale has been to screen Panahi's movies.

For his part, Tarr said his film was inspired by a tale about 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who is said to have collapsed after attempting to save a horse from being cruelly beaten with a whip in the street.

Spun out over 2 and half hours, A Torinoi Lo tells the other side of the horse's story - its dismal life with an ageing farmer and his dutiful grown-up daughter, who live in a small derelict house in the middle of a cheerless countryside swept by a howling gale.

It is also likely to be Tarr's last film: 'We've come full circle and after this point we might end up repeating ourselves,' he told a press conference marking his movie's premiere in Berlin.

Now in its 61st year, the Berlinale always attempts to strike a balance in its main competition between big studio movies and more independent cinema focusing often on confrontational political and social issues and sometimes from unknown directors.

The movies screening in the main competition touched on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster through to the mean streets of suburban New York and a tale about two Albanian families embroiled in a vendetta.

Outside the main competition, the Berlinale also screened a dramatic documentary about the imprisoned Russia oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin.

US director JC Chandor's Margin Call about the financial firestorm that swept the global economy in 2008 also has won praise from festival goers.

Starring Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto and Demi Moore, Margin Call takes its audience on a roller coaster ride over a frantic 24-hour period as a group of bankers' battle to save their investment house from collapse.

Also winning some fans at the festival was US director Miranda July's quirky movie The Future about tensions in a couple's relationship after they adopt a sick cat.

In addition, the Shakespearean tragedy Coriolanus, which was the directing debut of British actor Ralph Fiennes, was well received by many movie critics.

Further back in the field of candidates for the festival's awards is Argentine-born Paula Markovitch's El Premio (The Prize) about a young girl growing up under the military rule in Argentina.

This year's Berlinale also picked up on the 3D new wave that hit the motion picture business.

The lineup of 3D films screened in Berlin included a modern dance film from German director Wim Wenders, a documentary about what are thought to be the world's oldest cave paintings in southern France from Munich-born director Werner Herzog as well as French animator Michel Ocelot's fairytale movie.

But as a sign of the growing importance of the European Film Market, the festival's business hub, pop icon Madonna turned up in Berlin last weekend to present to movie industry representatives segments from her latest movie W.E about Edward and Wallis Simpson.

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