Berlinale 2024 Roundup
I did not have a good time at Berlinale this year.
On February 5, I read this tweet which I think set the tone for this year’s edition and summed up the film festival perfectly.
Translated version: “The crisis of #Berlinale is closely linked to the withering location of Potsdamer Platz.”
Potsdamer Platz is normally considered the film festival’s centre, but over the past few years it as been feeling less so with less screening venues for the public in that area, and a redevelopment plan to create a place with “a greater focus on human-centric aspects of the office campus including optimising workplaces for health and wellbeing, world-class retail and future-focused amenity”. When one reads PR text like this, you know it’s going to be something that will be extremely capitalistic and Instagrammable.
Additionally, many months before the festival even started, it was announced that this would be the last edition with Carlo Chatrian as the artistic director. His decision to step down was after realising he would no longer have the freedom to do his job without the interference of the Ministry of Culture and Media.
This was published in Variety on September 2, 2023,
“Speaking to Variety on Saturday, Chatrian made it clear the culture ministry decision last week came as a complete surprise. “In March, I had a meeting with [Roth] where we agreed to renew my contract as artistic director. What was still to define was the structure of the leadership. I’ve always said that I was fine with other forms of governance, as long as my freedom in composing the program was preserved. The public announcement, on Aug. 31, made me completely aware that the conditions for me to go on as artistic director after March 2024 were no longer there.”
And on September 3, 2023, Chatrian published this personal statement on the Berlinale website,
"For the past four years at the Berlinale, I have been fortunate enough to work along with extraordinary people, as in love with movies as I am, who are totally dedicated to revitalising one of the world’s great film festivals. Together we have helped so many talents and great stories reach out to the world. And I am grateful to all the people who have supported and believed in me.
I thought that continuity could be facilitated if I remained part of the festival, but, in the new structure as it has been presented, it is quite clear that the conditions for me to continue as Artistic Director no longer exist. The next edition of the festival will be therefore the end of this rewarding journey."
After the Hamas attacks at the Nova Music Festival that included the murder and kidnapping of Israelis on October 7, followed by the heavy handed military offensive in Gaza and a collective punishment and genocide towards Palestinian civilians, which is still ongoing, cultural institutions in Germany and across Europe and the USA began to reveal which side of history they want to be on.
Writers, artists and filmmakers expressing solidarity with Palestinians were getting disinvited from events and exhibitions. Suddenly, it looked like the principles of freedom of speech in the West doesn’t apply when it comes to showing support for Palestinian civilians who are being obliterated - and broadcast live for us all to see. Protests, boycotts, and calls for a ceasefire and to stop sending weapons to Israel were considered as expressions of antisemitism by many institutions.
Berlinale published this tepid and generic statement on January 19,
Film festivals provide a space for artistic expression and enable peaceful dialogue. They are places of encounter and exchange and contribute to international understanding. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding - even and especially in painful times like these.
Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone's suffering to be recognised and for our programme to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian
The festival also announced “Tiny House Project”, a mobile house “for open dialogue about the war in Gaza...conceived by Shai Hoffmann & Jouanna Hassoun”, plus a panel about filmmaking in time of conflict. During the festival I learned that Jouanna Hassoun was no longer part of the project, and the “Tiny House” only accommodates 6 people, open for a few hours between February 17-19, and I think the discussions were in German. Berlinale’s attempt for “constructive” dialogue was serving a very few, and not the many.
Photos by me:
In 2023, Berlinale put out strong statements to show solidarity for Ukrainian and Iranian filmmakers and programmed many Ukrainian and Iranian films that year and invited several Ukrainian and Iranian filmmakers to participate and even offered free accreditation to filmmakers, programmers and panelists to participate in the European Film Market. So it was a shame no similar stance or gesture towards Palestinian films and filmmakers.
On February 12, in response to Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian’s statement on January 19, a signed statement from Berlinale workers was published, calling for the festival’s leaders to have a stronger institutional stance.
We are painfully aware of the unbearable dynamics of institutional inertia in the cultural sector in Germany, and we recognize the current limits imposed on speech. We want to hold the festival and ourselves to a higher standard. An international platform such as the Berlinale and we, in our roles as programmers, consultants, moderators, facilitators, and space holders, alongside further Berlinale workers, can and should voice dissent at the current assault on Palestinian life.
We join a global solidarity movement to demand an immediate ceasefire and call for the release of all hostages.
While we acknowledge isolated and minor attempts to create space for exchange, we would expect the program of this year's festival to engage more actively and discursively with the urgency and reality of the moment by holding dialogue spaces of its own initiative and design in the big houses we call cinemas. Instead, we witness no initiatives that invite professionals and/or audiences into a dedicated space of discussion structured in a way that allows for a lengthy encounter between everyone.
You can read the complete statement here
When news leaked that invitations for the opening ceremony were sent to parliament representatives from Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a right-wing party that’s anti-Islam and anti-immigration, internal discussions within the festival’s team led to them getting disinvited, and Berlinale published this press release on February 8.
The festival hadn’t even begun, but it already felt like it was going to be a daunting edition. I already come from a part of the world where public expression of political protest isn’t allowed, and self-censorship is rampant and normalised. To observe what was happening in Berlin from afar and on the ground when I was there was very troubling.
But I was also encouraged to see signs of solidarity on the streets of Berlin during the week of the festival, and some signs were pulled off, but I also saw a few that got replaced a few days later. If not enough was being said by institutions, the city somehow showed me other ways to find expressions of solidarity.
During the festival, Pro-Palestinian supporters staged a protest at Berlinale’s European Film Market. I knew I didn’t have the emotional capacity to watch No Other Land, but I heard there was a mostly positive and meaningful discussion after it.
I found out Daragh Campbell read a statement after the screening of Max and Mara and calling for a ceasefire. But hardly any high profile filmmakers or actors made similar statements publicly.
But Berlinale’s live broadcast of the closing night ceremony made up for what was mostly avoided during the festival. On stage there were calls for “Ceasefire Now” and expressions of solidarity for Palestine and activists everywhere by few of the jury members and winners. It wasn’t much, but it was better than the lack of meaningful gestures during the 10 days of the festival.
Ben Russell, one of the two directors of Direct Action which won Best Film in the Encounters section, had a keffiyeh wrapped around his shoulders and in his acceptance speech said, “…and of course we stand for a ceasefire and against the genocide.”
Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, two of the four directors of No Other Land which won the Panorama Audience Award, accepted their award and said this on stage:
“We are standing in front of you now, me and Basil are the same age. I am Israeli, Basil is Palestinian. And in two days, we will go back to a land where we are not equal. I am living under a civilian law, and Basil is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights, Basil is not having voting rights. I am free to move where I want in this land. Basil is, like millions of Palestinians, locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end.”
Sadly, the morning after, Berlinale’s reputation, and Germany too went downhill even more. These two headlines speak for themselves:
Berlin politicians slam anti-war, pro-Palestinian comments at festival’s closing night gala
German minister says she clapped Israeli film-maker, not his Palestinian colleague, at Berlinale
Berlinale itself didn’t publicly defend or stand by its jury and filmmakers. German politicians and media were adding fuel to the fire, which was also very distressing as it led to death threats sent to Yuval Abraham after calling for ceasefire at award ceremony.
Even Berlin taxis were unhappy with Berlinale. The Taxi Film Fest, the best counter programming I found during the week of the festival was organised to protest Berlinale having Uber as one of the festival’s main sponsors. It was held in Potsdamer Strasse and the line up included Taxi Driver which screened on February 20, the same date Martin Scorsese was in Berlin to receive his honorary Golden Bear.
via Taxi Film Fest:
The Berlinale doesn’t give taxis any space. So we organise our own festival.
Taxis have been around as long as there have been feature films. Just as the cinema crisis in the 1970s led to an upheaval from which cinema rose like a phoenix from the ashes, taxi drivers are experiencing a dramatic upheaval today. It is time to take a closer look at what taxis and their drivers mean for our culture. This is the job of the TaxiFilmFest. We show the roles that taxis have played and continue to play in cinema films, documentaries and videos. It’s about people, cities, cars, love and hate. This and much more takes place in taxis and taxi films.
In Germany, there was a functional legal definition of the tasks, duties and privileges of taxis in public transport for exactly 60 years. In 2021, the Federal Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with international brokerage platforms, threw these rules out the window. Since then, taxi drivers have suffered increasingly from unbridled competition from companies that are taking over the market with targeted price and wage dumping.
In order for the taxi to become a phoenix, companies and drivers must reflect on what makes taxis the best means of transport in cities. This is what the TaxiFilmFest shows.
I left Berlinale not feeling optimistic about what’s in store for its next edition which will be led by Tricia Tuttle. Perhaps my trips to fulfil my cinephilia needs are better planned towards visiting and supporting smaller film festivals that are more transparent and honest when it comes to their politics.
If you’re interested to read more thoughts, here are links to longer and better articulated pieces about this year’s Berlinale (and also added as a record for myself).
February 26 - The Party’s Over: Berlinale 2024 by Erika Balsom
March 11 - Worlds Apart: Berlinale 2024 by Devika Girish
March 21 - Auf Wiedersehen! A few thoughts on cinema, criticism, and politics surrounding this year’s Berlinale by Dora Leu and Flavia Dima
[Update] May - Declaration of War: the 2024 Berlinale by Daniel Fairfax
[Update] September - Strike Berlinale by Filmworkers for Palestine
As for the actual films shown during the festival, I found myself loving only a handful of films. Was it my mood, the quality of films, who knows, but it was only during the second half of the festival that I finally felt stimulated emotionally and intellectually.
Alexander Horwath’s Henry Fonda for President was my number one at the festival. A three hour long film that links Fonda’s family and a political history of America to Henry Fonda’s characters he embodied in films, and his character in real life m in real life. A European cinephile gaze at America that I found very engaging politically and socially, especially in the current political climate.
Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara starring the always excellent Deragh Campbell and Matt Johnson as two friends reunited after many years, each have their own lives, but unanswered questions of what if linger throughout the film. A quiet and moving film about writers, ambition, coupledom, and desires.
Annie Baker’s Janet Planet is another quiet film, but packs an emotional punch. Set in the summer 1991, we observe a relationship between 11-year-old Lacy and her mother Janet. Friends and lovers of Janet come and go during this summer and though it all is a daughter-mother relationship that is filled with curiosity about one another and love towards each other.
Kazuhiro Soda’s The Cats of Gokogu Shrine is a film about love and care within a community. Abandoned cats are cared for by a community of people that show kindness and tenderness we need to see more of in our current cruel times.
Honorable mentions:
All the Long Nights (Shô Miyake)
In the Belly of a Tiger (Siddartha Jatla)
Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)
Wish I liked more:
Dahomey (Mati Diop) - I think it’s the voiceOver that didn’t work for me.
Least favourite films:
La Cocina (Alonso Ruizpalacios)
Sasquatch (David & Nathan Zellner)
Overhyped:
Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)
Tired of narratives about women in Muslim countries who dance are more open minded and liberated than other women:
My Stolen Planet (Farahnaz Sharifi)
Bad and sad for the filmmakers:
My Favourite Cake (Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha) - Both filmmakers were banned from leaving Iran to attend their screening.
Bad behaviour at press screenings:
Gloria! (Margherita Vicario) - When intertitles on the screen describe the lost music by uncelebrated female composers in Italy circa 1800s, one man from the press thought it was ok to boo loudly. Not a good look.
What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? (Faraz Fesharaki) - One older man from the press moved a younger man’s bag from a seat to sit on, without asking him first, and telling him to shut up (very loudly) when the poor young chap asked him what he’s doing.
A list of the Berlinale films I watched:
Competition
Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)
La Cocina (Alonso Ruizpalacios)
Dahomey (Mati Diop)
A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)
The Empire (Bruno Dumont)
Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)
My Favourite Cake (Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha)
Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)
Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)
Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)
A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sangsoo)
Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)
Berlinale Special
Cuckoo (Tilman Singe)
Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
Sasquatch Sunset (David & Nathan Zellner)
Spaceman (Johan Renck)
The Strangers’ Case (Brandt Andersen)
Encounters
Arcadia (Yorgos Zois)
Hands in the Fire (Margarida Gil)
Matt and Mara (Kazik Radwanski)
Panorama
Between the Temples (Nathan Silver)
Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
My Stolen Planet (Farahnaz Sharifi)
Forum
The Adamant Girl / Kottukkaali (Vinothraj PS)
All the Long Nights (Shô Miyake)
The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (Kazuhiro Soda)
Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath)
In the Belly of a Tiger (Siddartha Jatla)
The Secret Drawer (Costanza Quatriglio)
What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? (Faraz Fesharaki)
Berlinale Classics
The Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 1975)
The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929)