)
Harmless Creativity
Saturday the 11th of February: the Talent Campus has started at full steam. Tonight the Berlin Today Awards are going to be presented: the contendents are three short films about Berlin and how the town is seen with the eyes of another culture. Their directors are former Campus Talents who submitted their ideas for a short film to the Campus establishment last year and that were selected to turn their project into features to be presented this year.
First of all, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, introduces the spirit of the Berlinale with a speech centered on cultural diversity and tolerance; of course the recent trouble caused by Danish cartoons about Islam is the protagonist of this speech: Steinmeier insists that all real creativity must be born in co-operation between different cultures and civilizations. Then Dieter Kosslick, Director of the Berlinale, takes his time to make another speech, equally centered on the issues of collaboration, intellectual stimula stemming from the mixing of cultures and trust in the youngest generation. What is amazing in Kosslick´s speech is his sympathy and prankster-like jokes: his spirit is not what you could expect from such a VIP and gives an aura of freshness to the whole Berlinale.
At the end, the three films in competition for the Berlin Today Award are screened. The first one, “If you need me by Macedonian director Darija Andovska and Bosnian Mladen Djukic, is a comedy that features a mix of live footage and digital animation, and tells the story of a man whose car breaks down in the center of the city; he is desperate and calls an angel for help. Immediately, the big golden angel watching over Berlin from the große Stern is materialised in an ugly and sarcastic cartoon that comes down on Earth to help the guy; the two start talking about faith and modern values. The film is not bad and the digital effects are properly achieved, albeit the script and the actors´ performances are amateurish.
Then comes “BerlinBall by young Brazilian Anna Azevedo, a documentary about a Brazilian kid living in a slum and dreaming to go to Berlin to play football with his hero Marcelinho (an actual Brazilian footballer who plays in the team Hertha Berlin). Unlike the previous one, this film can be moving and interesting, even though it is easy to touch the audience´s heart with a story about Brazilian poor kids and their dreams; anyway, it is well done and the interviews to the kids are quite interesting.
The last film, “Under These Wings by Dutch Harrie Verbeek, is the most beautifully crafted and shot film, but also the most pretentious, slow and mannerist one. The plot tells the story of a woman whose life has crumbled down, but she seems to find hope in an old friend she had met on the night the Berlin Wall was destroyed. Interesting, but it would have needed a more humble director. The sense of gratuituous intellectualism conveyed by the slow pace and the many technical show-offs such as useless changes of focus, fake virtuoso camera movements or desaturated photography cannot be saved by effective acting and a very good last shot.
Generally speaking, it seems that all the directors did not really dare shooting strong and impressive material; it is not an accident that the prize, a beautiful butterfly sculpted in ice, went to the Brazilian film because it was the only one that could raise some emotion. Nevertheless, in my opinion the audience can hope for stronger stances and aesthetics; creativity must not be constrainted by kindess of heart or political correctness. This would probably contrast with Kosslick and Steinmeier ecumenical speeches, but would be healthy for cinema.
Vera Brazzoni