14.2.11

Berlinale

Berlinale, Berlin's International Film Festival is on this week.  This is Berlin's answer to Canne, Venice or Sundance with a little less a lot less glamour, as is befitting a city rugged up against the February chill.  That's not to say that Berliners don't take their festival going seriously.  It is not unusual to hear of people dedicating a week of their holidays to 'festival going', seeing as many as 14 films in one week. 
02_11_tickets
Matthias and I have settled for a more moderate film-lovers tour this year - we're seeing four films over the next 10 days.  On Friday we kicked off with Offside, a film that won the Silver Bear at Berlinale in 2006.  It's back on the program as a protest against the imprisonment of director Jafar Panahi by the Iranian government.  Offside is a wonderful movie - a comedy about five girls trying to get entry into a football stadium to watch a game (women are banned from attending football games in Iran). I loved it despite the Farsi and German subtitles making understanding slightly challenging. I'm hoping that the other three movies are just as good - on the cards is an Argentina film about a wine critique who looses his sense of taste, a Japanese film about Sushi and Riddley Scott's new film "Life in a Day".  Here are two teaser's from Life in a Day - since I've seen these this morning I'm even more excited about seeing the film on Saturday.

02_11_press

And a few more photos from Friday night.  Not surprisingly, Offside generated a bit of a media frenzy.  Check out all the big lenses!  Lots of elbowing and jostling for prime photo-take positions.  Below left is what all the photo-taking frenzy was about - as I said before, Berlinale isn't quite as glamourous as Venice or Sundance - but this odd collection of people wearing green neckbands are the cast and crew of Offside. The green is another symbol of resistance against the Iranian regime.
02_11_paparazzi

11 comments:

Kristina said...

So cool!
Enjoy the movies, I would love to go to Berlinale!!

ELK said...

this is amazing ..i am glad you shared this..

Simon said...

I love the photos you shot of this. How intriguing to have a low-key glamour festival. The man with the magazine and the elbowing photographers...both fantastic catches. Have fun at the movies. I'm a Nextflix kind of gal...I'll look for them when they come out for home viewing. Offside sounds interesting and I'm used to reading subtitles. Happy Valentines to you.

Kelly said...

sounds fun! enjoy the films!

Justine said...

this looks great and love your shots, I envy you having that on your doorstep - enjoy!

Li + Belle said...

The Berlinale in front of the door, that's great. Are the tickets for the movies sold out quickly? Of the film by Iranian director I recently read in the Süddeutsche. Very positive.
Enjoy the movies.

Anonymous said...

oh how fun. I always wanted to go to tribeca film fest here in nyc. not yet!

Jamie said...

I'm so impressed. I'm from the home of Sundance and have never managed to see one film during the festival - I need to follow your example and get out there.

SJ said...

ooo have fun! what i love about film festivals is that you're given the chance to see films that aren't usually shown at your local cinema and you probably never would have heard of.
good luck with the subtitles!

Anika said...

That looks like a lot of fun! Im intrigued to hear more about the film from Argentina...sounds interesting.

Jen said...

Wow! Really wonderfully photographed! You have an excellent eye for how to capture this event. I was in Berlin this weekend, too, for the Berlinale and saw some great films. I'm so jealous about "Life in a Day" - I'd really like to see that and it seems like it was generating a great buzz. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait and see if it's distributed.