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This year the berlinale festival will be going outside and it's placed in June (regularry it runs in February) because of... well, you know
Long time it looks, that the festival will not be going to public this year, but some weeks ago they anounced... that the Summer Berlinale will be go one as planned.
So after I passed the most strangest February in my movie maniac life I can now looking forward.
Hopefully I got my chance to watch all the movies, who I put now on my watchlist. You are invited, to keep an eye on that movies to but pls. don't ask me something around the movies at this point... I never seen them but I promise to write about them after I watched them.
Here we go...
Official Competition: Petite Maman (France)
Today they start to sell the tickets (only online this year) and after less minutes, the Serves are going down and there was no way to get the tickets. After around 30 Minutes a message came up who say that all tickets are away or the ticket selling is stopped. So I refreshed the shop over hours until I noticed, that the ticket-shop is back and yep... I got most of the tickets for the movies who I will see.
I'm so happy to see all that movies and can go back to the cinema after 7 Months, because since Nov. all Cinemas where closed in Germany.
So on... I watched the first movies and will give a quick feedback...
Mission Ulja Funk
A very amusing film that at some point becomes a kind of road movie. Ulja is quite a gifted child who is interested in science. She has discovered an Asteorid and presents her find at a children's service, even reports that he will meet the Earth. However, she obviously doesn't think much of God and her presentation causes displeasure in the church, especially with the strictly religious priest, who ends her presentation without further ado. Since no one is really interested in her find, she finally sets off alone with a classmate on her way to Belarus.
Han Nan Xia Ri
It was very difficult for me to follow this film or to discover a message in it. Somehow typical for many Chinese films. Maybe it's a cultural thing that I can't understand.
In any case, it is primarily about Guo losing her boyfriend, who drowns in a body of water while trying to retrieve a remote-controlled airplane he gave her, which she steered into the water. Again and again another boy appears, who desires Guo and constantly forces himself on her, which drives her crazy.
Her mother has traveled to the U.S. to set up homes of obviously wealthy people, while Guo has been placed with her aunt, who is quite strict. Communication between mother and daughter is always terse and limited to either text or very brief video calls. The mother always promises that Gao and she will get together again soon, whenever that will be soon. It looks more as if the mother has simply left her daughter behind and keeps contact only sporadically, for a clear conscience.
Die Saat
I somehow expected something completely different with the film title, but well... It was not a bad film.
Mainly, "The Seed" is about how a conflict spreads further and further and slowly tears apart a once very good family life.
Rainer (father of the family) works at the construction site and is supposed to be the site manager, until one day he is replaced by another man to take over the job. Attempts to start as a construction manager in another construction company fail. This threatens the family with financial disaster, especially since they have recently moved because the family is just growing due to a baby. Doreen (the daughter) is a very sweet child and has a very strong bond with her father. However, the move is still upsetting for her. She then meets a new girl who takes Doreen down some paths she doesn't really want to go down. In the end, she is even threatened.
Una escuela en Cerro Hueso
This film is more like a documentary, based on a true story of the director.
Ema was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and her parents try to find a school for her, but no one wants to accept the child, except for a small village school in Cerro Hueso. A school where everyone makes a lot of personal effort and little money exists. Here the child is accepted very affectionately and also finds a new firm friend.
Nelly Rapp
The Swedes just have it in them to create special children's films.
The film has quite a lot of suspense and some creepiness, but it also delivers a clear message. You are allowed to be different and you should also be able to accept that there are people who are different.
The plot of the story is that Nelly wants to be a monster hunter. With her father as well as her classmates Nelly is considered rather a little crazy. When her father accommodates his daughter for a certain period of time with the relatives of the deceased mother, Nelly reveals there through her great curiosity but quickly a well-kept secret. Among the people also live many monsters and a group that call themselves the monster hunters, try that all monsters can continue to live in hiding and also receive appropriate support. Only one of the monster hunters has a higher goal. He wants to modernize and perfect the monster hunt with a center, in which all monsters are to be normalized around them society-conform to make.
Nelly then also meets a monster friend and gets a completely different view of the world of monsters and ultimately whirls through their friendship a lot of mess.
Just for info...
I was sadly not able to watch "Jong chak yeok" from Korea. So I can't write more about it.
Petite Maman:
Nelly wanders through a retirement home saying goodbye to other elderly people. Her grandmother has just left earthly life and her path now leads her, together with her parents, to what is often the last step of human existence, the dissolution of her grandmother's apartment or, in this case, house. There is an unspoken tension between the parents and Nelly is always looking for the way into nature to pass the time there. From one day to the next, her mother disappears, unable to cope with the situation, and when Nelly wanders through the woods again, she meets a girl of the same age who is building a forest hut out of branches. The girl has the same name as Nelly's mother, she is called Marion... When it starts to rain, both girls flee to Marion's house and when Nelly arrives there, she stops in front of the entrance for a short moment in the rain, because everything looks the same as at her grandmother's house. Even when she enters the premises and looks around, everything is the same.
The next day, they both delve into a complex role-playing game until Nelly wants to get rid of an important secret. She explains to Marion that she is her daughter.
Petite Manan is a film about childlike imagination and the search for parental security
Beans
Beans is the short name of Tekahentahkhwa, an Indigenous girl and the story is set in 1990 in Canada during the Oka crisis. The Indogene people are resisting the expansion of a golf course onto Mohawk land. Beans and her little sister, along with their mother, have just arrived in a wooded area where the Mohawk peacefully maintain their barricade. The two girls are supposed to gather some wood for a fire and while they are doing this, suddenly shots are fired. The crisis escalates drastically and the hatred against the Mohawk grows daily. Stones fly, dolls with bows and arrows are hung and set on fire, people are spat on or forbidden to shop at the supermarket. A world that changes especially Beans very much and her previous good nature very much put to the test.
It is a very emotional ride that often presses you stunned in the cinema chair, close to tears. Again and again the question arises, how such a thing can be possible at all... With what right people can hurt others so, who also only want to stand up for their rights and preferably without violence. Beans has become an impressive review with strong characters.
