{"id":75808,"date":"2022-02-17T14:19:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T14:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=75808"},"modified":"2022-02-17T14:19:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T14:19:14","slug":"berlinale-film-fest-to-award-top-prizes-under-covid-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=75808","title":{"rendered":"Berlinale film fest to award top prizes under Covid shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The 72nd Berlinale film festival awards its top prizes on Wednesday including its Golden Bear for best picture and a gender-neutral acting gong after a reduced in-person run under the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The 11-day festival, which ranks along with Cannes and Venice among Europe's top cinema showcases, conducted a shorter competition this year with strict regulations for audiences just as coronavirus infections peaked in Germany.<\/p>\n

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The Hollywood reporter said that the competition's “small casts, contained sets and limited location shoots provide a glimpse of a new Covid-era cinema”.<\/p>\n

There are 18 films from 15 countries vying for this year's Golden Bear, which will be awarded at a gala ceremony from a jury led by Indian-born American director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”).<\/p>\n

The contenders span a range of moods from “Both Sides of the Blade”, a tense French love story directed by Claire Denis and starring Juliette Binoche, to “Robe of Gems”, a gritty Mexican crime mystery.<\/p>\n

Critics lavished praise on Binoche for her performance in the French film, where she is caught between two men — her longtime husband Jean and her elusive ex Francois.<\/p>\n

– ‘Dazzlingly accomplished' –<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter called it a “smart, moody, superbly acted melodrama”, while Britain's Screen Daily said Binoche and co-star Vincent Lindon, who plays Jean, were “at the top of their game”.<\/p>\n

In “Robe of Gems”, writer and director Natalia Lopez Gallardo explores the trauma inflicted on families in Mexico when relatives go missing.<\/p>\n

The Guardian called it “dazzlingly accomplished and confident… The film that everyone is talking about this year in Berlin”.<\/p>\n

Critics also praised “Before, Now and Then”, a family drama set in 1960s rural Indonesia from Kamila Andini, the first woman from her country to direct a film in competition at the Berlinale.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter said it was a “precisely calibrated” and “emotionally nuanced” film that “both looks and sounds stunning”.<\/p>\n

Chinese film “Return to Dust” also impressed with its understated love story between two social outcasts who make the best of an arranged marriage as they build a simple life together in the countryside.<\/p>\n

Screen Daily called it 39-year-old director Li Ruijun's “most affecting and accessible work to date”, saying it “packs a quiet emotional punch”, while US movie news site Deadline noted the “wonderfully atmospheric” rendering of life in bleak rural China.<\/p>\n

– ‘Challenging but riveting' –<\/p>\n

On a rather less understated note, Austrian director Ulrich Seidl served up a dark, sexually explicit drama “Rimini”, which tells the story of a washed-up pop singer who makes his living performing for pensioners and bedding lonely women for money.<\/p>\n

Variety called it “challenging but riveting”, while the Guardian said protagonist Richie Bravo was “so horrible he may be brilliant”.<\/p>\n

Also exploring questionable sexual escapades, “That Kind of Summer” from Canadian director Denis Cote follows three women on a summer retreat for sex addicts as they attempt to make peace with their demons.<\/p>\n

Deadline said it was “entertaining” but “it remains unclear what (Cote) wants to discover or tell us about these unreformed Lolitas”.<\/p>\n

Another contender for the top prize is Andreas Dresen's “Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W. Bush”, the true story of a mother's battle to bring her son back from Guantanamo Bay.<\/p>\n

Spanish film “One Year, One Night” also reconstructs real-life events as it focuses on a young couple who survived the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Charlotte Gainsbourg was feted for her performance as a single mother in 1980s Paris in the Mikhael Hers drama “The Passengers of the Night”.<\/p>\n

And Michael Koch's meditation on death and loss set in the Alps, “A Piece of Sky”, was hailed by Deadline as “both beautifully made and a thing of beauty in itself”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 72nd Berlinale film festival awards its top prizes on Wednesday including its Golden Bear for best picture and a gender-neutral acting gong after a reduced in-person run under the pandemic. The 11-day festival, which ranks along with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top cinema showcases, conducted a shorter competition this year with strict regulations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":75809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n