The Berlinale makes that time is running, even in lockdown. Is there already a mood of optimism on the penultimate day?
Tomorrow at noon it will be announced who will win the Berlinale’s highest award this year. The end of the so-called industry event is in sight and I have to admit that I am a little sad. But that’s often the way it is, you’ve just got used to something and then you have to say goodbye. Five days is not much, and tomorrow I will definitely find that the time has passed much faster in the second half of an already short week – a well-known phenomenon that has always been true of the Berlinale.
I also did less today, and by that I mean watched fewer films than I planned. This was partly due to the effects of sleep deprivation, which cost me valuable viewing time. The need to close my eyes for a moment turned into a stately two-hour daytime sleep episode. That can also happen in the cinema, but somehow you saw the film anyway, just with your eyes closed. At home on the couch it feels like an unfortunate afternoon nap. That spoils the mood a bit.
The weakest flies
After all, the day got off to a pretty good start with Nicolas Keppens’ “Easter Eggs”: a pearl from the section Berlinale Shorts. In his animated short film, the Belgian filmmaker portrays the friendship between two adolescents, which is caused by a strong power imbalance, in an almost unbearably beautiful way. In doing so, he feels precisely what the desire for recognition and the consequences of pent-up inner anger and emotional dependence mean for the weaker person in the case. The film is not only a melancholy excursion into a doomed everyday adventure, but above all a clever visualization of problematic friendship patterns with a long reverberation – 14 minutes that are worthwhile.
–
Gendernauts revisited
Before my mentioned mishap, which was less worthwhile, I make a detour to the Panorama, where Monika Treut’s “Genderation” is shown. More than 20 years ago the director was represented in the same section at the Berlinale with her film “Gendernauts”. The documentary was dedicated to the trans * scene in San Francisco at the time and won the special prize of the Teddy Jury. Even before the corona pandemic, the director returned to California to interview and portray the former pioneers of the trans * movement again. What has changed? How do the Gendernauts look back on that time and what do they hope for in the future? Among other things, she meets the well-known performance artist and former sex worker Annie Sprinkle, who has always been a supporter of the trans * scene.
–
In the flip-up, the German filmmaker sheds light on the lives of her protagonists, also with a view to the ongoing struggles against gentrification and the consequences of Trump’s hostile politics. You don’t have to see Treut’s previous film to be able to classify “genderation”. It remains to be seen whether her historical look at the last two decades of the trans * movement can win the Teddy Award again this year. At least it gives an answer to the repeatedly raised question of how the protagonists from back then are doing today.
All good things
Break. I close my eyes and when I wake up it’s already dark outside. Sort briefly and start the next film, this time again competition, this time from Japan: “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Happy Hour”, “Asako I & II”).
–
The film is told in a wonderful rhythm: there are three stories that are divided into three acts. The focus is on three women who struggle with different phases and situations in life. There is a twist in every episode, Hamaguchi also plays with the expectations of the audience, defies clichés, repeatedly locates his protagonists in their points of view, lets them emerge, win or give up. It is a smart film about disappointment, failure and the exploration of (female) power resources. Even if it impressed me and is certainly more complex than it may seem at first glance, I leave it behind me quickly.
My planned program for tomorrow is bursting at the seams, so I’ll have to cut corners anyway. Am I even ready for the last day? I don’t know, but it’s welcome to start soon. But first I close my eyes for a moment.
–
