(Berlin) The Berlin film festival begins Thursday with the world premiere of an Irish drama starring actor Cillian Murphy, in a flammable context with the war in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“I think we’re here to see how artists respond to the world we live in right now. I’m curious to see what they do with it,” said Berlinale jury president, Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, at the opening press conference in Berlin.
Lupita Nyong’o is the first black personality in the history of the Berlinale to chair the jury, responsible for deciding between the 20 films in competition for the Golden Bear, the festival’s highest award.
The Berlin event, which takes place from February 15 to 25, kicks off the three major European festivals, before Cannes in May and Venice in September.
For his 74e edition, it presents an eclectic program with directors and actors from around the world, stars, political documentaries and art house cinema.
Small Things Like These (These kinds of little thingsEditor’s note), in which Cillian Murphy plays, one of the favorites in the race for the Oscars this year, is the first work presented among the 20 films in competition.
Adapted from the best-seller by Irish author Claire Keegan, it is inspired by real facts about unmarried mothers exploited by Catholic sisters.
Directed by Belgian filmmaker Tim Mielants, Cillian Murphy plays a devoted father who discovers the secret of the Magdalen laundries: between the 1920s and 1990s, in convents, nuns kept young women in servitude after giving them up for adoption their babies, born out of wedlock.
“We are convinced that this story which combines kindness towards the most fragile and the desire to stand up against injustice will resonate with everyone,” recently estimated the Italian Carlo Chatrian, who co-directs the Berlinale for the last time. times with the Dutch Mariette Rissenbeek. They will be replaced next year by the American Tricia Tuttle.
Noticed presence of the African continent
Among the stars expected in Berlin, legendary American director Martin Scorsese will be awarded an honorary Golden Bear for his career.
The festival, which has always been characterized by its political commitment, is particularly faced with tensions this year.
During the jury’s press conference on Thursday, Lupita Nyong’o and German director Christian Petzold were questioned by a journalist about their signing of an open letter last December calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I am always for peace and I advocate discussion, which we will hopefully do here,” replied the German director.
Asked about the decision of the festival management to cancel the invitation extended to elected officials from the far-right German party AfD to the opening ceremony, Christian Petzold replied that these “five guys” did not matter.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people (in Germany, Editor’s note) demonstrating against them and they are much more important than these five people,” he said to applause.
Lupita Nyong’o also welcomed the unusually large number of films from the African continent competing for the Golden Bear (three), or more generally presented at the Berlinale. “I can’t wait to see these works and I will never be satisfied with seeing more,” she said.
So far, no African filmmaker has won the Golden Bear. Among the twenty works in the selection, we find in particular Black Teaa love story in the African community of Canton by Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako and Dahomey by Franco-Senegalese Mati Diop, a documentary on the restitution of the royal treasures of Abomey in Benin, looted during the colonization of the country.
Are in competition The empire, remake fanciful of Star Wars by French director Bruno Dumont and Out of time by his compatriot Olivier Assayas, an autobiographical mise en abyme retracing the confinement of a director and his brother.