Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join Thursday by video the opening of the Berlinale, the first major European film festival of the year, which shines the spotlight on the struggle for freedom in Ukraine and Iran.
Almost a year after the start of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian leader will have the opportunity to chat by video with American actor and director Sean Penn, present on stage in Berlin from the opening gala.
The latter must present his documentary on Saturday Superpowershot as close as possible to the Ukrainian president, an actor in another life, just as the Moscow offensive began a year ago.
“Overnight, Zelensky was two completely different characters,” Sean Penn observed in an interview with Variety magazine this week about the impact of the invasion.
“He is a hero of our time,” said American actress Anne Hathaway at a press conference devoted to She Came To Mean out-of-competition film which opens the festival, where she plays alongside Peter Dinklage, one of the main actors in Game Of Thronesand Marisa Tomei, seen in particular in several films of the Marvel universe.
“Crumbled World”
Anne Hathaway thanked the Berlinale, which is celebrating its 73rd edition, “for giving everyone the opportunity to amplify Ukraine’s message: the almost universal desire for peace”.
Thursday morning, Kristen Stewart, president of the jury, said for her part that “in response to a world that is collapsing around us […]it’s a huge opportunity to be able to showcase magnificent things”.
The 32-year-old American actress is the youngest president of the jury in the history of the Berlin festival, the third in Europe behind Cannes and Venice.
Past of the series Twilight in independent cinema, at Olivier Assayas in particular, Stewart has, at his side, a mainly female jury.
This jury includes in particular the Iranian actress exiled in France Golshifteh Farahani, seen in Hollywood in particular in Patersonor the Spaniard Carla Simon, winner of the 2022 Golden Bear with Our suns.
“It’s very symbolic to be in Berlin, the city where the wall fell” in a world where another wall is currently erected against freedom, said the Iranian artist, in reference to Ukraine but also to Europe. ‘Iran.
His country, where director Jafar Panahi has just been released on bail after seven months in prison, will also have a place of choice in a Berlinale which aims to be the voice of artists in resistance. Saturday, an exceptional climb of the steps is planned, in solidarity with the Iranians.
Several films on this country are listed in parallel sections and discussion sessions will focus on the evolution of the protest movement against the regime which has erupted since September.
Spielberg honored
But all eyes will also be on the stars, who are back at the Festival after previous years marked by the health restrictions of the pandemic.
American Steven Spielberg will present his most autobiographical film (The Fabelmans) and will be awarded an honorary Golden Bear for a career that changed the history of cinema, Sea teeth To AND.
Before the award ceremony on February 25, the jurors will have to decide between 19 films in competition.
Among them, manodromewith Jesse Eisenberg (The social network) and Adrian Brody (The pianist), a film about a “bodybuilt” driver and his “repressed desires”, or even a biopic about the Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachmann, played by the Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps.
Three French films are in the running: On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert, documentary filmmakerTo be and to Havewho returned to the world of psychiatry after The least of it ; The big cart of Philippe Garrel, with his three children, Louis, Esther and Léna, and disco boy by the Italian Giacomo Abbruzzese, on the Foreign Legion, a feature film co-produced mainly by France.