10/1 – Berlinale Day 1

Off to a rather hectic start into a Berlin International 2009 which, admittedly, on paper at least, doesn’t look too promising. But let’s watch first – and jump to conclusions later…

Panorama Dokumente
“Queer Sarajevo Festival 2008”, Masa Hilcisin, Cazim Dervisevic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
LGBT film issues of relevance and tensions. A straight-forward campaign.
“Gevald”, Netalie Braun (Israel)
A sentimental and kitsch-nostalgic short against compromising freedom: quite queer.
“City of Borders”, Yun Suh (USA)
Differences in being different powerfully, politically, explored – in real life.

24^th Panorama “Laskar Pelangi/The Rainbow Troops”, Riri Riza (Indonesia)
Children warmly reflect (parts of) the world, educating national identity.

59^th Berlinale Retrospective
“Ben-Hur”, William Wyler (USA)
A wide gauge film epic that is and portrays history.

(pic©berlinale.de)