BERLIN.- Twenty films aspire this Saturday to be consecrated in the 74th edition of the Berlinalewhose jury is chaired by Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyongo’o, the first black person to hold that prestigious position.
The competition still seems open to find out who will succeed the documentary “Sur l’Adamant” (In the Adamant), by Frenchman Nicolas Philibert, who won last year with his account of daily life in a psychiatric hospital.
Among the favorite films, according to a survey conducted by the British magazine Screen, are the Iranian “My Favorite Cake” and the Austrian historical drama “The Devil’s Bath.”
The success of “My Favorite Cake” has special significance because the Tehran government prevented its two directors, Mariam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeha, from attending the world premiere of their film in Berlin.
The film tells the story of Mahin, a 70-year-old widow who meets another retiree in a restaurant. They fall in love and spend the night together, away from the prying eyes of the morality police.
“Red lines” in Iran
The film “crosses so many red lines (about things) that have been banned in Iran for 45 years,” Mariam Moghadam admitted in a video conference interview with AFP.
“It is the story of a woman who lives her life, who wants to have a normal life, which is prohibited for women in Iran,” she added.
Thousands of miles away, “The Devil’s Bath” tells the tragedy of a depressed young woman in a rural area of Austria in 1750 who prefers to commit murder rather than commit suicide, in order to avoid eternal damnation.
About 400 people, mostly women, used this “flaw” in the dogmas of the Catholic Church, which allowed them to confess their crimes and obtain forgiveness from God before being executed, directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala explained.
Critics also highlighted legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert’s third film with South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, “A Traveller’s Needs.”
Recorded on video and with a minimalist production, the film tells the story of Iris, an older woman who improvises as a French teacher in South Korea and becomes addicted to alcohol.
Postcolonial restitutions
The documentary “Dahomey” by French-Senegalese Mati Diop has also been highlighted by critics. It tells of the restitution in November 2021 in Benin of 26 works looted by French colonial troops in 1892.
The director would like her film to be “seen in as many African countries as possible,” as well as “in schools and universities.”
Diop had already received the Grand Prize at Cannes in 2019 for his film “Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story”, which tells the fate of migrants who escape from Africa by sea.
The eleven-day festival opened on February 15 with the Irish drama “Small Things Like These,” starring Cillian Murphy, one of the year’s best actor Oscar favorites for his role in “Oppenheimer.”
Source: AFP
