BERLIN.- The International Festival of Cine Berlin faces this week, on and off screen, the weight of the past nazi and the threat of the resurgence of the extreme right. The 74th edition of the Berlinale, as the event is known, earned a reputation for confronting reality head on. politics with high-impact films and heated debates.
German director Julia von Heinz brought together an unlikely couple, American actress Lena Dunham and British actor Stephen Fry, for her drama Treasure, about a Holocaust survivor who returns to Poland with his journalist daughter.
The film, inspired by a true story, shows his journey after the fall of the Iron Curtain, after decades of family silence about the Nazi era. Fry plays the seemingly jovial Edek, who seeks to connect with his uptight daughter Ruth (Dunham).
Their travels take them to Edek’s childhood home, where they discover that a family living in their old apartment is still using their parents’ porcelain tea set, silver cutlery, and a green velvet sofa that they abandoned when they were abandoned. deported.
Fearing this is her last chance to preserve her memories, Ruth convinces Edek to return to Auschwitz.
“New perspective”
After the screening, von Heinz stated that the increase in anti-Semitic incidents after the start of the war in Gaza prompted her to finish the film for the Berlinale.
“There will never be enough stories to tell about this and I think we are giving it a new perspective,” he replied to the suggestion that there are enough films about the Nazi era.
Fry, who has ancestors murdered in Auschwitz, added that: “although history does not repeat itself, as someone once said, it rhymes and there are similar feelings that as we know are arising.”
Dunham, who also has ancestors who died in the Holocaust, insisted that its lessons are rooted in and transcend the Jewish experience. “It’s important to recognize that the far right, here or in the United States, has an incredible and surprising amount of anti-Semitic rhetoric and also a surprising amount of Islamophobic, anti-Black and transphobic rhetoric,” she said.
“Superheroes” of the resistance
From Hilde, With Lovestarring Liv Lisa Fries, from the international hit series Babylon Berlinwill also premiere at the festival over the weekend.
It tells the true story of Hilde Coppi, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance group Red Orchestra, who gave birth in prison while awaiting execution for high treason in 1942.
Director Andreas Dresen grew up in communist East Germany, where members of the resistance were often portrayed as superheroes. In that region, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is currently aiming for major victories in key state elections this year.
“Political terror is part of our present and unfortunately it is not as far away as we would like,” he added.
His film is one of 20 competing on Saturday for the festival’s Golden Bear, its most prestigious award.
German far right
Both films were released amid intense debate over whether the Berlinale should continue inviting AfD politicians to its galas.
The group is at the center of controversy after it came to light last month that several of its members spoke of the mass expulsion of people of foreign origin in a secret meeting near Berlin.
After initially insisting that elected members attend, the Berlinale backtracked and disinvited five AfD officials, a decision widely praised but also criticized by some, who considered that democratic culture implies tolerating even offensive opinions.
Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, the first black person to lead the festival’s jury, was asked if she would have attended the opening ceremony on Thursday in the presence of far-right charges.
“I’m glad I don’t have to answer that question and I’m glad I don’t have to be in that position,” he said.
FUENTE: AFP
