Berlinale 2023 starts: Ukrainian films, jury and awards

The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival has started. Red carpets were rolled out for the first time since the pandemic. So there is an incredible excitement in the German capital – not only do they love movies and shoot a lot, but they also emphatically react to the political situation with an emphasis on social problems.

This year, the festival expresses solidarity with Ukraine and Iran. The Berlin Film Festival officially condemned Russia’s aggressive war and supported protesters against the Iranian regime. Most of the tapes cover the themes of war, refugees, emigration and self-identification.

Ukrainians in Berlin

For the first time in the history of the film festival, its symbol was “dressed” in the colors of the flag of another state. Demand for yellow and blue bear badges is said to be very high. A video address by the President of Ukraine is expected at the opening ceremony of Berlinale 2023.

In total, six Ukrainian films will be shown here – two feature films and four documentaries. However, none of them got into the main competition program.

The day of the festival marks the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, so on February 24, Ukrainian filmmakers and the ambassador of Ukraine will walk the red carpet of the Berlinale Palace. The world premiere of the documentary film will take place on the same day “Eastern Front” Yevgena Titarenko and Vitaly Manskyi.

The tape was shot in different parts of Ukraine, in particular, in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. “Eastern Front” shows the war through the eyes of medics. Evgeny Titarenko began documenting the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war back in 2014, when he was a paramedic in the “Hospitaliers” medical battalion. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, Yevhen assessed the scale of the film project and invited the Russian director of Ukrainian origin Vitaly Mansky to co-author it. Manskyi was born in Lviv, worked in Russia and moved to Latvia after Russia annexed Crimea.

Poster of the movie “Eastern Front”

Without exaggeration, one of the most anticipated events related to Ukraine is the out-of-competition premiere of a documentary film “Super power” Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman. Tickets in the 900-seat hall were sold out in a matter of minutes.

Work on the film started even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in early 2021. Sean Penn started filming a movie about the comedian Zelensky, who became the president. At that time, the prospect of a brutal war was not obvious. In February 2022, when the Russian offensive began, Hollywood directors were in Kyiv. So the tape, based on several interviews, will most likely show the difference between Zelensky as the president of a peaceful country and the president of a country in the heat of war.

The artistic director of the Berlin Film Festival, Carlo Chatrian, emphasized: “This film demonstrates the role of art and artists in difficult times”. By the way, during the meeting, Sean Penn handed Volodymyr Zelensky one of his “Oscars” and asked him to return it to Malibu after the victory.

Penn gave Zelensky an “Oscar”. Photo: Office of the President

Polish documentarians will also show their vision of events in Ukraine. The directing group of Tomasz Volskyi and Piotr Pavlus traveled through wartime Ukraine from the Polish border through Kyiv to Kharkiv. They eloquently named the movie “In Ukraine” – deny the Russian pro-imperial form “in Ukraine”.

Russians were denied participation in the festival this year, although in previous years at the Berlinale, Russian cinema sounded quite loudly. Only one film was leaked as “independent” “from behind the fence” – the film “The Cage is Looking for a Bird” by Oleksandr Sokurov’s student, Malika Musaeva. The director lives in Germany, the film was shot with the support of France. The tape in Chechen tells about the life of women in an Ingush village on the border with Chechnya. In the center – the story of 17-year-old Yaha.

For comparison, last year there were seven Russian films at the festival.

Toni Noyabrova’s film was the only full-length play from Ukraine “You love Me?” The film is presented in the “Panorama” program, so viewers can vote for it. The premiere will take place on February 20, so at the moment it is difficult to say whether it is appropriate for German critics to draw parallels between the growing up of the 17-year-old heroine and the path of Independent Ukraine. The director herself assures that her film is about love: the main character tries to find warmth, mutual understanding and humanity against the background of the collapse of the Union and her own family.

Poster of the movie “Do you love me?”

The film was shot in Kyiv during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. The last scene of the film was shot three days before the start of the full-scale Russian offensive. The director recalls that during the shooting, relatives and friends constantly called the Lithuanian cameraman and tearfully asked him to leave Kyiv urgently. And he could not leave his job.

Actress Karina Khimchuk, who played the main role, now lives as a refugee in Berlin. And her 51-year-old father was mobilized for the army.

Ukrainian director Nadiya Parfan, known for her documentary projects, will show her first feature film at the festival. A short film “This is a date” shot from a subjective camera angle with one unedited frame. This is a story about the life of the city, which does not stop even during the war.

This is a date movie poster

Alisa Kovalenko’s film claims the crystal bear in the Generation 14 plus program “We will not fade away”. It was in this category that last year the film of Ukrainian Kateryna Gornostay “Stop-Zemlya” won. Now, by the way, this tape is being released all over Germany.

Kovalenko’s film, like Gornostay and Noyabrova’s films, is also about growing up, but here it takes place against the background of a constant war threat. Five teenagers – Andriy, Ruslan, Ilya, Liza and Lyera – are looking for adventure and are bored right next to the front line in Luhansk region. Suddenly they have a hope to escape from the gray everyday life and travel to the Himalayas. Filming began in 2019 in the towns of Zolote and Stanytsia Luhansk, which are currently occupied by the Russians.

Director Alisa Kovalenko joined the volunteer battalion after the full-scale invasion of Russia. And after four months of service, she returned to work in the cinema.

Poster of the movie “We will not fade away”

298 people gathered in the field on the first day of filming “Iron Butterflies” directed by Roman Lyubiy. The documentary about the war crime – the downing of flight MH17 – combines archival footage, fragments of TV interviews, recordings of conversations of the Russian military with elements of performance and installations.

“I did not have a goal to do something strange, – explains the director. – It is really convenient for me to express what I think with plastic. It happens. Until people see the footage, they don’t understand how you can make a movie about a plane crash and use elements of choreography to show the victims. But the video, in the end, puts everything in its place“.

With a mass scene, the director wanted to visually show the area of ​​12 square kilometers, which became the scene of the crime. Each of the passengers had their own story, which should not be lost among dry news reports.

The director says that while working on the film in 2021, he considered his work to be a warning of an imminent disaster, because unpunished murder leads to new and new crimes. After the full-scale invasion began, this became apparent, and the film had to introduce new accents and even an additional episode with Irpen.

When the tape was already edited, the Hague District Court sentenced the three main perpetrators of the tragedy in absentia to life imprisonment.

Poster of the movie “Iron Butterflies”

Short film “Waking in Silence” – conditionally Ukrainian. Its authors are the well-known young German director Daniel Asadi Fayezy and Ukrainian Mila Zhluktenko, who was educated and lives in Germany.

The film shows refugee children from Ukraine who are settled in a former German military barracks. Little ones play, ride on swings and bikes and explore the world around them. They weave military symbols from the past into their games, connect them with new experiences. On the asphalt, children make an endless loop: “Putin, stop killing people.”

About awards and jury

This year, for the first time, Ukrainians were included in the jury of the Berlinale. Last year’s winner, director Kateryna Gornostay, will judge films in “her” category – Generation 14plus. And Kyiv International Short Film Festival program director Sasha Prokopenko will evaluate films from the queer program of the Teddy Award festival.

This year’s Berlinale has the youngest head of the jury in the festival’s history. The honorary role went to 31-year-old American actress Kristen Stewart.

Kristen Stewart heads the jury. Photo: Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Images

In general, the Berlinale is very generous with awards, but it is not easy to understand them. Because not even all participants of the film review understand what prize their work is competing for and who votes in this nomination. But everyone appreciates participation, because even an extra-program performance at a category A festival is a serious career achievement.

Therefore, the “Golden Bear” is given for the best feature film, short film and for outstanding achievements in the film industry. It is already known that Steven Spielberg will receive it this year. There are much more “Silver Bears”, they are awarded for directorial work, male and female roles, music, screenplay and the jury’s grand prix. “Crystal Bear” is awarded as the best film for young people and about young people. There is also “Bronze”, a special prize from the jury, “Blue Angel”, the Teddy prize for LGBT-themed films and dozens of other awards – prizes for the best debut, artist’s work, relevance. Each program has its own expert jury, and there are separate prizes from critics and viewers. The latter can vote in cinemas after the screenings.

Golden and Silver Bears of Berlinale. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

So, out of 400 films presented at the festival, 19 are competing for the Golden Bear. The main competition program includes as many as five German films, and the rest are produced by Spain, China, Canada, France, the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Portugal, Mexico and of Japan

What’s in the program?

First, about the hosts. German Christian Petzold will show the tape “Red Sky”, is the second part of his film trilogy. According to the plot, a young writer is resting with friends on the shores of the Baltic Sea. He is supposed to finish the manuscript, but instead gets stuck in a love triangle and can’t get out of the wilderness due to a forest fire.

“Until the end of the night” – a detective story by Christoph Hoheusler about a gay policeman who, in order to gain the trust of a criminal, simulates a relationship with a transgender woman.

The 80-year-old famous German director Margarete von Trotta shot a biopic about the relationship of the Austrian writer with her Swiss colleague Max Frisch – “Ingeborg Bachman: Journey to the desert”.

In the movie “Music” Angela Shanelek interprets the Oedipus myth. And the tape “Someday we’ll tell each other everything” Emily Atef enjoys the eroticism of 17-year-old Maria’s relationship with a 40-year-old farm neighbor.

French director Philippe Garrel directed a tender family saga “The Great Chariot” about a family of puppeteers. All your children of the director are in the main roles.

Another Frenchman, Giacomo Abruzzese, makes his debut with the story of Alexei, a Belarusian who joins the foreign legion and goes to fight in Nigeria.

International jury. Photo: Dominique Charriau/Getty Images

The description of the work of the South African director John Trengove sounds no less impressive. According to the plot, a taxi driver-bodybuilder joins a libertarian sect and loses touch with reality. The participation of Hollywood actor Adrien Brody adds weight to the film.

Natural disasters will be told through animation at the festival. A love story in an anime film by the Japanese Makoto Shinkai “Suzume” unfolds against the backdrop of threats of global warming. Quite unexpectedly, an American romantic comedy will open the festival “she came” Rebecca Miller with Anne Hathaway and Peter Dinklage. The main character, a composer, is experiencing a creative crisis, and his wife, who was his psychotherapist in the past, recommends that he go in search of inspiration.

Outside the competition, a film about the conductor will be shown “Tar”, for which Cate Blanchett received a Golden Globe. Excitement is predicted at the world premiere “Senecas” with John Malkovich and the film about Golda Meir with Helen Mirren.

Digitization of the Berlinale

By the way, about the tickets. Queues at cash registers, in which people waited at night with sleeping bags and tents, sank into history.

Berlinale 2023 has started. Photo: berlinale.de

All sales are now online on the Berlinale website. On the page of each film, you can choose a screening date. Sales are opened most often three days before the session. One user can purchase two tickets.

It is better to register in advance and act quickly, because tickets for top films sell out in a matter of minutes.

Read also: Ukrainian cinema in 2022: without Russia, with victories and open questions