In 2008 I had been overwhelmed by discovering a popular festival in the sense that the screenings are in many movie theaters of Berlin and that the people of Berlin goes then to watch the movies. I liked this spirit. But I was also surprised by the price policy making movie-goers like me paying a lot as there is no pass, not even for the day. This made this week of Berlinale particularly expensive.
This is why I decided not to go afterwards. But when the section NATIVe (movies by and/or about indigenes) started to be part of the Berlinale, I decided to go back again (see here). Unfortunately the program was available just few weeks before the Berlinale and I booked only few days there. Indeed I expected to be able to watch many indigeneous within these few days. But the movies from this section are screened only once. And I managed to watch only two from the NATIVe section dedicated that year to American countries. Therefore I watched other movies as well.
This year 2017 I wanted to watch again some movies from the NATIVe section and I took some days off for that. It allowed me to watch four movies from the NATIVe section dedicated this year to the Arctic countries.
You can select in JoRafCinema all the movies seen in Berlinale2015 by searching Berlinale2015.
In the massive programm of the Berlinale, one has to make choices. This Berlinale 2017 edition is interesting to me mostly on the one hand because of the Retrospective section focused on old science fiction movies (from the 50s to the 80s), espeically from the Soviet Union, East block countries and also North American ones:
- Invasion of the body snatchers, the classical one
- Pisma mjortwowo tscheloweka (Letters from a dead man), a key movie from UdSSR on reaction to the major nuclear accident of Tschernobyl
- Sameblod, the excellent feature from Sweden that could have been part of the normal competition as well. I definitely recommend this movie!
- Kniga Tundry, the documentary from Russia
- Seitsemän laulua tundralta and Juamalan morsian, features films produced by Finland about a Russian indigeneous population (Nenets) and written by the Nenets director Anastasia Lapsui.
I deliberately excluded the other sections from my focus but in order to fill my time in Berlin and to share nice moments with some friends living in Berlin, we watched also other movies:
- Tiere, a captivating thriller from Switzerland
- Golden exits, a North American realist drama
Again, every visit to the Berlinale is quite disappointing because of the ticketing system. Not only the price is 11EUR per movie but on top one online ticket costs 1.5EUR more going directly to Eventim. Then the day tickets are only available on the movie theater, the sell is not centralised. So that I spent my Saturday morning to travel through Berlin just to buy tickets for the afternoon and the evening.
For the next years, I would really prefer to avoid the Berlinale, that is done for occasionnally movie-goers from Berlin and for the press. In the meanwhile, I hope that the retrospectives and indigeneous movies as proposed at the Berlinale will be also available in other film festivals, that would be more accessible.
The Q&A for Sameblod is reported below. Here and now, you can find one picture of it.
The director Amanda Kernell is half Swedish half Sami, having a Sami father. From her experience, she explains that the "colonisation of [Sami's] mind" has been made possible via the state school system, imposed to the Sami populations by force. "[This] made believe the Sami that they were stupid". This went so far that "people changed their names" to appear more Swedish and be better accepted into the Swedish society. But this did not work well because the accent quite easy to recognise. Then the last generations had impregnated the stereotypes about Sami people, having a different "skin colour and bruise hair". According to Kerrnell, "[her] generation is the first one that can be proud about [being Sami]". She admits that the police still have these stereotypes against Sami. The major value of the movie was that "it helped her to learn and ask questions about the past, about the history of the Sami".
Today, Lene Cecilia Sparrok would not change her life as reindeer breeder. "It is natural to stay." Kernell confirms that "to work with reindeer takes a life to learn" and therefore it would be a pity to loose this knowledge.
Kernell's way to make movies is to "declare love to people I know". In this case to her Sami acquaintance.
By the first screenings Lene Cecilia Sparrok explains that "[her] mother cried a lot. It is kind of personal". We can even more understand the cathartic effect of this movie kind of writing an untold aspect of the Sami history to the Sami themselves and to the Swedish.
JoRafCinema has been impressed by the personalities of both director and actress. We wish to the movie a good distribution and success, and not only as indigene movie.
The Q&A for Anastasia Lapsui movies is reported below. Here and now, you can find one picture of it.
The Nenets have been forced by the Soviet regime to give most of the reindeer, that was the proud of each family. Lapsui explains that "the Nenets are very greedy. When they have 100 reindeer, they want to have 1000. When they have 1000 reindeers, they want to have 10000." Even if it said with humour, it shows the reality of the population and the importance of that work for the status of each individual within the Nenets society. She would like that the Nenets live in freedom, including the freedom to go and work abroad. "We are not competitive because our education level is low". Indeed during the Soviet regime they were forced to leave their families and to go to school, they had also the possibility to study. Since it fell down, they became second class citizens as they have to pay to study and have no money for that.
For the next years, I would really prefer to avoid the Berlinale, that is done for occasionnally movie-goers from Berlin and for the press. In the meanwhile, I hope that the retrospectives and indigeneous movies as proposed at the Berlinale will be also available in other film festivals, that would be more accessible.
The Q&A for Sameblod is reported below. Here and now, you can find one picture of it.
The director Amanda Kernell is half Swedish half Sami, having a Sami father. From her experience, she explains that the "colonisation of [Sami's] mind" has been made possible via the state school system, imposed to the Sami populations by force. "[This] made believe the Sami that they were stupid". This went so far that "people changed their names" to appear more Swedish and be better accepted into the Swedish society. But this did not work well because the accent quite easy to recognise. Then the last generations had impregnated the stereotypes about Sami people, having a different "skin colour and bruise hair". According to Kerrnell, "[her] generation is the first one that can be proud about [being Sami]". She admits that the police still have these stereotypes against Sami. The major value of the movie was that "it helped her to learn and ask questions about the past, about the history of the Sami".
Today, Lene Cecilia Sparrok would not change her life as reindeer breeder. "It is natural to stay." Kernell confirms that "to work with reindeer takes a life to learn" and therefore it would be a pity to loose this knowledge.
Kernell's way to make movies is to "declare love to people I know". In this case to her Sami acquaintance.
By the first screenings Lene Cecilia Sparrok explains that "[her] mother cried a lot. It is kind of personal". We can even more understand the cathartic effect of this movie kind of writing an untold aspect of the Sami history to the Sami themselves and to the Swedish.
JoRafCinema has been impressed by the personalities of both director and actress. We wish to the movie a good distribution and success, and not only as indigene movie.
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| Q&A for Sameblod with the director Kernell (right) and the main actress Sparrok (middle) |
The Nenets have been forced by the Soviet regime to give most of the reindeer, that was the proud of each family. Lapsui explains that "the Nenets are very greedy. When they have 100 reindeer, they want to have 1000. When they have 1000 reindeers, they want to have 10000." Even if it said with humour, it shows the reality of the population and the importance of that work for the status of each individual within the Nenets society. She would like that the Nenets live in freedom, including the freedom to go and work abroad. "We are not competitive because our education level is low". Indeed during the Soviet regime they were forced to leave their families and to go to school, they had also the possibility to study. Since it fell down, they became second class citizens as they have to pay to study and have no money for that.
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| Q&A with director Lapsui, the translator, the co-director, the productor (from left to right) |
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