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“Right now, the world seems to be out of order. This is why it is important that we are linked to the problems of the real world through film. And I think it did work. We should try to make this world a better place. So thank you so much for your art. And thank you for this year’s Berlinale, where 152 countries could live together in peace.”

 

The emphasis on being “linked to the problems of the real world through film” mentioned in Berlin Film Festival Director Dieter KOSSLICK’s speech during the Independent Juries’ award ceremony, was duly reflected that evening through the results of the official juries’ award at the closing ceremony on February 14th. The Berlin International Film Festival’s highest accolade, the ‘Golden Bear Award’ went to Iranian director, Jafar PANAHI’s “love letter to cinema inspired by an artistic spirit that refuses to give into rage and despair evoked by Islamic regime’s oppression,” Taxi. The other ‘Golden Bear’ given to the best short film went to Korean director, NA Young-kil’s Hosanna which “displayed a special point-of-view of Korean society and redemption.” With Hosanna as the sole Korean film in competition at this year’s Berlin film festival, the industry was able to exert its presence with the jury’s incontestable decision in giving the highest award to the film. This was the first award in 4 years since when PARK Chan-wook and PARK Chan-kyong brothers’ Night Fishing won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film in 2011.

 

Meanwhile, Jafar PANAHI of Taxi was sentenced in 2010 to a 20-year ban from engaging in any filmmaking activities, talking to the press, and leaving the country for going against Islamic rules and threatening national security with his focus on Iran’s oppression of women and class issues. Taxi, already considered a favorite runner up for Golden Bear when showcased early in the festival, captures conversations with various passengers the director himself has as he drives them through the streets of Teheran in a cab with a mini camera attached to its dashboard. Busan International Film Festival’s (BIFF) Deputy Director, Jay JEON also exclaimed, “I was delighted to notice a Korean director mentioned in a conversation about DVDs in Taxi, which I believe will be good for film school students to see.” The Festival Deputy Director already praised the film as “a magnificent piece that superbly combines the reality of Iran and Iranian cinema. “ PANAHI’s young niece received the award on behalf of her uncle at the award ceremony that took place on February 14th. Words were muffled by tears as she held the Golden Bear trophy up high. The trophy garnished the stage in the place of PANAHI’s young niece at the press conference that followed. This is the first Golden Bear and third win at the Berlin International Film Festival for Jafar PANAHI who won the runner-up Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for Offside in 2006, and another Silver Bear (Best Screenplay) for Pardé (a.k.a. Closed Curtain) in 2013.

 

The 65th Berlin International Film Festival listening to marginalized voices
In addition to Taxi, a considerable number of films with specific political and social point-of-views took the stage during the award ceremony. Following last year’s Golden Bear winner, Chinese newcomer DIAO Yinan’s noir drama Black Coal, Thin Ice, the Berlin Film Festival ensued the spirit of discovering new filmmakers who voice their own unique visions from the margins. Pablo LARRAÍN’s The Club that grabbed the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize discloses contradictions of the Catholic Church through priests defrocked for molesting children, while the Silver Bear for Best Director was shared by two directors. The first being Radu JUDE for Aferim! dealing with the issue of Romanian gypsy slaves during the 19th century, and second by Malgorzata SZUMOWSKA who proudly represented the power of female directors with Body that examines the reality of living as a woman in Poland through a daughter and her middle aged father who are unable to communicate with each other and uses body language to understand one another.

 

The Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for a feature film that opens new perspectives went to Ixcanul in which a girl from a volcanic region in Guatemala discovers she is pregnant with her lover’s child right before she is to enter a marriage of convenience. The Silver Bear for Best Script presented by Korean director, BONG Joon-ho who participated this year as a jury member went to Chile’s veteran director, Patricio GUZMÁN’s The Pearl Button, a documentary highlighting “how the sea remembers Earth” through a twofold tale of pearl buttons found at sea. The only film to earn a double crown was English director, Andrew HAIGH’s 45 Years. Charlotte RAMPLING and Tom COURTENAY took the Silver Bear for Best Actress and Best Actor for their performances as an elderly couple who learns on their 45th wedding anniversary, that the body of the husband’s first love was found after all these years in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps.

Films with a star cast and acclaimed directors such as Isabel COIXET’s festival opener, Nobody Wants the Night starring Juliette BINOCHE, and Werner HERZOG’s Queen of the Desert with Nicole KIDMAN, went home empty-handed despite the attention they raised during the festival. East Asian hopefuls also had to reserve their chance to step on stage for next time as Chinese director, JIANG Wen’s Gone With The Bullets, Japanese director, SABU’s Chasuke’s Journey, and Vietnamese director, Dang Di Phan’s Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, were absent from the list of winners called out at the award ceremony. Considered as the second major international film festivals following the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 5th to February 15th.