Berlin Film Fest to mark 60th birthday with family, reunification stories
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The Berlin Film Festival starting next week will celebrate its 60th anniversary with stories of family and reunification, festival officials said on Monday.
At the first press conference of the festival on Monday, Dieter Kosslick, Festival Director of Berlinale since 2001, and organizers announced the 26 official selections of the main festival competition along with highlighted events and themes for this jubilee year.
Acclaimed directors: Martin Scorsese, Michael Winterbottom, Zhang Yimou, and Roman Polanski will show their new films.
Polanski will not be present at the screening as he is still on house arrest in Switzerland awaiting a possible extradition to the United States.
One focus of this year's Berlinale, which was founded by an American film officer in 1951, will take a look back at the history of divisive politics and turbulent East/West relations.
Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of Germany's reunification, will serve as a backdrop to screen the newly restored 1927 Fritz Lang film, "Metropolis."
"We will celebrate not only by looking back but also by looking forward," Kosslick said.
The European Film market at Berlin Film Festival will examine the future of 3D moviemaking while the film program's seven sections will explore the theme of the "Family," both happy and dysfunctional.
All together about 400 films will be presented this year throughout the eleven days.
This year's opening night film, "Tuan Yuan" ("Apart Together"), is one of two Chinese language films in the main competition and illustrates the subject of family struggles. Ten Chinese language films will show at the festival including the newest film "San qiang pai an jing qi" ("A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop"), by Zhang Yimou. "Tuan Yuan," directed by Wang Quan'an, who won the Golden Bear in 2007 for "Tuya's Marriage," is about a soldier who flees Shanghai in 1949 for Taiwan. After many decades he returns to his old life to find his former love has long since married.
Explaining the decision to open the festival with "Tuan Yuan," Kosslick told Xinhua that "one of the main subjects is families, different kinds of families, which is linked to German history because it's a reunion."
"We are living in a 20-year reunion of Germany. It's very symbolic, very funny and we really like this film," he added.
When asked by the press what other mottos people would likely see this year, Kosslick replied: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY." The press conference was then followed by a giant, red Berlinale birthday cake.
Ticket sales for the February 11-21 festival will commence on February 8.
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