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The festival that began in 1951 when Germany -- and Europe --
was recovering from a war that had uprooted millions of people
is making an extra effort to welcome the latest wave of refugees
who have fled war in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
Refugees will be taken behind the scenes of the festival, some
accompanied by NGO workers who are helping them to adjust to
life in Germany, and there will be a refugee-staffed food truck
serving up Mediterranean fare with the aid of a celebrity chef,
the festival said in a statement.
Dieter Kosslick, the festival's director, told Reuters in an
interview that without losing sight of its primary goal of
presenting the best of world cinema, this year's Berlinale is
programmed in part to show why people become refugees.
"If you lose your homeland you don't lose it because you want to
leave your house, you want to leave your garden, your flowers,
your family," Kosslick said. "You want to be happy, and you are
leaving because you are not happy and this is the way you can
see the whole Berlinale."
Germany has taken in more than a million refugees over the past
year, the largest number of any European country.
One of the competition films, "Fuocoamare" (Fire at Sea) by
director Gianfranco Rosi, whose "Sacro GRA" won the top prize at
the Venice Film Festival in 2013, is a documentary about
refugees piling up on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
"La Route d'Istanbul" (Road to Istanbul), in the festival's
Panorama program, is a drama about a mother trying to rescue her
daughter from Islamic State militants in Syria.
"POLITICAL CORRECTNESS"?
Jay Weissberg, a Europe-based critic for trade publication
Variety, said it was no surprise that the Berlin festival would
make refugees a theme at a time when Europe is wrestling with
how to deal with the millions fleeing to its shores.
"My problem with it basically ... is it just smacks a little bit
too much of the Berlinale showing off its political
correctness," Weissberg said in an interview.
"At the same time I want to say, 'Why not?' Aren't we
acknowledging Syrians in Syria went to film festivals and now
that they're in Germany why aren't we also trying to normalize
their lives -- and perhaps this is a way to do it."
Weissberg was more enthusiastic about the breakthrough this year
for Arabic language films.
Competition film "Inhebbek Hedi" (Hedi) is about a young
Tunisian man about to be married who falls in love with a
tourist guide. "Barakah yoqabil Barakah" (Barakah Meets Barakah),
in the Forum strand, is described as a Saudi romantic comedy.
Weissberg said the Jordanian film "Theeb", about a Bedouin boy
on a perilous desert mission, had been nominated for best
foreign-language film at the Academy Awards.
"Finally festival programmers are looking at Arab territories
and realizing that there is a tremendous number of interesting
voices coming out of the region that had been under-represented
before," Weissberg said.
"It's wonderful that the Academy is also finally recognizing
there are powerful stories being told in a way that appeals as
much to international audiences as to local ones."
(Reporting by Michael Roddy and Swantje Stein; Writing by
Michael Roddy; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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