The 65th Berlin International Film Festival kicked off Thursday with the first of 19 contenders for the event’s top Golden Bear honor, a new movie starring Juliette Binoche as the wife of an Arctic explorer.
The premiere of ‘Nobody Wants the Night’, directed by Isabel Coixet, set in 1908 and starring Binoche as Josephine Peary, kicks off a typically varied competition at this year’s first major European film festival.
According to Miamiherald website, rivals in the competition section include Terrence Mallick’s new ‘Knight of Cups’, starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman; Werner Herzog’s ‘Queen of the Desert’, with Nicole Kidman and James Franco; and films from Vietnam, Guatemala and Romania.
Set in Greenland, the opening film gets the festival off to a chilly start, though all isn’t what it seems. Binoche plays the wife of Arctic explorer Robert Peary, heading off in pursuit of her husband as he seeks a route to the North Pole — and ignoring warnings about the onset of winter. The French actress said the film team had only 10 days in genuinely cold Norway.
The 7-member festival jury is headed by American director Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain).
Iran is participating with three films shown in three different sections of the festival which overall includes 12 sections.
Building Bridges
‘Atom Heart Mother’, a second feature film by Ali Ahmadzadeh and starring a number of best actors like Taraneh Alidoosti, Pegah Ahangarani, Mehrdad Sedighiyan and Mohammadreza Golzar will be screened in the Forum section. The film is about two girls who, on their way back from a party, meet with a car accident and bump into a mysterious stranger several times over the course of the night.
Forum section shows avant garde, experimental works, essays, long-term observations, political reportage and yet-to-be-discovered cinematic landscapes.
In the Panorama section, Hamed Rajabi’s ‘A Minor Leap Down’ featuring Negar Javaherian and Rambod Javan are to be displayed. The drama is about a 30-year-old woman who, in her fourth month of pregnancy, learns that her baby has died and she has to undergo a curettage abortion in two days’ time; she also has to answer her family.
The Panorama defines its mission as building bridges between artistic vision and commercial interests.
‘The Fried Fish’, a short animated film by Leila Khalilzadeh, will be shown in the Generation section. In the short film a fish recounts his sad story in dulcet tones in this vibrant, quirky animation with a deeper meaning.
Since 1978, the Berlinale has devoted a section to children and young people called Generation. In this section discoveries from state of the art world-cinema and cinema on a par with young people are presented.
The Berlin International Film Festival also called the Berlinale, one of the world’s leading film festivals and most reputable media events, is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978. With around 300,000 tickets sold and 500,000 admissions it is considered the largest publicly attended film festival worldwide based on actual attendance rates. Up to 400 films are shown in several sections, representing a comprehensive array of the cinematic world. Around twenty films compete for the awards called the Golden and Silver Bears.
Awarding the winners of different sections, the festival will conclude February 15.
