The program of the 74th Berlin Film Festival has been announced

The rich, but not too “star-studded” program announced by the 74th Berlin Festival is noticeably different from those that characterized the Berlinale in the recent past. Comments Andrey Plakhov.

It is possible that this past will return again in the near future. After all, the upcoming Berlinale in February 2024 is the last one that Mariette Rissenbeck and Carlo Chatrian prepared as directors: the first was involved in organizational and administrative issues, the second – creative. The maximalism of this curator’s artistic approach and hostility to the mainstream can be felt in everything, at least in the scope of the program. Even if the total number of films and sections was reduced under the pressure of economic factors, Chatrian completely saturated two competitions, almost equivalent in his festival concept. In addition to the traditional, main one, with 20 films, there will be a second, experimental one, invented by the curator, called Encounters (“Clashes”) with 15 participants. Thus, a total of 35 films will “collide” and compete for prizes in both competitions. At the same time, the historically established sections “Panorama” and “Forum”, as well as the Generation program dedicated to children and youth, are not going away: they also award their own, less official awards.

Unlike the Cannes and Venice festivals, even in the main competition there are not many “sacred cows” of world film directing: these include only the Frenchman Bruno Dumont (film “Empire”) and the Korean Hong Sang-soo (“Needs of a Traveler”), without which no major festival can afford. Famous names also include the Germans Andreas Dresen (“From Hilda, with Love”) and Matthias Glasner (“Dying”), the Americans Travis Wilkerson (“The Wind Blows Through the Graves”) and Aaron Schimberg (“The Other Man”), the Frenchman Olivier Assayas (“Reflected Time”), Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako (“Black Tea”). If you delve into the programs of parallel sections and summarize your impressions, you will find that there are still more sonorous director names: here are the German Romuald Karmakar, and the Canadians Atom Egoyan and Bruce La Bruce, and the Israeli Amos Gitai. Noteworthy is the film “What did you dream about last night, Parajanov?” directed by Faraz Fesharaki.

But in general, there is reason to talk about African and Latin American accents in the program: these territories are represented in all sections, and the jury of the main competition is headed by the Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o, winner of an Oscar for her role in the film “12 Years a Slave” . The representation of Eastern European countries, once fundamentally important in the structure of the Berlinale, has sharply decreased. The exception – for obvious reasons – is Ukraine: it is represented by “Editorial” by Roman Bondarchuk, “Stranger” by Svetlana Lishchinskaya and “Interception” by Oksana Karpovich. In addition, the film “Turn in the Wound” by the cult American Abel Ferrar, filmed in the vicinity of Kyiv – Bucha, Irpen, Borodyanka, will be shown.

Although there are no films that can be called Russian in the full sense of the word in the Berlin program, the most intriguing figure in the main competition and the entire festival can be called our compatriot Viktor Kosakovsky, now working in Europe. The situation is not entirely new: the archival screening of Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Sacrifice,” included in the Berlinale program, reminds us that “there is no prophet in his own country.” Kosakovsky is one of the select documentary filmmakers whose work is considered by world film forums on a par with feature films. In 2020, the Berlinale showed his heartbreaking “Gunda” (the name of the sow), after which some viewers admitted that they became vegetarians. The new film “Architecton” will reveal another genre facet of Kosakovsky’s talent, who this time directed a comedy about architecture.

Documentary films are also represented by other works by major or fashionable filmmakers. Mati Diop (documentary “Dahomey”) will compete with Kossakovsky in the main competition. The winner of last year’s Berlin festival, Frenchman Nicolas Philibert, will show the sequel to his non-fiction film On Adamante. And this is not the first time that the prestigious Austrian documentarian Ruth Beckerman (film “The Favorites”) will participate in the “Clashes” competition.

What the Berlinale does not do very impressively, unlike the era when it was run by Dieter Kosslick, is Hollywood hits and stars. Martin Scorsese is called upon to smooth out this flaw, who will be awarded an honorary Golden Bear. European celebrities will include Isabelle Huppert and Chiara Mastroianni, and Golden Globe winner Cillian Murphy will star at the opening of the festival. He played the main role in the Irish drama “Such Little Things” by Tim Mylants, which will open the Berlinale.