It's time: Today is the first Berlinale day after yesterday's opening gala at the Berlinale Palast. After last year's festival was still held under corona conditions, we are now all sitting together in the cinema and hoping for ten days full of great films and a carefree sense of community, the feeling of watching a film together, cheering along, laughing, crying and being carried away by gripping stories.
The opening gala
At last, another red carpet, a festive gala full of moving moments, stars and fans, hustle and bustle, full press conferences ... the first day of the festival has already fulfilled the expectations placed on the film festival.
In the evening, Potsdamer Platz was transformed into a magical place as the lights around the red carpet lit up. German and international stars such as jury president Lupita Nyong'o, Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Christiane Paul, Jannis Niewöhner, Martina Gedeck and many more walked the red carpet and basked in the flurry of flashbulbs.
The first crowd had already gathered at the Hyatt during the day when the crew from the opening film Small things like these, including lead actor Cillian Murphy, producer Matt Damon and Emily Watson, arrived for the press conference.
The opening film "Small things like these"
Guilt and grief, courage and generosity - these are the themes of the opening film Small things like these. In the days just before Christmas, a taciturn coal merchant makes a discovery that confronts him with a drastic decision. In the 1980s, the small Irish town is dominated by the nuns, who also run the school and are the moral institution of the community - and who, like so many other Irish convents, also take in single and pregnant women, conscript them into labour and harass them bitterly.
The plight of the young girls, which lasted until the 1990s, is still a reverberating trauma in Irish history today, dealt with in films such as The Magdalene Sisters and Philomena. Here, however, the focus is on an outsider who witnesses the hopeless situation of one of the girls and is faced with the question of whether he should intervene and risk his own existence and the future of his daughters.
Cillian Murphy shines in the role of a man who is tormented by memories of his own childhood and who realises the crucial importance of a generous gesture. And the always wonderful Emily Watson is one of the film's most important scenes as a mother superior of such sinister malevolence that she puts every creepy horror film nun in the shade.
In any case, Small things like these is a worthy opening film for a Berlinale with hopefully many more such great works.
Outlook for the Friday of the festival
The competition starts today with three promising-sounding entries: La Cocina with Rooney Mara, A different Man with Marvel star Sebastian Stan and the Iranian entry Keyke mahboobe man are the first to enter the race for the coveted Bears.
The other sections are also starting with a full programme. On Thursday, the Panorama opened with the film Crossing, about a teacher who discovers herself while searching for her niece in Istanbul. Today's films include Janet Planet about a mother-daughter relationship with Julianne Nicholson, who has already starred in the outstanding Berlinale film Monos.
The new film by cult director Abel Ferrara is also eagerly awaited at Kino International, which, together with the music and voice of Patti Smith, takes a look at the people in the Ukraine war.
The Generation14plus section, which has returned to the House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), kicks off with Last Swim, about a decisive day in the life of a young London woman with Iranian roots. And before that, the German opening film for Generation Kplus is called Sieger sein.
So it promises to be a colourful bouquet of themes, emotions and styles.
We can't wait to see what the first day has in store for us.
