The festival is slowly drawing to a close, the first members of the press are leaving, the last films are entering the race for the favour of the jury and the audience...
There's a big party tonight at the Volksbühne when the Teddy Award is presented to the best queer film of the festival...
Tomorrow is the day: Potsdamer Platz will be lit up in festive splendour for the last time. At the big gala, we will find out who will take home the coveted Bears.
Blue Moon
Blue Moon has high hopes of winning a bear, at least according to the audience and the press. The film is set on an evening in 1943, when the legendary musical Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein celebrates its acclaimed premiere. In a hotel bar, Rodgers' former partner Lorenz Hart struggles with success and his personal and professional problems. He comments on his predicament with sharp wit as he waits for his girlfriend Elizabeth and meets a number of artists of the time. Ethan Hawke is superb as the cynical, alcoholic Hart. The other roles, including Andrew Scott as Rodgers, and Bobby Cannavale as the bartender, are also excellently cast. The intelligent dialogue is pointed and sparkling with wit: Blue Moon is definitely a sparkling highlight in the competition programme.
Other People's Money
Another festival highlight is the series Other People's Money, which tells the unbelievable but unfortunately true story of the Cum-Ex affair. Although fictionalised, the eight-part series is based on real facts and shows how greedy law firms and bankers enrich themselves and pocket money from the state, i.e. taxpayers' money. In Germany, young Sven Lebert rises through the ranks in one of these law firms and becomes increasingly entangled in shady deals. In Denmark, tax official Inger Brøgger fights against politicians and authorities who have little interest in closing tax loopholes. Her colleague Niels Jensen becomes a fraudster himself.
The series tells the exciting story of the fight against huge tax fraud on an international level, explaining the complicated mechanisms of the dirty financial aristocracy in a way that even laypeople can understand. It is well written, has an excellent cast and manages to keep up its pace.
The only downer is that only the first four episodes have been shown and you now have to wait for the broadcast on television to see what happens next.
