2023-02-25 ☼ film
Here’s a list of the movies I watched at Berlinale along with short reflections
The Quiet Migration is about transnational adoption and the struggle to find your own identity outside of the culture you were raised in. It’s a peaceful and thoughtful film that really explores what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong, even when you’re in a place that should feel like home.
The main character, Carl, is a Korean adoptee living on a farm in rural Denmark with his parents, Karen and Hans. He’s just finished boarding school and is expected to take over the family farm someday. But he’s stuck between two worlds - the one he knows in Denmark and the one he doesn’t in Korea - and he’s starting to question who he is and what he really wants.
The film really captures the rhythm and rituals of farm life and the photography is just beautiful. However, we had high hopes for this film, hoping to see the identity crisis play out in an interesting way. While it didn’t quite meet our expectations, it was still a nice film. Plus, it sheds light on the ugly of rural Denmark - normalized racism.
In addition, I had just watched Return to Seoul which also depicts the life of a Korean adoptee raised in France. It might have been a bit overwhelming to process two very similar stories in one day :D
Babatunde Apalowo’s feature film debut is a drama with a theme that portrays the story of two gay men, Bambino and Bawa who meet during a photography competition in Lagos, Nigeria. The film illustrates the societal pressures that emerge when homosexuality is considered taboo and banned by law in the country. Apalowo directed, wrote and produced the film. The indoor spaces were used cleverly and beautifully and the story’s progression was engaging. However, despite the interesting subject matter, the acting left something to be desired. Despite this, it was a promising debut that will definitely keep Apalowo on my radar.
Mapantsula (1985) is a remarkable anti-apartheid film that was made secretly in South Africa during the apartheid era on a limited budget with apartheid government subsidy. It portrays the story of a young Bantu street criminal who comes to the realization that militant action is the only means to overthrow South Africa’s racist social system. The film captures the township life realistically and has numerous political elements that encourage the audience to reflect on colonial rule and segregation.
The film deftly intercuts between the police interrogation of the protagonist, Panic, and the events that led to his arrest during the 1970s Soweto uprising for petty crime. Like many other works of black cinema like The Harder They Come, the central character is a dispossessed and excluded individual who becomes violent as a means of gaining acceptance as an individual.
Oliver Schmitz, the director, co-owned a club called SCRATCH in Cape Town during the 1980s where he worked as a DJ and found a loophole to bring together black, coloured, and white people to dance. Due to the club’s popularity among non-white people, it attracted the attention of the police, who beat them up several times, and eventually led to the club shutting down. Schmitz channeled his anger into making this beautiful film, which features great performances by Thomas Mogotlane and Thembi Mtshali.
The film crew couldn’t release the film due to the apartheid regime, so they made VHS copies of the film with poor quality and distributed them on the streets across South Africa. This screening was significant as it served as their premiere, and they watched the remastered and high-quality version of the film with us for the first time. Can’t wait for the SA premiere! :)
That was such a powerful piece and difficult to digest. D. Smith’s directorial debut “Kokomo City” is an uncomfortable documentary that challenges the audience’s preconceptions about trans and sex worker women. The film follows the lives of four primary subjects, all of whom have been sex workers or escorts at one time. They discuss topics that many men and black women, especially, don’t want to talk about, including class conflict among white, black, liberated black women, and trans black women.
The documentary is especially accomplished in its cinematography with Smith demonstrating an often-breathtaking cinematic eye for a first-time filmmaker (she basically used iMovie for editing and didn’t have a crew). She usses striking black-and-white images and animation to keep the audience captivated in what is almost entirely a talking head documentary. Smith’s use of light is particularly awesome with the focus on the face in hopeful conversations and speeches while more aggressive or preaching moments see the background overexposed.
The women featured in “Kokomo City” are powerful voices in the trans community. All of their lines are thought-provoking and they immediately drive your attention. The documentary’s objective is to allow these women to speak for themselves without any political bias. Through this film, Smith’s subjects discuss vital issues that affect trans women today, fearlessly questioning the topics that are still being considered as tabu.
I absolutely loved this film and it’s probably my favourite out of all the movies I saw at Berlinale this year. The plot is incredibly gripping and starts off with a black man holding a woman hostage at gunpoint. As the story unfolds, we see Teresa, the victim, living in seclusion until she gets caught up in a takeover by workers facing dismissal at her family estate. In a desperate attempt to escape, Teresa becomes trapped in an armoured car while her husband is held captive. The film powerfully portrays the stark social class disparities in Brazil.
One of the things that impressed me most about the movie was the way it explores power dynamics and the constant shift of power among the different characters without ever losing balance. The film also brings up different perspectives on ancestral slavery and depicts the slave mentality in a very moving way, as we witness the workers trying to escape from a violent and mysterious murder scene. Despite their increasingly draconian behaviour, the film does not pass judgment on the workers or provide a clear conclusion, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions.
Teresa represents the struggle for power (also representing white masters) and freedom along with the generational struggle of the workers that lies at the heart of the film. It’s a beautiful example of balancing the power dynamics between characters and questioning the elitist dogmas and collective ancestral rage. It’s thought-provoking and raises important questions without assigning blame.
Disco Boy competed in the competition section and it offered a cool and sensual experience with an intense performance by Franz Rogowski (big fan of him), breathtaking cinematography and awesome electronic beats. Although Giacomo Abbruzzese, the director-screenwriter, did a fantastic job with the movie overall, I must admit that I found the supernatural elements a bit perplexing and the combination of arthouse themes made the film somewhat challenging to follow..
The story follows a young Belorussian trying to make his way to the French Foreign Legion while in Niger, a young rebel leader and his sister are trying to survive the aftermath of colonialism. Abbruzzese captures the muddy locations of Poland, Niger, and Paris, where the characters are brought together by the tides of history in a swirling and emotional vortex. Although the film shows empathy for the trauma suffered by people from Eastern Europe and Africa, they come across more as symbolic figures than fully-realized characters. Despite that, I really enjoyed the expressive dancing of Franz Rogowski and Laëtitia Ky which added an emotional depth through their nimble moves.
IMDb