Rampling on ... The British-born actor and
jury chairwoman arriving at the festival's
opening night. Photograph: Tom Maelsa/
AFP/Getty Images
While the Bafta winners seem closer to home than those in receipt of the Berlinale's famous bears, let us for a moment embrace (or perhaps bear-hug) the winners of one of Europe's biggest and most interesting festivals of cinema. Somewhat refreshingly, there were far fewer long-legged blondes opening envelopes than the average awards ceremony, and the proceedings left a real sense of the sweat, blood and tears of making films, writes Lucy Muss.
Still, very much on display was the ageless sparkle of French cinema's grande dame, Charlotte Rampling, who was the chairwoman and mouthpiece of this year's jury. The jury's aim, she explained, was to select and honour films which most accurately and thoughtfully reflect the world in which we live; and with nominees including everything from low-budget Romanian romance (Love Sick) to Iranian anti-hero mystery (It's Winter), and from Danish kitchen-sink drama (En Soap), to true-life tragedy (Requiem) and American biopic (Capote) the festival's lens was certainly a wide-angle one.
The Golden bear, the festival's most prestigious award, went to a film about a single mother in post-war Serbia by Jasmila Zbanic. Word of mouth certainly hadn't prepared me for Grbavica, which takes its name from the part of Sarajevo in which the film is set. More expected was the route taken by the best directing bear, which went to Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross for The Road to Guantanamo. The duo remained humble in their speech and invited the Tipton Three, on whom the film was based, to join them on stage. The prize for best debut film went to the Danish film-maker Pernille Fischer Christensen for En Soap, a tale of two tiny apartments, a transvestite and an upstairs-downstairs odd relationship. Made for less than a million euros, it was wonderful to see this low-budget labour of love meeting with such high praise, as the initial surprise of the director later turned to delirium when she was again singled out for the Grand Jury prize, shared with Iranian film director Jafar Panahi for his film Offside.
For Innovation, the art of Rodrigo Moreno's El Custodio, was duly recognised, and the Danish film Drommen (We shall Overcome), one of my personal overall favourites won the bronze bear in the Kinderfilmfest. The best actor bear went to German actor Moritz Bleibtreu for his intense performance in Elementary Particles, and the best actress was Sandra Hüller, whose haunting performance in Requiem was the highlight of an already exceptionally moving and well-directed film.
