Film of the day: SAMSARA (dir Lois Patiño, 2023) We're all in this together: sensory exploration of social ethnography and eastern spirituality through two loosely connected narratives set in Laos and Zanzibar, magnificently shot in an Weerasethakul-meets-Sensory Ethnography Lab format. #Berlinale73 #Encounters #IndieLisboa #drama #spirituality #Laos #Zanzibar #animal #ethnography #society #family #death #life #rebirth

Film of the day: A RAINHA DIABA (THE DEVIL QUEEN, dir Antônio Carlos Fontoura, 1973) Hell hath no fury like a queen scorned: trashploitation crime drama the Brazilian way, all outrageously heightened genre cliches whose very excess only makes it more revelatory, making it a queer classic in advance of its time. #drama #crime #camp #genre #trashploitation #lowbudget #queercinema #BrazilianCinema #seventies #restoration #Berlinale73 #IndieLisboa2023

Film of the day: 물안에서 (IN WATER, dir Hong Sang-soo, 2023) A filmmaker in search of a film, ie a typical Hong trope, is slyly subverted by bewilderingly, deliberately unfocused camerawork, opening new doors for his slight no-budget plotting. #Berlinale73 #HongSangSoo #drama #comedy #filmmaking #meal

Film of the day: LIMBO (dir Ivan Sen, 2023) Moody, noir-ish cold-case mystery strikingly set in the Australian outback; very well done, but a bit too stylish for its own good.
#Berlinale73 #thriller #outback #Australia #drama #coldcase #mystery #aboriginal #detective

Film of the day: VIVER MAL (LIVING BAD, dir João Canijo, 2022) Intense, emotionally violent triptych of family crisis loosely inspired by Strindberg and working as a superior companion piece to MAL VIVER.
#Berlinale73 #film #drama #family #Strindberg #PortugueseCinema #hotel #mothers #daughters

Film of the day: MAL VIVER (BAD LIVING, dir João Canijo, 2022) Mommie dearest: tightly wound tale of mothers and daughters trying to make sense of their lives, exquisitely framed and performed, building on its director’s usual portrayals of family dynamics.
#Berlinale73 #film #drama #family #PortugueseCinema #hotel #mothers #daughters

Film of the day: 20,000 ESPÉCIES DE ABEJAS (20.000 SPECIES OF BEES, dir Estibaliz Urrasola Solaguren, 2023) Attentive tale of coming to terms with difference in a traditional dysfunctional family that belabours its point a bit too much yet is not entirely disagreeable; some trimming might help. #Berlinale73 #film #drama #family #LGBTQ #comingofage #art

Film of the day: MUSIC (dir Angela Schanelec, 2023) Love is all that matters: another elliptical moodpiece from a director known for her cerebral approach to filmmaking, constantly challenging the viewer to recalibrate its expectations.
#Berlinale73 #drama #Greece #music

Film of the day: EASTERN FRONT (dir Vitaly Mansky & Yevhen Titarenko, 2023) Tales of a Ukrainian unit of medical volunteers, interlacing first person dispatches from the front with after-the-fact, back-home thoughts; always interesting and occasionally brilliant, but the two parts aren’t as smooth a fit as you’d think.
#Berlinale73 #documentary #Ukraine #war #medicine

Film of the day: LE GRAND CHARIOT (THE PLOUGH, dir Philippe Garrel, 2022) Puppetry in motion: a story of transmission and heritage becomes a self-reflexive meditation on family and choices that is also a sly, smart reckoning with the director’s own career.
#Berlinale73 #family #theatre #stage #puppets #drama #comedy

Film of the day: TÓTEM (dir Lila Avilés, 2023) The birthday party: lovingly immersive portrait of a young girl learning about life disguised as dysfunctional family tale, done with minute attention to detail.
#Berlinale73 #family #film #comingofage #party #drama

Film of the day: MON PIRE ENNEMI (MY WORST ENEMY, dir Mehran Tamadon, 2023) Thought-provoking companion piece to WHERE GOD IS NOT, making clear the limits of an earnestly idealistic view of the world while questioning the ethics of torture and of filmmaking every step of the way.
#Berlinale73 #documentary #reenactment #Iran #torture #film

Film of the day: HERE (dir Bas Devos, 2023) Beautifully poised, paced mosaic of interlinked yet apparently unrelated chance meetings that proceeds quietly towards a sort of tranquil epiphany about modern life and its commons.
#Berlinale73 #Encounters #Brussels #streets #drama #life #immigration #nocturne #comedy

Film of the day: INGEBORG BACHMANN - REISE IN DER WÜSTE (INGEBORG BACHMANN - JOURNEY INTO THE DESERT, dir Margarethe von Trotta, 2023) Both intriguing and staid, this biopic of the Austrian writer dilutes its sharp observations and attentive performances in a far too conventional construction that sets it squarely in the prestige bourgeois landscape its subject and author often railed against.
#Berlinale73 #biopic #IngeborgBachmann #art #feminism #gaslighting #20thcenturyart #film

Film of the day: PAST LIVES (dir Celine Song, 2022) It must have been love: elegantly emotional tale of a relationship stymied by time and distance, its apparently simmering temperature belying a beautifully subdued attention to the things that matter. #Berlinale73 #Sundance2023 #drama #romance #Asiandiaspora #love #friendship #BeforeSunrise

Film of the day: THE ADULTS (dir Dustin Guy Defa, 2022) You can't go home again, and still you try: abrasive modern drama of sibling dynamics that makes a point of its "dislikeability" but doesn't seem to go anywhere much with it. #Berlinale73 #Encounters #drama #family #independent #mumblecore #comedy #bittersweet

Film of the day: CIDADE RABAT (dir Susana Nobre, 2023) Sleeping beauty: slight, almost documentary fiction about feeling unmoored from life, its quiet and observational approach maybe a bit too distant to do justice to the premise. #Berlinale73 #Forum #drama #family #documentary

Film of the day: W UKRAINE (IN UKRAINE, dir Piotr Pawlus & Tomasz Wolski, 2023) The spirit of resistance: less a documentary than an atmospheric collection of postcards from Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2023, a thoughtful portrait of living under the shadow of war. #Berlinale73 #Forum #documentary #Ukraine

Film of the day: جایی که خدا نیست (WHERE GOD IS NOT, dir Mehran Tamadon, 2023) The art of torturing: powerful memoir of activist suffering under the Iranian regime, told by those who lived it to a director whose idealism is very part of the project's fabric. #Berlinale73 #Forum #documentary #Iran

RT @Simonsds: La presencia española en la #berlinale73 ha sido espléndida. Diversa y llena de talento. Ahí está el premio de interpretación para Sofía Ortero y el ex-aequo del Premio Especial de Encounters para las joyas de Patiño y Preciado. Y seguiremos hablando de Matria y Sica en Málaga👌🏻

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/iguardans/status/1629600998846083072