Small independent films sweep over Berlin Film Festival
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An Iranian family film "Nader and Simin: A Separation," Saturday captured the top Golden Bear and became the biggest winner at the 61st Berlin Film Festival.
The film, directed by Asghar Farhadi, tells the story of a broken marriage and successfully reveals the social and religious conflicts in modern Iran.
Farhadi, who won the Silver Bear award for best director in 2009 for "About Elly," chose his daughter to play the married couple's daughter in the film.
Apart from the coveted Golden Bear, the film took home two Silver Bears for Best Male and Female Actor ensembles. Farhadi's daughter, Sarina Farhadi, was among the actresses awarded.
"To me, it's (the Golden Bear) a very important prize," Farhadi told media shortly after the award ceremony on Saturday, "because it means more people will see the film."
Hungarian director Bela Tarr won the runner-up of the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear for his film "The Turin Horse."
"The Turin Horse", a starkly black-and-white film with little dialogue, depicts the poor and hard lives of a peasant and his daughter and the subsequence after a doomed meeting with a German philosopher.
"I'm a filmmaker," Tarr told the press, "My job is simple, I have to communicate with audience through images. Words are not so nice."
Bela Tarr, whose film "Satan's Tango" produced in 1994 had a running time of 7 hours, explained his inspiration of this winning film to the press: "The world is dark, have you seen happiness? I don't think so."
In addition, 2011 proved to be a fruitful year for German movies.
Ulrich Koehler's "Sleeping Sickness" won the Silver Bear prize for Best Director.
The film follows a dual line of two doctors living in Africa who find themselves facing a hard choice between Africa and their European homeland.
German filmmaker Andres Veiel won the Alfred Bauer Prize thanks to the film "If Not Us, Who." Veiel's first feature depicts the tragic relationship between writer Bernward Vesper and activist Gudrun Ensslin, who eventually played an important role in the Red Army Faction, a German terrorist group, in the 1970s.
Outside main competition, other films making a splash at the festival included "Pina," Wim Wenders' 3D dance documentary about the legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch.
"For so long...I always felt there was a wall between what I saw on stage and what my cameras captured. I waited for a revelation and the fact that it came in the form of technology was almost a shock to me," Wenders told Xinhua his reason to shoot the dance film in 3D.
Another two 3D films, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" directed by last year's Jury president Werner Herzog and Michel Ocelot's "Tales of the Night" were also screened in the Festival's first-ever 3D day.
The European Film Market (EFM), a film trade fair which is important for the film industry, appeared to remain stable if not cautiously optimistic.
In a recent statement, the EFM director Beki Probst announced that "We are very pleased with the outcome of the EFM 2011: More participants, more buyers, more films...It appears the downward trend has been broken and we are climbing out of recession."
However, the mood at this year's Berlinale was that of a quieter year, less films and fewer stars. Sixteen films ran in the competition this year instead of twenty last year.
"The 61st Berlinale means that we are in a new decade, so we want to go young and go with films that we have no idea if they really work, if they are big or epic enough," Festival Director Dieter Kosslick said in an interview with Xinhua.
"I don't want to make every year the same," Kosslick said,"I have to be alive."
Juergen Salzmann, a Berlin video artist, attended over twenty films this year. He even took a small vacation to come to the festival and watch films.
"The Turin Horse was so strong that I will have to see it again," Salzmann told Xinhua. "This film is so boring for many people, but I think it was made for cinephile."
When asked about the overall feeling of this year's Berlinale, Andrew Grant, president of Benten Films and an American distributor, said "I think on paper this year seemed like a really bad festival...but it's turned out to be a surprising festival, especially for small movies."
"The Berlinale wants to be like good chocolate," Kosslick said, "Sweet, bitter, tasty, fair trade, organic. We are fighting for cultural diversity as we fight for food diversity in the world."
The Berlin Film Festival will end Sunday after the public gets a chance to watch the winning films.
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