I just got back from Berlin yesterday. What an inspirational time! For 6 days at Berlinale Talent Campus I was meeting other talented filmmakers, and attending lectures of experts like documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky (“Vivan las antipodas!”), editor Moly Malene Stensgaard (“Melancholia”), D.O.P. Edward Lachman (“Import/Export”) and others. The best part about the campus was exchanging ideas to other filmmakers and building a network of contacts. Other two Lithuanians who took part in the Campus were D.O.P. Saulius Lukoševičius and a producer Rimantė Daugėlaitė.
Because of an intensive Campus program, I had only 3 days to watch films in Berlin International Film Festival. During this time, I saw 16 films and would point out some of them.
La Demora (Forum section), a simple and sensitive drama about a woman who abandons her elderly father, won the prize of the ecumenical jury.
Dollhouse (Panorama), a coming-of-age drama about five young adults who break into a house and throw an insane party ends unrealistically but somehow poetically. Few people applauded after the end credits, and I haven’t decided yet whether it was good or bad, but it was mind-blowing for sure.
Elles (Panorama), a drama about a middle age Parisian journalist (J.Binoche) who conducts interviews with two students in order to finish her article about young prostitutes. Interesting and not judgmental approach to the issue, however, Binoche’s suffering on screen didn’t convince me enough.
Marina Abramovic The Artist Is Present (Panorama), a documentary on Marina Abramovic and its show “The Artist Is Present” in MOMA, Spring 2010, was one of the most beautifully done documentaries in the past years. Not surprisingly, it won the Panorama Audience Award for Documentary.
As for the films from Competition, I saw two: A Royal Affair, a historical drama set in Denmark during a little explored time in cinema – the Enlightenment era, won silver bears for the best actor and best script.
Rebelle, a cruelly realistic story about a kid soldier in Africa (best actress).
   
Last but not least, few inspirational lines from Victor Kossakovsky found in my notebook: “Storytelling is literature. Show story, don’t tell it” and “There’s a cinema god somewhere who moves your hand”.
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