German environmental activists disrupted the opening ceremony of the Berlin International Film Festival by sticking themselves to the red carpet at the entrance to the gala screening of the opening film.
The Berlin International Film Festival, which opened tonight, was held for the 73rd time and is considered the most political film festival.
This year the festival will be an international show of solidarity with Ukraine and with the popular demonstrations against the regime in Iran.
Sean Penn on stage.
His film about Zelensky took a turn after the war, photo: IPA
The special frame of the festival, "Out of Competition", will be dedicated this year to the reality of war zones and will be the world premiere of Sean Penn's new film, "Power", about the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Penn and his fellow film director, Aaron Kaufman, began working on this film before the winds of war began to blow from Russia with the intention of presenting the unconventional career of Zelensky, who began as a comedian and star of the popular television series "Servant of the People", which paved his way to the presidency in the 2019 elections.
The corona epidemic prevented them from meeting directly with Zelensky, and most of the conversations between them were conducted on Zoom.
Zelensky addresses the festival island, photo: Reuters
The first meeting between the two American directors and the president of Ukraine face to face in Kiev was on February 23 last year, a few hours before the start of the Russian attack.
"Since then the film has become something completely different, tracing the path of a war hero," says Penn, who will be among the guests of the festival.
The frame will also host the film "Golda", about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir starring the British actress Helen Mirren, "Kiss the Future" which deals with the siege of Sarajevo during the civil war in the 1990s, the film "Seneca" starring John Malkowitz ' about the Roman philosopher who was ordered by Emperor Nero to commit suicide, as well as "The World Against Boris Becker" about the rise and fall of the top German tennis player, who was recently declared bankrupt.
Helen Mirren as Golda Meir,
As part of the festival events, the establishment of an independent Belarusian film academy will be announced tomorrow (Friday).
The initiators of the academy, Belarusian film directors living in exile, say that the new body is a response to the elimination of Belarusian contemporary culture by the regime in Minsk and the ongoing persecution of independent artists, who are arrested, tortured or find themselves obliged to flee Belarus in order to continue creating and working.
There will also be events on the role of cinema and art in the popular uprising against the Iranian regime.
19 films will compete as part of the festival's official competition for the "Golden Bear" and "Silver Bear" awards, with this year also showing the festival's activity to encourage German cinema: for the first time, 5 of the competition's films, i.e. about a quarter of all contestants, will be locally produced films.
This year, the festival management refrained from inviting Hollywood films to the competition.
However, the president of the jury of the competition will be the actress Kristen Stewart ("Twilight", "Charlie's Angels").
Stewart (32) is the youngest person to hold this position in the festival's history.
The festival will also pay a special tribute to film director Steven Spielberg and screen 8 of his films, including "Bridge of Spies," "Schindler's List," "Munich," "IT" and Jaws." Spielberg will receive a special Golden Bear for his life's work and contribution to world cinema.
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