Right after premiering her intimate feature film debut at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Commpetition, Liz Sargent presents Take Me Home at the Berlinale. Fictional, but very close to life, the story follows Anna and her aging parents as they navigate increasing challenges in their delicate balance of caregiving. On site at the festival, she reflects in conversation with Lidanoir on the personal nature of the story, centered on her own sister Anna Sargent, and discusses the commplexe challenges she faced during production and the emotional journeys that shaped the final cut.

For A Family, which looks at divorce through the eyes of a sister and her younger brother, putting their individual perspectives beside and opposite one another, director Mees Peijnenburg drew on his own experience of divorce as a kid. At the Berlinale, where his personal family drama debuts in the Generation section, the director and lead actress Carice van Houten open up about their collaboration, the universality they both see in this specific story, and the other chapters that didn't make it onto the screen.

Rising filmmaker Ryan Machado keeps his cinematic lens on challenging subjects. After exploring queerness through a bittersweet nostalgic lens in his previous feature film, Huling Palabas, which premiered in 2023 in Berlinale’s Generation section, the Philippine director returns to the festival with a visceral, tonally dark drama. Set in the 90s on a provincial Philippine island, Raging touches upon the taboo subject of sexual assault experienced by young men. Just before the festival closes, Machado takes time to talk with Lidanoir about the true events that fueled Raging, its creative risks, and why he believes audiences are ready for stories that confront raw, uncomfortable, but necessary subjects.

Mit Liebhaberinnen schaffen Regisseurin Koxi und Schauspielerin Johanna Wokalek ein zeitgenössisches Update Elfriede Jelineks gleichnamigen Romans um Sehnsucht nach Stabilität und Abhängigkeit, von gesellschaftlichen Zwängen, Selbstbestimmung und Selbstdarstellung. Auf der 76. Berlinale, wo ihre gesellschaftskritische Groteske im Forum Premiere feiert, sprechen die Regisseurin und ihre Hauptdarstellerin mit Lidanoir über die Zusammenarbeit, die Notwendigkeit authentischer Frauenfiguren auf der Leinwand sowie den Kontakt zu Jelinek und die Aktualität ihres Werks.

His previous feature Blaga's Lesson won Stephan Komandarev a Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary as well as being selected as Bulgaria's entry for the Oscars, the third time the filmmaker received this recognition. His new drama draws on a real-life case to expose the human toll of inhumane working conditions and a ruthless globalized production market. Made in EU follows an exploited Bulgarian factory worker who becomes the target of public outrage and systematic scapegoating after being labeled "patient zero" during the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the theater opening of his film, Komandarev spoke with Lidanoir about the story's true foundations, shooting where the actual events took place, and making cinema with a social conscience.

Right after Sundance, where Olive Nwosu's gripping feature film debut premiered in World Cinema Dramatic Competition, the British-Nigerian filmmaker bring Lady to the Berlinale. Combining personal drama and social panorama with crime thriller elements, the plot follows a female taxi driver and her childhood friend through the nightly streets of Lagos, where painful memories and danger lurk. Amidst the festival bustle at Berlinale, Nwosu tells about Lady's realistic background, the challenges in bringing the story to the screen, authentic Nigerian cinema, and working with lead actress Jessica Gabriel's Ujah and the cast, who were recognized with the Special Jury Award for Acting at Sundance but not granted US visas.

Die 76. Berlinale ist vorbei und auf dem Potsdamer Platz ist wieder Ruhe eingekehrt. Als Abschluss haben sich unsere Kritiker*Innen Lida Bach und Jakob Jurisch zum Gespräch getroffen, um ihre Festivalerfahrungen zu rekapitulieren.

Sie sprechen über den aktuellen Stand der Berlinale, die kontroverse Pressekonferenz um Jury-Präsident Wim Wenders und natürlich über zahlreiche gesehene Filme.

Die im Podcast besprochenen Filme sind:

Eröffnungsfilm No Good Men von Shahrbanoo Sadat
Gelbe Briefe von Illkar Catak (Gewinner des Goldenen Bären)
Dao von Alain Gomis
Nightborn von Hanna Bergholm
Rosebush Pruning von Karim Ainouz
Salvation von Emin Alper (Gewinner des Silbernen Bären: Großer Preis der Jury)
Rose von Markus Schleinzer (Gewinner des Silbernen Bären: Beste Hauptrolle für Sandra Hüller)
We Are All Strangers von Anthony Chen
Meine Frau weint von Angela Schanelec
Josephine von Beth de Araújo

Wir wünschen viel Spaß beim Zuhören!

Opening the 76th Berlinale with her third feature film No Good Men is a big step for Shahrbanoo Sadat who experienced herself the harrowing crisis awaiting her protagonist. Outspoken cinematographer Naru, played by Sadat herself, is a character closely modelled after herself. Ahead of her film's premiere screening at the Berlinale opening gala, the Iranian director spoke with Lidanoir about the tense time when the Taliban took Kabul in August 2021, living in a fundamentalist patriarchal society, and moments of love and joy in violent times.

Trauer und Freude, Lachen und Schmerz, Glück und dessen Verlust: Zwischen diesen heilbaren Gegensätzen oszilliert Adrian Goigingers biographisch inspiriertes Drama um Clown Barbara, die bei einem Autounfall plötzlich ihren Ehemann und die beiden Kinder verliert. Robert Stadlober verkörpert in Vier Minus Drei, der auf der Berlinale in der Sektion Panorama Premiere feiert, den Clown-Kollegen und beruflichen wie privaten Partner der Protagonistin, die durch ihre Kunst einen eigenen Weg aus dem Schmerz findet. Im Interview sprechen Regisseur Goiginger und Hauptdarsteller Stadlober mit Lidanoir über den Umgang mit dem herausfordernden Thema, Clownerie als Charaktererweiterung und die Nähe zur realen Vorlage der bewegenden Geschichte.

Ahead of the start of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, director Tricia Tuttle talks innovations and progress of the program, diversity and inclusion, and more.