The global crossroads that is world cinema wrapped its Berlin chapter at the Filmpalast on Saturday and yet again Iran, for the best and the worst reasons, was the centre of attention. The best was that an outstanding Iranian film, Nader And Simin, A Separation by Asghar Farhadi, scooped the top award for best film. As already reflected with the standing ovation at the press and public screenings a few days earlier, the jury was not content with just awarding the Golden Bear. It also gave both ensemble-actor and actress Silver Bears for the film’s cast.
The film is an acute observation of life and social class in today’s Teheran. It begins with a divorce hearing that is precipitated by a husband’s refusal to emigrate because of his Alzheimer’s-stricken father. It then becomes a tense drama that reveals the particularity of class and culture in contemporary Iran. It is paradoxical that such authenticity could be on show from a country that is simultaneously stifling other vibrant cinematic voices.
Jafar Panahi, another Persian filmmaker and a previous Silver Bear winner, was also invited to participate in the jury and attend a retrospective of his work. But he couldn’t come because he was banned from leaving his country. Along with colleague Mohammad Ras-oulof, he was sentenced to six years in prison by Iranian courts as well as a 20-year ban on filmmaking, all because of a film they had not yet made.
Censorship is alive and well and exists in many guises in both the east and west. Panahi can at least be viewed as a symbol of the fight against censorship and can thus represent the multitude of nameless voices silenced.
Sleeping Sickness is the title of a Cameroonian tale that collected the best director Silver Bear for German filmmaker Ulrich Kölher.
At first, Sleeping Sickness follows the hesitations of Ebbo Velten, a German doctor about to return to Europe after spending 20 years in Africa. He’s been around the continent and is about to pass the reins of a medical aid project that has successfully controlled an epidemic of sleeping sickness.
From this simple situation Kölher manages to underline the personal dilemmas faced by Europeans that have embraced Africa. Ebbo seems to be sleepwalking into a decision he doesn’t want to make. But what is it that really keeps him in Africa? Is it his higher social status, the potential he has to do something important for people, or is it something deeper and darkly magical?
In the second half of the film, time has moved on. We gradually realise that his family has returned to Germany and Ebbo finally stayed on. He becomes somewhat elusive, even to the camera, seen only from afar.
The focus moves to another character, Alex, a black Frenchman. The arrival of Alex, the evaluator from Paris, gives writer-director Köhler an opportunity to offer a more direct critique of development aid in Africa, touching on everything from European inefficiency and misguided strategies, to African corruption and short-sightedness. He seems to also be asking the unanswerable question: is aid after all counterproductive?
Having spent much of his childhood in Africa, Köhler admits to difficulty in confronting questions regarding Europe’s relationship with Africa. Despite his Congolese origin, Alex is French, born and bred, and is unused to the relative discomforts of Africa. He is confronted with an African reality that Ebbo has finally chosen to accept. Alex’s desire to have a natural relationship with Africans is contrasted with his difficulties in adapting and gives subtle comment on habit and culture. Alex “is forced to realise that he cannot asses things from his European perspective”, ex-plains Köhler.
Viva Riva! is another type of African film altogether. It’s a gangster movie from Kinshasa, co-funded by French and Belgian companies.
Djo Tunda Wa Munga is the courageous Congolese director who decided to break the mould of African cinema and experiment in classic movie genres. He takes a simple phenomenon like a gas shortage and creates a crime thriller that doesn’t stop to ask any questions.
“Sex, greed and money drive the story that is told without a pause for breath, to the rhythm of a city that demands this tempo from all its inhabitants,” claims the Berlinale Forum catalogue.
The producers are aiming at a simultaneous continent-wide distribution soon with a UK release in May.
Séamas McSwiney is an Irish film journalist based in France
