FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews David Zonana, director of the film Heroico.

David Zonana’s Heroico, screening in the Panorama section at the 73rd Berlinale unveils how violence and toxic masculinity is still systemic in nowadays Mexico through the story of a 18-year-old Luis joining the national military academy.

Heroico: Luis, an 18-year-old boy with Indigenous roots, enters the Heroic Military College in hopes of ensuring a better future. There, he encounters a rigid and institutionally violent system designed to turn him into a perfect soldier.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Christian Petzold, director of the film Afire.

After presenting the first chapter of his trilogy being about water, Undine at the Berlinale in 2020, Christian Petzold is back in the Berlinale competition with the second chapter, Afire, whose title anticipates the fire element. Afire is an enchanting but yet concrete tale on human relations and the poetics of love and it stars the director’s muse Paula Beer and Thomas Schubert.

Totem: A small holiday house by the baltic sea. The days are hot and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together, friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so do their emotions. Happiness, lust and love; but also jealousies, resentments and tensions. Meanwhile the forests burn. And before long, the flames are there.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Lila Avilés, director of the film Totem.

In her second feature film, Totem, after the successful debut with The Chambermaid in 2018, Lila Avilés brings the “everything” of life into her story as it depicts an almost matriarcal family as it surrounds around Tona, father to 8 years old daughter Sol, who has been sick a long time and whose sisters, wife and father are organizing a birthday party for. There’s a disfunctional and lovely family that empathizes with the audience, there’s the beautiful chaos, life and death intertwining. Finally, there’s a young girl coming of age before kids her age as she understands life better than most adults.

Totem: Seven-year-old Sol spends the day at her Grandfather’s home, helping with the preparations for a surprise party for her father. Throughout the day, chaos slowly takes over, fracturing the family’s foundations. Sol will embrace the essence of letting go as a release for existence.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Franz Rogowski, actor of the film Disco boy.

After working with Gabriele Mainetti in Freaks Out, Franz Rogowski is again the centre of another italian yet international film, the debut feature film by Giacomo Abruzzese, Disco boy, in competition at the 73rd Berlinale. The german actor talks about the film being perceived as a coming-of-age as his character, Aleksei , a young Belarusian joining the French Foreign Legion, is in search for his place in the world.

Disco boy: Aleksei is a young Belarusian on the run from a past he must bury. Entering into a kind of Faustian pact, he becomes a member of the French Foreign Legion in exchange for the promise of French citizenship. Far away in the Niger Delta, Jomo is a revolutionary activist engaged in an armed struggle to defend his community. Aleksei is a soldier, Jomo a guerrilla fighter. As a result of one more senseless war, their destinies will intertwine. What is “otherness” and how do you absorb it into who you are as you go through life, cross borders and find yourself inhabiting an ever-changing physical and mental space? Giacomo Abbruzzese exhibits a remarkable sense of out-of-the-box thinking and inventiveness as he explores such questions in a visually striking work that is ripe with poetry and tension. Bodies fall into trances that are both revelatory and altruistic because they represent an opportunity to commune with others. Accompanying this magical reverie is a powerful score from electronic musician Vitalic that helps turn the night club into a place of transcendence. The disco becomes the ultimate destination for those who keep their sights firmly set on the sacred horizon of utopia.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

The post Franz Rogowski – Disco boy #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Federica Scarpa interviews Sonja Heiss, director of the film When will it be again like it never was before.

The opening film of the Generation 14Plus section, the new film by Sonja Heiss, is based on the autobiographical novel by Joachim Meyerhoff. The director tells us what convinced her to make this adaptation, how she decided to develop other characters, the songs chosen and the work done on the casting.

When will it be again like it never was before: The household Josse grows up in hardly corresponds to the typical notions of family: his father is the director of a psychiatric clinic, on the premises of which their family home is located. Josse spends his childhood and adolescence with two brothers and liberal parents whose bourgeois life is threatening to break up their marriage. Again and again, Josse is plagued by fits of anger and sadness. He finds a sympathetic ear, consolation and the feeling of not being an oddball primarily among the psychiatric patients. The adaptation of Joachim Meyerhoff’s bestseller is carried by a well-known cast and tells a tragicomic tale about growing up in the 1970s. A soulful celebration of life in all its absurdity and transience.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Federica Scarpa interviews Makoto Shinkai, director of the animated film Suzume.

In competition at the 73rd edition of the Berlinale, Suzume, the new film by Mikado Shinkai, which is already a blockbuster in Japan. We spoke to the director about the development of this story, born just before the pandemic, but who then rediscovered a deep connection with the feelings that emerged during the lockdown. Shinkai then revealed what was hidden behind the missing chair leg from his film.

Suzume: In a small, peaceful town on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, 17-year-old Suzume has lived with her aunt ever since she lost her mother as a little girl. One day on her way to school, she meets a mysterious young man named Souta who is in search of a door. She follows him into the mountains and finds a dilapidated old door standing alone among ruins. On an impulse, Suzume turns the handle, and at once sets free all the calamities the portal was meant to contain. All around Japan other doors open, threatening a population unaware of the looming danger. Together, Suzume and Souta set out on a journey to close them all again. Written and directed by anime auteur Makoto Shinkai, this epic adventure takes us across the length and breadth of Japan, venturing outside metropolitan hubs to seek doors of disaster in the abandoned infrastructures of depopulated rural areas. As we follow this young woman in her frantic search, we realise that she is also engaged in a personal quest for maturity and freedom. An intimate portrait that is also a study of a vulnerable yet combative nation, Suzume is a sign of resilience at a time when Mother Earth is sending humankind evidence of her fury.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Federica Scarpa interviews Jub Clerc, director of the film Sweet as.

In the Generation KPlus section of the 73. Berlinale Film Festival there’s a film with a big heart set in the breathtaking landscapes of Australia. We talked with the director of Sweet As, Jub Clerc, about her memories of a journey she took as a girl, similar to that of the protagonist, of the importance of delicately recounting the realities of disadvantaged children, and of the challenges she faced in making her first film.

Sweet as: Everyone and everything is a story, but what about finding the right words? This is something that fifteen-year-old Murra discovers while travelling on a photo-excursion for disadvantaged youth through the ancient natural landscapes of her Aboriginal homeland. In the course of one eventful week of wild camping and wandering through historic Indigenous sites, Murra reconnects with her ancestral roots, makes friends for life, experiences the disappointments of heartbreak but discovers also her love for photography. As the camera and the images she creates calibrate her with a fresh point of view to the world, Murra sees new possibilities for her future. Sweet As celebrates resilience, growth, hope and love and the importance of finding one’s very own voice in the process.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Federica Scarpa interviews Jow Zhi Wei, director of the film Tomorrow is a long time.

Tomorrow is a long time, the first feature film by Jow Zhi Wei, in Generation 14plus at the 73. Berlinale Film Festival it’s a touching film about the relationship and the incommunicability between a father and his son. We talked with the director, who revealed where this story’s inspiration comes from, why he decided to “divide” the film into two parts, and how it makes him feel to be at the Berlinale.

Tomorrow is a long time: Acts of violence bring regret and repercussions for widowed pest exterminator Chua and his son Meng. But control over their lives is not a familiar feeling for either of them. The dense cityscape of Singapore hems them in their precarious existence, offering little tenderness or space to breathe freely. His father’s long shifts of gruelling work for a thankless employer coupled with his grandmother’s advancing illness have left Meng isolated, and susceptible to being pressured into joining ranks with a group of bullies from school. Compulsory military service looms near. The unknown world of the jungle holds its own threats, but also the possibility of bringing Meng closer to understanding his own nature, and connecting with something bigger.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi  interviews Amr Garal, director of the film The Burdened.

Amr Garal the director of The Burdened, in the Panorama section of the Berlinale73, talks about the difficulties of shooting the fim in contemporary Yemen and the unfortunate common situation which amny families find themselves in as told by his film. The civil war has erased all culture and films and theatre and now little by little people like Amr try to re-start.

The Burdened: Isra’a lives with her husband Ahmed and their three children in the old port city of Aden in southern Yemen. Their everyday lives are shaped by the civil war – which means military checks in the streets, frequent power cuts, and having to haul water from the street to the kitchen. Ahmed used to work for television, but after several salary cheques were not paid, he is now earning his money as a driver. When Isra’a unexpectedly becomes pregnant, the couple faces a crisis. They both know they cannot afford a fourth child: they are about to move to a cheaper flat and the children’s school fees are due. Together they decide on an abortion. An odyssey begins in which a doctor friend becomes a key figure. A feature film from Yemen is a great rarity. Here, director Amr Gamal has chosen to fictionalise a real-life story that occurred within his circle of friends. Set against the backdrop of one of the world’s most devastating civil wars, this sensitive family drama provides us with a glimpse into the society of a country largely unknown beyond its borders.

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Zhang Lu, director of the film The Shadowless Tower.

For The Shadowless Tower, his latest film in competition at the 73rd Berlinale, Zhang Lu goes back to his city in Bejing, under the shadow of the White Pagoda that always remains the same, to narrate the life of a middle aged food critic in the middle of a life crisis. The director tells us how the film is at the same time about a love story, father son story and a journey through a moment in life in which one feels directionless.

The Shadowless Tower: Gu Wentong, a middle-aged food critic, is drifting through the local eateries of vibrant Beijing with his younger photographer colleague Oyang. A divorcé with a 6-year-old daughter and estranged from his father for decades, he is looking for a new perspective on life while reconsidering his failings as a father, a son, and a lover. While the seasons come and go, people get together and move apart. Only one thing will remain the same: The White Pagoda where they all meet sooner or later..

To discover more about the Berlin International Film Festival, click here.

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