FRED Film Radio - English Channel

John Lithgow – Actor – Love is strange

Festival section: Panorama

Two-time Academy award nominee John Lithgow talks about his experience on the set of Ira Sachs’ new film LOVE IS STRANGE, screening in the Panorama Section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. The film starts with Ben (played by Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally getting married after 28 years together. The empathy and the chemistry between Lithgow and Molina is so strong and natural that gives the film even more intensity than expected. Molina and Lithgow were already friends before starting to shoot and are very fond of each other. When being asked if the secret to long lasting relationships is sharing a sense of humour, Lithgow nods and adds that he used all his experience of 20 years of marriage to prepare for the role and play this part. This answer leads us to the most important aspect of the film which is finally showing the big audience that gay couples can also be ordinary , “normal” “deeply in love” or as john Lithgow says “it’s extraordinary because it’s ordinary”. To cite Lithgow’s words “I’ve only been to one same sex wedding in my life and I’ve been to a lot of weddings in my life but i’ve never been to one where the sacrament seemed so important and you honestly felt the world changing just seeing these two men speak their vows”.

Reporter: Chiara Nicoletti

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Gina Kim, Director, Final Recipe.

Festival Section: Culinary Cinema.

New York-based filmmaker Gina Kim talks to FRED about her new film Final Recipe that is screening in the Culinary Film Section of Berlinale 2014. As well as sharing her thoughts on the art of cinema and a very interesting conversation she had with Martin Scorsese.

Reporter: Dana Knight.

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Michelle Yeoh – Actress – Final Recipe

Festival section: Culinary Cinema

Actress Michelle Yeoh talks to FRED about her new role in Gina Kim’s film Final Recipe that is screening in the Culinary Film Section of Berlinale 2014. Yummy!

Reporter: Dana Knight

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George MacKay, Actor, European Shooting Stars 2014.

FRED talks to one of this year’s Shooting Stars from the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, George MacKay from the United Kingdom.

Jury’s comment: George wowed us with his commanding performance in FOR THOSE IN PERIL, evoking a descent into an increasingly fractured mental state with brilliantly controlled subtlety. And the range of this young actor’s work is remarkable: in the past year alone he impressed as a singing soldier returned home in musical SUNSHINE ON LEITH; as the romantic male lead of dystopian teen drama HOW I LIVE NOW; and the emotionally raw protagonist of FOR THOSE IN PERIL.

George Mackay’s career began at the age of 9 in the role of Cury in P J Hogan’s PETER PAN. It continued to flourish in Scott Hicks’ THE BOYS ARE BACK, with a British Independent Film nomination as ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ and as ‘Young British Performer of The Year’ at the Critics Circle Awards. October 2013 saw the release of 3 films starring George: HOW I LIVE NOW, SUNSHINE ON LEITH, and FOR THOSE IN PERIL, for which he won a Scottish BAFTA at the 2013 awards. His most recent films include the lead role in BREAKFAST with Johnny Wilkinson, and the upcoming, PRIDE (dir. Matthew Warchus).

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

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Dante Lam (Director), Nick Cheung (Actor), Mo jing (That Demon Within).

Festival Section: Panorama.

Hong Kong director Dante Lam and actor Nick Cheung discuss their latest collaboration for Mo jing (That Demon Within). Thrilling and action-packed, this is not the usual Hong Kong crime movie though. It is also a mind-blowing visual experience and an intense exploration of the ambiguities between good and evil.

Reporter: Eddie Bertozzi.

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Yann Demange, Gregory Burke – Director and Screenwriter – ’71

Festival section: Competition

Director Yann Demange and screenwriter Gregory Burke talk to FRED about their film ’71, which was presented in the main competition of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

1971, and the conflict in Northern Ireland is escalating towards civil war. Young English recruit Gary is called into action in Belfast. The situation in the city is confusing and challenging – even for experienced military commanders. The town is divided into ‘loyal’ Protestant and ‘hostile’ Catholic areas. Both parties have paramilitary units; in addition, radical street gangs and undercover agents from all sides are trying to assert their interests on their own initiative. During a patrol, the soldiers become embroiled in a scuffle and one of them loses their weapon. Gary and a fellow soldier follow the thief who disappears into the crowd. Suddenly Gary is having to fend for himself alone in the midst of enemy territory. His journey back to his base that night is an odyssey filled with uncertainty, fear and desperation. Director Yann Demange exposes the futility of war in which every act of violence only breeds more violence. An existentialist nocturne about hidden identities, creeping paranoia and those forced to take a stand. As the film progresses, it gradually breaks free from specifics to become a more universal anti-war parable.

Reporter: Matt Micucci

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Daniel Wu, Christie Chen – Actors – That Demon Within (Mo jing)

Festival section: Panorama

Hong Kong superstar Daniel Wu and Chinese actress Christie Chen discusses their experience on the set of Dante Lam’ stunning latest film “Mo jing (That Demon Within)”. Thrilling and action-packed, this is not the usual Hong Kong crime movie though: it is also a mind-blowing visual experience and an intense exploration of the ambiguities between good and evil.

Reporter: Eddie Bertozzi

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Joselito Altarejos, Sandino Martin – Director and Actor – Unfriend

Festival section: Panorama

Director Joselito Altarejos and actor Sandino Martin talk about the film UNFRIEND, which was presented in the Panorama section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

A 15-year-old boy stands on the edge of the roof of a building site; his hand playfully reaches into the air. Beneath David lies the city and behind him his friend Jonathan who is two years older and looks on, captivated by the sight of his friend. David lives with his grandmother who divides her time between housework and TV shows. Warm and humorous, she supports her grandchild’s openly gay life, but he prefers to withdraw into his Facebook world at every opportunity. David would do anything for Jonathan and openly shares his feelings with online friends. When Jonathan posts images of himself with a new lover on Christmas Eve David struggles to overcome his powerlessness with a feverish obsession to win back his friend and soon finds himself in the grip of both real and virtual aspects of his unstable personality. Powerful tracking shots follow David through his manic imaginations, sparkling Christmas illuminations, crowded shopping malls and virtual alleys underneath a bell jar of repressed emotions. With an assured hand, Altarejos melds real and virtual worlds into a sensual, electrifying atmospheric arena that confronts us with his protagonist’s deep wounds.

Reporter: Matt Micucci

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Brenda Blethyn – Actress – Two men in town (La voie de l’ennemi)

Festival section: Competition

Fred talks with Brenda Blethyn about her brilliant performance as parole officer in Two men in town, new film by Rachid Bouchareb, in competition at the 64th Berlinale.

Reporter: Nicolò Comotti

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Zeresenay Berhane Mehari – Director and writer – Difret

Festival section: Panorama

Ethiopian filmmaker Zeresenay Berhane Mehari talks about his feature film DIFRET, which was presented in the Panorama section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

In Addis Ababa, lawyer Meaza Ashenafi has established a network providing poor women and children with free legal representation. Courageously, she stands up to all manner of harassment from the police and male members of the government. However, she really goes for broke when she takes on the case of 14-year-old Hirut who is abducted and raped on her way home from school and shoots dead her tormentors as she escapes. Accused of murder, Hirut may face the death penalty even though she was acting in self-defence – for in rural Ethiopia the tradition of ‘Telefa’ or marriage by abduction still exists. Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, who was born in Ethiopia and educated in the USA, filmed this 35mm production – only the fourth to have ever been made in his country – in the official language, Amharic. The word ‘difret’ has two meanings: ‘courageous’ but also ‘to be raped’. Based on actual events, the film enquires about the nation’s possible emergence into the modern world and about what happens when centuries-old traditions are broken and belief systems are abandoned.

Reporter: Matt Micucci

MATT’S COMMENT:

In Ethiopian, the word ‘difret’ has two contrasting meanings – it means courage but also the act of being raped. This is a haunting starting point that serves a strong purpose in setting up the tone of the film by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari that aims to uncover the dangers of some Ethiopian traditions.

The one addressed in this particular feature draws inspiration from the true story of a sixteen-year-old girl who killed one of her abductors after she had been kidnapped to become the wife of a local man in the village against her own will. With the law of the land on her kidnappers’ side, a woman lawyer comes to the girl’s rescue despite her situation looking near hopeless as the shadow of an almost certain death sentence consistently hangs over her and time is running out.

Not many films from Ethiopia make it to the international circuit, with most of its features meant for escapism and geographically restricted to the home country. To its credit, Difret not only exposes a heavy theme and issue that remains trivial in most parts of the world, but has a unique universal feel that extends further than its representation of the singular case it portrays. It could in fact be read as an invitation to revisit some ludicrous and nonsensical bigoted and worrying traditions that still unthinkably exist to this day in what should be more ‘developed’ country and that seem to significantly slow down the evolution of mankind to a state of zeitgeist maturity.

Despite all this, Difret never heavily points the finger at the individuals but rather singles out ignorance and the stubbornness of institutions as the real culprits in this story. This is quite evident in the scene of the meeting among townspeople where the matter at hand is being debated. Most almost naturally side with the kidnappers, and as the family of the killed one shouts for revenge – a daughter for a son – the claim is met by much consensus.

A strong thematic presence of female empowerment can be felt throughout Difret, as we find the central character of the lawyer strong and a member of an organisation that aims to protect women from discrimination and violent acts they are forced to endure.

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s film also looks beautiful, and much of the credit for the stunning visuals can be attributed to the choice of shooting on film rather than digital, a choice that always makes a difference and reveals a warmer and beautiful side of the landscape of Ethiopia. It’s clear that the filmmaker is also willing to reveal the harshness of his hometown’s setting out of love, and not merely to denounce the country as an underdeveloped mess. In fact, other traditions that are referred to in the film – such as the need to offer lunch to whoever visits one’s home – shows warmth and a hope for the future than may also lie in the country’s past.

It is only occasionally that the narrative structure of the screenplay stutters a little too ruggedly towards the end, however it can be understood that as the film’s story got a little more complicated, it could easily have become confusing had the director chosen to show all the intricate developments in a realistic light. What is important about Difret is that it is successful at establishing a credible and rewarding emotional and psychological connection with its audience, a factor that strengthens the film’s important thematic aspects in a very satisfying way.

Read more: http://www.cinecola.com/reports/a64th-berlin-international-film-festival/panorama-screening-review-difret-by-zeresenay-berhane-mehari/

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