My Berlinale Minutes 2012, Wednesday
To me "The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears" is a strangely indecisive film with two parallel plot lines - one in France, one in Macedonia - which finally meet in Macedonia. The film left me wondering what the makers wanted to tell me.
"Zavtra" is a documentary about the Russian art collective "Voina" (War), who got certain attention for their performance of turning parked police cars upside down. I was ambigious if I like their understanding of art, but the final scene was reconciling. In a surprise action they painted a penis on one half of a draw bridge. So when the bridge opened there was an erection...
Now there was the ultimately exotic film: "Peov Chouk Sor", a Cambodian colour film fairy-tale of 1967. The director and the leading actress were present at the screening and had a most touching appearance before it started. The director told how he had rescued the film reels by flying them out of the land at last minute and how he had cared for and polished them all these years. A documentary filmmaker who had investigated the Cambodian film culture discovered the director and his film copy and made the contact with the Berlinale.
"Zavtra" is a documentary about the Russian art collective "Voina" (War), who got certain attention for their performance of turning parked police cars upside down. I was ambigious if I like their understanding of art, but the final scene was reconciling. In a surprise action they painted a penis on one half of a draw bridge. So when the bridge opened there was an erection...
Now there was the ultimately exotic film: "Peov Chouk Sor", a Cambodian colour film fairy-tale of 1967. The director and the leading actress were present at the screening and had a most touching appearance before it started. The director told how he had rescued the film reels by flying them out of the land at last minute and how he had cared for and polished them all these years. A documentary filmmaker who had investigated the Cambodian film culture discovered the director and his film copy and made the contact with the Berlinale.