Looking forward to Berlinale 2025

The Light Photo: © Frederic Batier/X Verleih AG/courtesy of Berlinale

Berlin Film Festival opens its 75th edition tonight with Tom Tykwer’s The Light about a family whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of a Syrian housekeeper (Tala Al-Deen). Screening out of competition, it also stars Lars Eidinger, who was so good in last year’s Berlin alumni Dying.

This edition marks the first for former London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle, who will be hoping for a less controversial edition this year, which saw unrest over everything from the invitation of members of the far-right AfD (Alternative For Germany) party to the opening ceremony to a row which blew up after No Other Land won the documentary prize when several filmmakers, including the film’s Israeli co-director Israeli Yuval Abraham expressed support for the people of Palestine. This led minister of cultural affairs Joe Chialo to brand it “self-righteous anti-Israeli propaganda that has no place on the stages of Berlin”.

When the film was due for release in Germany last November, Tuttle made her stance clear, writing on the festival’s Instagram page: “I don’t consider the film, or statements made by co-directors, Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham at the Awards Ceremony of the Berlinale to be anti-Semitic.”

She added: “I also believe that discourse which suggests this film or its filmmakers are anti-Semitic creates danger for all of them, inside and outside of Germany, and it is important that we stand together and support them.”

Tuttle certainly has a tricky role in that she reports to the German federal government, making her perhaps more in the firing line than most artistic directors.

The Message Photo: © Iván Fund, Laura Mara Tablón, Gustavo Schiaffino / Rita Cine, Insomnia Films

Turning to this year’s events, there are certainly films that are not overtly political but nevertheless are threaded through with them.. Yalla Parkour - which won the DOC NYC international prize last year and screens in Berlin’s Panorama section. Framed by Nablus-born expat filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter’s memories of childhood and her mother, it shows the athleticism and everyday resilience of a group of parkour-loving kids in Gaza’s Khan Yunis. Through the course of the film, which was shot over 10 years, Zuaiter founds a Messenger friendship with young athlete Ahmed Matar. Her film features striking footage of him and his pals as they turn bombed-out areas of Gaza into a playground of sorts but also touches on the Kafkaesque situation they find themselves in, particularly Matar’s failed attempts to leave Gaza even when he has a visa. The film stands in the shadow of more recent events, highlighted by in memoriam tributes that appear during the end credits.

Documentary BLCKNWS: Terms & Conditions, meanwhile is a dense and experimental documentary that was briefly pulled then reinstated to the Sundance line-up last month. It considers Black history and experience in kaleidoscopic fashion, using WEB Du Bois’ posthumously published 1999 book Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience as the foundation but also stretching out into an imagined future on a ship called The Nautica and back into the life of Du Bois and his work. Screening in Berlin’s Perspectives, it’s a heady and exhilarating work that not only explores the richness of Black history but playful indicates even the Du Bois has its failings - such as erasing certain female figures from the books. A packed film that virtually demands repeat viewings.

Also from Sundance, documentary fans will want to check out the unusual hybrid film Khartoum, which changed shape after war forced its subjects and the filmmakers to leave the country. Also, unusually making it into competition after a Sundance premiere, comes If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, which provides an acting showcase from Rose Byrne, who our reviewer says “anchors the whole damn thing with a performance that gives the sense of wobbling for eternity on a tightrope without ever quite falling off”. Ira Sachs’ latest, Peter Hujar’s Day, which also received strong reviews out of Sundance, can also be watched in the Panorama section, along with Sundance’s Midnight opener The Ugly Sister, which offers a gory take on Cinderella.

Other hot tickets include Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. It sees him reteam with regular star Ethan Hawke, who plays Lorenz Hart - of Rodgers and Hart fame - as things start to unravel for him during the opening night bash for Rodgers’ hit Oklahoma!. Big hitters in the line-up also include Bong Joon-ho’s blackly comic Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson as an ‘expendable’ worker who is cloned every time he dies and Radu Jude’s moral maze drama Kontinental '25.

As a sucker for quirky plotlines and black and white cinematography, I’m personally looking forward to The Message - about a young girl with an apparent psychic gift that lets her communicate with pets. An additional draw is the presence of Marcelo Subiotto - so good in Puan - as one of the girl’s guardians.

We’ll be bringing you news, reviews and features from the festival so be sure to check back regularly.