Berlinale 2015 -Strong women on the screen

Berlin fights the winter  in February with the glamour of the biggest audience film festival in the world: The Berlinale. My favourite movies on the first weekend of the Berlinale are all about strong women in different stages of life.

Ixcanul

Photo: Berlinale 2015

“You are carrying the light of life in you” – María’s mother says, lovingly washing her 17 year old daughter that got pregnant from a coffee picker who fled into the USA and left Maria behind. Now she cannot marry the man her parents chose for her: The owner of the coffee plantation. The livelihood of the whole family is at risk now. María feels guilty for her family’s situation although her parents still give all her love to her. María makes a momentous decision following an old kakchiquel-Maya myth to help her Family, which ends in a disaster…
The film demonstrates very well how globalisation has arrived also in a remote Kakchiquel-Maya-village in Guatemala: On the one hand the young peoples’ dream of a better life in the U.S. and on the other hand they cannot speak the official language of the country they live in and are therefore caught in the arbitrariness of the plantation owners.

Ixcanul is the first contribution of Guatemala being shown at the Berlinale’s main competition sector. The film is based on a true story. All actors of the movie are ordinary people, not professionals.

Min lilla syster (My skinny sister)

Stella loves her older sister Katja, who is a talented ice-skater. She imitates her sister, trying desperately to ice-skate as well as her to impress Katja’s trainer. But something is wrong wth Katja. She is getting aggressive about little things, avoids eating at home, spending lots of time in her room crying - normal in puberty as their parents think. When Stella observes her sister  and how she makes herself vomit after a family dinner, she realizes: Her sister is anorexic. What should she do? How can she help her sister? If Katja wouldn’t know the content of her diary she would go to her parents directly. The movie shows the burden that the whole family has to carry very well. I liked that the movie took the perspective of the little sister with the heavy burden she had to carry.  Choosing a sport that is like modelling and ballet known for causing anorexia with young girls was a bit banal as well as the little sister represented a non sporty, intellectually interested, food loving sibling.

Dorsvloer vol Confetti (Confetti Harvest)

Photo: Berlinale 2015

Finding your way in life is not easy and is highly influenced by the family you are born into. Katelijne is one of seven siblings of a strict religious family somewhere in Holland in the countryside. In church, at home, at school – Katelijne is exposed to religious instructions everywhere. Fairytales, TV, radio everywhere the evil is hidden and therefore forbidden, although Katelijne loves making up stories. For her storytelling she seems to be punished by God: Her grandfather has to die, her older brother has to marry. But Katelijne finally makes her way. Confetti harvest is a coming of age story in a religious setting and shows: Growing up is not easy and in the end you have to find your way by yourself.

What does a real star say?

No pictures please…See you next year

1. Joan J. Churchill | Februar 12th, 2015

   What a wonderful experience! I am so jealous of the relative european density of interesting places ^^ I’ll keep an eye out for the mentioned movies, they all sound delightful.