easilyjust go thwacking back. in the meantime, this film may not even need good luck to propel it forward, just the the strength of its performances. the berlin film festival has long and healthy tradition of embracing indian cinema. this year, a big bollywood production came to town, with the story of a mumbai matriarch and brothel owner. it was hoped that this hindi language film would have international appeal beyond india s borders. bollywood star alia bhatt came to berlin and made quite an impact. she plays the title role in gangubai kathiawadi. inspired by a real life story, it tells of a vivacious, larger than life indian mafia woman and brothel madame in mumbai s red light district in the 1960s.
the audience is now willing to see new stories, they want to see new treatments and through the covid phase they have seen a lot of world cinema and now the whole approach is changed, they are willing to see some more subtle, more delicate, something which they have not seen before. gangubai kathiawadi seemed to please berlin audiences. it has a handsome, visually distinct style in keeping with the director s previous work and it is populated by some great characters. created for the indian market in south asian diaspora, those who made it would like to reach audiences everywhere, and that is tough for bollywood films, but its star thinks that the picture has a shot because of its director s pedigree. because he has the certain colour and texture and pallet to his cinema, it is a visual delight. at the same time into the dreamily high in emotion and drama and culture and all of that. but i think at the heart of it,
we ve seen before. berlin has always had a bit of a penchant for the political. it s the place, definitely, if you ve made a political movie, you d like to come to berlin and show it, and one this year, i suppose, is german director andreas dresen s film rabiye kurnaz vs george w bush. yeah, it s right what you say about berlin because two years ago, we had the mauritanian. i m notjust defending him, and defending the rule of law. and both this film and the mauritanian are about a guantanamo bay inmate who was wrongly put into jail. but this one is really interesting because it is done as a comedy and this will create those kind of arguments that we had over life is beautiful are some subjects too touchy to be comedy? what is good about this is there s a very brilliant central performance by a german comedienne and she carries the picture. she s very fun, she s very lovable. both sing.
kaleem, it s great to be back at a film festival with you. thank you so much. the berlin film festival has long been committed to celebrating the works of experimental film makers and this year, it was a first an adventurous experimental work became the first festival film to be shown ina planetarium. early on a berlin sunday morning, the zeiss gross planetarium. inside, performance artist and experimentalfilm maker liz rosenfeld is doing a tech run through. the experimental film that s being shown later that day, white sands crystal foxes, is an ambitious undertaking from this american artist who settled in berlin 11! years ago. the film is a kind of exploration of desire, as well as nature and climate change at the same time. woman: a sphere in a sphere in a cube. i
the catalan language drama that won the top prize. it s so shiny! and bollywood came to berlin with a compelling tale of a mumbai brothel madame fighting for the rights of prostitutes. also an experimental film showed inside a berlin planetarium and how the city s decommissioned airport became home to a very popular pop up cinema. all that and more in this special berlin film festival edition of talking movies. this year, the berlin film festival was a film institution with a mission, leading us out of the darkness, determined that the festival should take place despite calls from some critics who said it was a foolhardy undertaking in the midst