By Dijana Druskic, cinemaparadiso.co.uk
As this year’s Berlinale, 66th edition so far, is coming to its end and awards ceremony underway Golden Bear is the most coveted prize. That’s why this is the perfect time to look back to the previous winners who attained this prestigious award.
If you’re looking for a themed film marathon, take our recommendations and enjoy in some of the best world cinema motion pictures.
Last year’s winner was Jafar Panahi’s Taxi a.k.a. Taxi Teheran, directed, produced, written by and starring – you guessed it – Jafar Panahi. Various passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being questioned by the driver who, it transpires, is no one else but the film director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his car transforms the space into a mobile film studio, and captures the spirit and contradictions of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive with a sting in its tail.
If we go back a year into 2014, we stumble upon Chinese thriller Black Coal, Thin Ice written and directed by Diao Yinan. Alongside Golden Bear, this piece won 2014 Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Actor. Liao Fan plays Zhang Zili, a badly paid security guard. He was once one of the best detectives on the police force. That is until injuries sustained during an investigation into a gruesome and unsolved murder case forced him into early retirement. Then the killings start again. Determined to track down the killer, Zhang is drawn towards a mysterious woman seemingly connected to each victim. But nothing is what it appears to be. Sounds mysterious enough for a real crime/thriller movie night.
Go back another year, and in 2013 Golden Bear was awarded to Romanian film Child’s Pose. Cornelia, an elegant and well-connected woman at the pinnacle of society, hides a dark secret. She has an estranged son, Barbu, who seems determined to keep his life as private as possible. Far from the prying eyes of his aristocratic mother, he resists all her attempts to re-establish the bond between them. When her son is found at the wheel of a car involved in a fatal collision, Cornelia’s character and public image are cast into doubt as her strong maternal instinct turns into something much darker in her ruthless pursuit to protect her son.
2012 was the year for a very Italian film Caesar Must Die. Marking a triumphant comeback for the Taviani brothers, this shows the creation of a performance of Julius Caesar by the inmates of Rome’s high security Rebibbia prison that houses Mafia and Camorra members. The political infighting of the play as interpreted by these tough men of honour who perform the play in their own dialects becomes both a many-layered exploration of the relationship between life and art, and a moving and powerful rendition of the William Shakespeare’s classic play.
The stand-out film of the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Golden Bear is Nader and Simin: A Separation, a suspenseful and intelligent drama that details the manipulations and confrontations brought into play when a couple’s marriage painfully breaks down. Iranian drama film also won the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, making it the first non-English film in five years to achieve this. Quite a resume!
And last but not the least film in the 2010s Best Picture archive is Honey, a Turkish drama which also serves as the third and final installment of the Yusuf Trilogy, which includes Egg and Milk. The young boy Yusuf’s best friend is his father, who supports his family’s modest life with the honey he collects from all trees in the forests of the remote Turkish countryside. Yusuf is a quiet boy, and his mother is concerned for his future. Perhaps he will follow in his father’s footsteps, or perhaps school will offer him other opportunities. But the honey crop is falling, and Yusuf has trouble learning how to read. The greatest fear strikes when Yusuf’s father doesn’t return home from the forest.
Before watching this year’s Golden Bear winner, why not step back and check out these 2010s little wonders which have a lot to offer. Tell us, which of these have you seen and which ones are on your watchlist?
