February 7, 2006
Berlin - After rather a weak line-up of celebrities last year, the Berlin Film Festival is gearing up to roll out the red carpet this week for some of the world's top stars and to showcase 19 premieres in its main programme.
Now in its 56th year, the festival opens on Thursday with German-born director Marc Evans' Snow Cake, a drama starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman and depicting the friendship between an autistic woman and a man traumatised after a fatal car accident.
Both London-born Rickman and America's Weaver are among the star-studded guests who are expected for this year's Berlin festival, which is one of the world's top three movie fests.
Other stars and directors expected to make their way to Berlin also include Isabelle Huppert, Gael Garcia Bernal, Isabella Rossellini, George Clooney, Heath Ledger, Meryl Streep and John Hurt.
Coming as Berlin's cold grey winter months grind on, the festival's annual glamour offensive helps to give the German capital a touch of glitz amid the gloom of February.
Renowned British actress Charlotte Rampling is to head the international jury, which draws together eight key figures from the movie business in the US, Europe and Asia.
Recognising the booming worldwide interest in Bollywood movies, the Berlinale has included in the jury leading Indian producer and director Yash Chopra.
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick insists that festivalgoers will find something they are interested in among the 360 movies to be shown in the 10-day fest's main sections.
"Whoever wants sex, will get sex, whoever wants politics will get politics and whoever wants football should also expect it to be in the programme," said Kosslick.
That said, however, many of the 26 films selected for the festival's main competition are dominated by movies which are as Kosslick said "very political and close to reality".
But then, the Berlin film festival has never shied away from controversial issues, with directors of the films included in this year's programme taking a tough look at issues such as rape, war, political repression and sexuality.
While Danish-born Pernille Fischer Christensen's En Soap tells the story of the tragi-comic relationship between the owner of a beauty clinic and a transsexual, the festival is to also premiere a movie on the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
The Road To Guantanamo by directors Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross, traces three Muslims from Great Britain who were held without being charged at Guantanamo Bay prison camp for two years.
The line-up of films to be shown in Berlin also includes movies by legendary American directors Terrence Malick and Robert Altman, whose new film A Prairie Home Companion is likely to offer some light relief in the festival line-up.
The New World, the long-awaited new film by Malick, the director of Badlands, Days Of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, and starring Colin Farrell, is to be shown out of competition.
Coming against the backdrop of global tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, among the films selected for this year's festival are a raft of movies from Iran, including for the first time in about 30 years, two in the fest's main competition.
The two films - Zemestan (It's Winter) by Rafi Pitts and Offside by Jafar Panahi - also tend to reflect the major theme of this year's festival and explore everyday life in Iran.
Among the 56 countries that have entered movies in the Berlinale are a big contingent of contributions from the Middle East and Asia. Altogether this year's programme includes about six films from either the Arab world or Israel.
The festival's main competition also includes for the first time in about 50 years a film from Thailand. As well Chen Kaige's martial arts adventure The Promise, which is said to be the most expensive Chinese movie ever made is to be shown out of competition.
As has been in the case in previous years, the festival section celebrating new young directors (Forum) includes a large number of movies from Asia with the section's director, Christoph Terhechte praising the originality of Asian cinema.
Apart from movies from Korea, Japan and India, Forum includes two new films from Malaysia - The Last Communist by Amir Muhammad and Monday Morning Glory by Woo Ming Jin.
Since taking over director of the festival five years ago, Kosslick has also sought to promote European filmmakers, in particular from Germany.
And following what many critics believe to have been one of the best years for German cinema, a record of over 60 films from Germany have been entered across the festival's key competitions.
Of the 19 films competing for the Golden Bear this year, four are from German directors. - Sapa-dpa
  
 
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