First Person: Rajendra Roy on Berlin - The New “Old” World

Many of the titles in the festival this year engage a keen sense of history in their narratives. Jasmila Zbanic‘s stunning competition feature “Grbavica”, shocked me into the realization that the war in the former Yugoslavia was long ago enough for there to be children who were born during that conflict who are now teenagers . Annette K. Olesen‘s Panorama feature “1:1” tackles the complex legacy of European guest-worker programs.  But perhaps most troubling for me as an American in Europe, is Michael Winterbottom‘s “The Road to Guantanamo” (screening in competition).  What disturbed me most profoundly was the thought that a potential majority of Americans could watch this film and find no fault with the thought of U.S. run concentration camps. Perhaps it’s the fact that they’re on foreign soil that allows some to forget about the Japanese internment camps of WWII, or perhaps it’s simply the well-oiled fear-machine that blinds them. This was not the case for my German colleagues, for whom even the thought that U.S. planes might be using German airfields en route to Cuba is a disgrace.

Berlin (the city and the festival) recognizes the best of its own history and continually infuses sexiness into its seriousness. Like a surgeon who loves strip poker or a psychoanalyst who likes to dance with her shirt off, Berlin’s history as a forum for dissent and discussion would not be half as inviting if it were not for it’s overt seductiveness and diversity. The festival will be celebrating twenty years of Teddy, the only queer film prize at an A-list festival.  Teddy’s impact has been profound, on me personally as a Teddy jury member at my first Berlinale, and on the world film scene having recognized the early work of such filmmakers as Pedro Almodovar,  Rose Troche and Gus Van Sant. The complexities of straight relationships also come into focus in Berlin. Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish are intoxicating (and intoxicated) in “Candy”, and Valeska Grisebach‘s cast of non-actors in the deceptively powerful “Sehnsucht” elicited some of the most lustful reactions in committee.  My own sense of cinematic history was challenged by Jurgen Vogel‘s devastating portrayal of a serial rapist in “The Free Will”. It was hard for me to let go of the idea that being the central character would not turn this “monster” into a “hero” (a la Frankenstein), which director Matthias Glasner skillfully avoids.

These are films that will have the best possible platform on the Berlinale red carpet, not merely because of the glam factor, but because they’ll be seen by an audience that embraces complex characters and narratives, and knows that there’s nothing interesting about being a part of the “new” world if it’s not going to benefit from what was learned along the way.

[Rajendra Roy is a member of the selection committee for the Berlinale and director of programming at the Hamptons International Film Festival.]