Highlights from the 74th Berlinale

by Mitchel Green - February 29, 2024

| mitchelgreen34@gmail.com source: Berlinale

I’ve returned from Berlin feeling inspired. The variety and ambition displayed in many of the films I saw at this year’s Berlinale were staggering, especially relative to the safety that has dominated the American film industry and independent scene of late. Though what I saw in this year’s Main Competition was weak compared to other programs, I found things to appreciate even in the work I didn’t care for. This art form can be so many things: provocative, politically charged, experimental. But above all, to paraphrase one of the directors of the Encounters program, film is deeply human. Like all art, it is, first and foremost, a way for people to express themselves, something impossible in an industry setting that values bottom lines over artists and the work they create. There is so much potential yet untapped by this medium. We just have to cultivate a situation that unlocks it. Here are some of my favorite films from this year’s festival:

Between the Temples (dir. Nathan Silver)

Though it was one of my most anticipated films of the festival after strong praise coming out of Sundance, I don’t think I was ready for how up my alley Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples” would be. I adore films that can find the perfect balance between deep despair and hilarious comedy, and this is the best I’ve seen at it since “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Finding joy and humor in the lives of miserable, lost people is difficult but extremely cathartic when done right. The film’s brilliance is in its specificity, and even if you don’t understand every cultural touchpoint, every joke and emotion is delivered with such self-deprecating confidence that the film wins you over anyway. Powered by one of the best, most complex performances of Jason Schwartzman’s career, “Between the Temples” ended up as one of my favorites of the festival.

Dahomey (dir. Mati Diop)

Mati Diop’s Golden Bear winning “Dahomey” is excellent, but it feels like the second half of a masterpiece. The film documents the return of stolen Beninese artifacts to their homeland after a long, hard struggle to get them back. Diop portrays the occasion as a celebration, but the people of Benin, particularly young students, have complicated feelings about it. While the return of any artifacts is long overdue, how much does it matter when the number returned is such a relatively small amount (in the double digits when 7,000+ were taken)? The passionate arguments in a community debate session are the film’s centerpiece, raising conflicting questions and not providing easy answers. But as powerful as those sequences are, I can’t help but feel we’re missing out on a large chunk of the story. Obviously, in a documentary, you can only show what you have footage of, but seeing more of the struggle leading up to the events of the film (as opposed to short, expository text at the beginning) would give the whole story and even greater emotional power — that after all this hard work, people still aren’t satisfied. Still, “Dahomey” is more than worthy of winning the top prize at this year’s festival.

Gloria! (dir. Margherita Vicario)

Apparently, “Gloria!” drew boos at its premiere, and I can’t really see why. For one thing, the film is lovely, a musical in shape and emotion (though not necessarily in form) about the power of music to transcend class and gender divides. There also isn’t anything particularly objectionable in the film. It isn’t taking any big, divisive swings. It aims to be a crowd-pleaser. It isn’t nasty or cruel in any way. Maybe people just wanted something different than what it ended up giving them. But for what Margherita Vicario is trying to do, “Gloria!” is very successful. Few things at the festival were as moving as the group of young girls making music together.

Janet Planet (dir. Annie Baker)

It is so difficult for a first-time filmmaker to get the rhythms of the medium right, especially when coming from an entirely different art form as Annie Baker has. More than that, Baker goes with a sparse, quiet, slow film that is even harder to execute. Yet, Baker’s sense of pacing and character is so strong that she can mine depth and emotion from low stakes and little action. Much of that hinges on the performances, particularly of the young Zoe Ziegler, who has to carry much of the film despite her age and lack of experience. She is perfect, though — one of the best child performances I’ve seen in a long time. It doesn’t fall into the trap of either reaching for too much or, conversely, being unable to bring any of the character out. It’s a demanding role that Ziegler seems preternaturally adept at playing.

Matt and Mara (dir. Kazik Radwanski)

Like “Between the Temples,” though not as extreme in either direction, Kazik Radwanski’s mumblecore dramedy “Matt and Mara” deftly bounces between the comic and the tragic at lightning speed. However, things are much more understated because the emotions are less dramatic. “Matt and Mara” is a film about dissatisfaction, but also about how not knowing what you want and not having any strong direction in life will only exacerbate that dissatisfaction. How can you begin to be satisfied when nothing will satisfy you? Matt Johnson and Deragh Campbell work brilliantly off each other, with Johnson’s more outlandish bravado being the perfect foil to Campbell’s quiet interiority.

Scorched Earth (dir. Thomas Arslan)

I never wondered what a German Michael Mann film would look like before the festival, but I got it anyway with Thomas Arslan’s heist film “Scorched Earth.” Though the film isn’t doing anything new with the genre, that Mann-esque cold, cynical attitude is perfect for portraying the heist as just another job for these people. They aren’t evil. They don’t necessarily enjoy doing it. But they’re good at it, and it’s what they’ve found success doing. More to the Mann comparison, the way Arslan shoots Berlin is reminiscent of how Mann uses Chicago in “Thief,” a rundown but beautiful setting for the nation’s underbelly to go about their business. Arslan’s use of digital technology is also some of the best in recent memory, using the sharpness of digital cameras and stark lighting contrast to create several memorable, striking compositions.

Seven Veils (dir. Atom Egoyan)

There are several metatextual elements in Atom Egoyan’s new film “Seven Veils” that only fully became apparent to me at the end when the credits revealed that Egoyan produced this while he was putting on a production of the Opera at the center of the film. Maybe that’s just me being dumb, but even without that context, I found “Seven Veils” to be a powerful commentary on the limits and dangers of an artist trying to work through their personal traumas in their art. While that may consume you, and specific choices will resonate more with the artist, the audience won’t understand it. They will simply look past that and apply whatever meaning they see fit onto the work. Even personal art isn’t personal once it’s out in the world.

Through the Graves the Wind is Blowing (dir. Travis Wilkerson)

Travis Wilkerson’s “Through the Graves the Wind is Blowing,” a pseudo-documentary about a detective in Split, Croatia investigating several murders of tourists in the area, is the best film I saw at this year’s Berlinale. That brief description (the one you’ll see as the synopsis when you look up the film online) doesn’t even begin to capture the depth of history and emotion this film has. The film is really about the history of fascism in Croatia and its unnerving resurgence in recent years (though perhaps it never really left). We’re given varying examples of this, from the disdain Croatians feel toward outsiders in the detective subplot, to the violent and troubled history of the football club Hajduk Split, to Wilkerson showing us “how many of his neighbors are Nazis” by traversing his neighborhood for an hour to see how many fascist graffiti symbols he can find. As harrowing as the film is, Wilkerson and collaborator Ivan Peric also give it a deadpan sense of humor, knowingly acknowledging how absurd this is while not taking away from its emotional power.

The Visitor (dir. Bruce LaBruce)

Though I’m unfamiliar with the Pier Paolo Pasolini film “Teorama,” or any Pasolini films, I’ve seen enough demented John Waters movies to be on “The Visitor”’s wavelength. Perhaps the idea of anti-fascist pornography doesn’t appeal to you. It certainly didn’t to my friend, who believed the Berlinale programmers should be ashamed to ever unleash something so grotesque onto the public. But I, for one, believe Bruce LaBruce’s film is a critical work of art at a time when blunt disrespect is the only way to fight hateful bigots. The whole film is one big “Fuck you!” to people in power trying to threaten the rights and freedoms of immigrants, Queer people, and anyone else that threatens their sacred way of life by visualizing their worst nightmares about what would happen if society opened itself to these marginalized groups. It’s crass, energetic, and will never let you forget its messages.