The Berlinale struggles not to slip into the cinematographic and political frozen scene | Culture

In Berlin there is more fear in filmmakers for suffering a verbal slip than a physical one. And that I finally snort during the Berlinale, its film festival, something that has not happened for many editions, and the sidewalks have become skating tracks due to snowy ice on ice because of low temperatures. The end of the 75th edition of the contest will be the day before the German federal elections, in which, according to the surveys, the alternative ultra -right party for Germany (AFD) will remain in second place; and a month after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States. After the convulsive edition of 2024, the new director of the Berlinale, the British Tricia Tuttle, hopes to redirect the debate to the film, but the rod of Measure is the opening film, The light, From Tom Tykwer, the slip has already begun in the artistic.

And meanwhile, Spain also frequently crosses the Berlinale. It is the class A festival that has best been given historically to Spanish cinema: as it shows, the gold bear of Alcarràs, by Carla Simón, in 2022 and the prize for the best interpretation protagonist in 2023 for Sofía Otero for 20,000 species of bees. Along with the usual presence in competition, much author cinema was projected in turn in the parallel sections. In this 2025, Sorda, From Eva Libertad, it will be released in the Panorama section, and in the competition La Argentina The message It has Spanish minority co -production. There are more films in other sections of the Berlinale, but the media noise is taken by the competition premieres, Berlinale Special and Panorama.

On the other hand, the European Film Market (EFM), which develops about a hundred meters from Berlinale Palast in a beautiful building, the Gropius Bau, with an inner courtyard and balcony full of ads, focuses this year in Spain, which is the country focus. This Thursday morning, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, who had already participated in the inauguration of the EFM on Wednesday, walked again through the market before going to the inauguration of the Berlinale. The Spanish stand occupies a privileged place to the left of the patio on the ground floor. “In this place there is a representation of 90 companies and there are 450 professionals accredited. We are building the cinema of the future. The recognition that Spanish cinema, to its power, its creativity and its internationalization is magnificent, ”said Urtasun to the press. And this invitation to be a country focus, He said, “it is a recognition of creativity.” On the little Spanish presence on the screens of the contest, the head of Culture pointed to crops and that, in spite of everything, “it is a time to be proud.”

The EFM is the second largest film market on the continent, after Cannes. It also premieres new responsible, Tanja Meissner, who has encouraged face -to -face encounters for these days, which benefits from the Spanish landing, fleeing from the ghostly sensation of past postpandemics editions and with the idea of ​​creating more networking At a very delicate moment for European cinema: producers try that European films grow in size to attract more sectors of the public without losing sight of the author’s condition, and very attentive to Trump’s possible attacks to the exception cultural. By number of accredited, the best represented markets are Germany, the United States, France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The Berlinale and the EFM struggle to recover a previous splendor, after a few years when Venice has taken the Hollywood and Cannes films, it has become the shuttle to the Oscars of author cinema. The area of ​​interest, anatomy of a fall, Perfect Days, the substance, Emilia Pérez, The Amprentice y Aor They have worked equally well in art rooms and essay as in the awards season. And they all started their career in Cannes. In this 2025 the fires in California have also stopped many trips from the other side of the Atlantic, and the proximity at the dates of the Chinese New Year and the Hong Kong film market do not help a growth in the presence of the Asian audiovisual industry.

Tuttle announced that “national symbols or political or solidarity expression”, such as the foodthe Palestinian handkerchief, because the German laws of freedom of expression allow it. But, also covered by German legislation, expressions of hate or discrimination will not be allowed. The expression “from the river to the sea”, often used in support of the Palestinian people, has already been pursued by the justice of the lumbar Berlin because it implies the desire of Israel’s disappearance. And at the inauguration gala, no position of Ultarderechista AFD was invited, a decision that the previous management team already made and that Tuttle has confirmed. In return, the entire ceremony focused on the cinema – from there that this initial event was used to deliver the golden bear of honor to Tilda Swinton – and left the politics aside, a facet that was a mark of the house in a contest who came to have in videoconference to the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, at the start of 2023. The head of the contest had already warned in the morning, at the jury’s press conference, that a film festival, with its confrontation of ideas And his debate between films is, in itself, “an act of resistance.”

Resistance necessary not to abandon the projection of the 162 minutes it lasts The light (La Luz), by Tom Tykwer, the German filmmaker who achieved worldwide fame with the groundbreaking Run, Lola, runs (1998) y The princess and the warrior (2000) before entering the drift of a more commercial cinema with titles such as Perfume, The Atlas of the Clouds o Waiting for the king.

With the title light, Tykwer refers to that issued by a lamp that helps to enter whoever puts herself before her, like the Syrian migrant who enters as a girl for everything in a luxury floor of a Berlin family of professional successful successful family and emotional debacle: an urdidor father of good slogans for large companies; A mother who comes and goes from Africa in a vain attempt to improve social conditions in a large city without wanting to realize the rot that expands in her home; a daughter immersed in self -destruction through drugs consumed in afters and a son locked in his room absorbed by virtual reality video games. Tykwer does not seem to know where he wants to arrive or how Aleppo’s battle stole.