Interview

Mees Peijnenburg is presenting his new feature A Family at this year’s Berlinale. The seasoned Generation director has come back to Berlin a fourth time to tell the Story of two siblings that bear witness to an emotional divorce by their parents. The film is split in three chapters, displaying the same events from the view of the 14 year old brother and the 17 year old sister as well as a reckoning about their shared trauma. Generation Reports (FGR): We’ve read that you’ve always wanted to tell a story about a family breaking apart. We’ve had a true intimate connection to you film. How do you connect with this story? Mees Peijnenburg: A Family started from a very personal point of view; my parents separated when I was young, and I always wanted to explore what that fracturing does to...

Ich treffe den chilenischen Filmemacher Diego „Mapache“ Fuentes in der Lobby des Hyatt-Hotels. „Mapache“, spanisch für Waschbär, ist der Spitzname, den er sich als junger Punk an einer der elitärsten Universitäten Chiles selbst gegeben hat. Er ist herzlich und freut sich, über seinen Abschlussfilm Matapanki zu sprechen, der ihn in diesem Jahr zur Berlinale geführt hat. Matapanki erzählt die Geschichte eines jungen Punks, der Superkräfte entwickelt, sobald er betrunken ist, und damit gegen politische Ungerechtigkeit kämpft. Um Matapanki zu verstehen, hilft es, einen Blick auf die chilenische Zeitgeschichte zu werfen. Während des Kalten Krieges herrschte im Land eine brutale Militärdiktatur, auf die ab 1989 eine schrittweise Demokratisierung folgte. Doch die chilenische Gesellschaft – und...

One of the most touching films of this year's Berlinale screened in the Generation K+ Section was the Chinese film Zhi Wu Xue Jia - The Botanist by Jing Yi. A film that takes us to a small village at the Chinese border close to Kasachstan. For its touching portrayal of the region, its enrichment to the discourse on the human-nature relation and its stunning pictures The Botanist receives this year's Grad Prix for Best Feature Film in the Generation K+ section. I was deeply touched by this film and especially by the wonderful music, that transported the beauty and melancholy of the pictures. Therefore I asked composer Peyman Yazdanian for an interview. Peyman is an Iranian pianist and music composer. He is internationally known for his compositions for both national and foreign feature film...

It is tuesday afternoon during the Berlinale. The CinemaxX cinema is full of filmmakers, Journalists and Berlinale visitors. We manage to find a spot to record our own Interview, and are very excited when we finally get to meet and talk with Lucia Murat, the Director of 'Hora do Recreio'. In this interview, Lucia Murat talks about her personal background, about what moved her to make this movie, about the experience while working with the teenagers and about the systemic origins of violence. You can listen to it below, scroll further down to read along, or watch a shortened version of the Interview on our Instagram (or at the very bottom of the article). Interview by Liv Heyden and Anouk Segebart, video and photos by Lukas Mascher. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3OZBeNjWrekaz0vtXKB3...

With Sunshine (review) the experienced Filipina film maker Antoinette Jadaone presents a film that addresses the stigma surrounding abortion in her deeply Christian country. I had the opportunity to meet her and the male lead Elijah Canlas at Berlinale Palast to ask them a few questions. We talked about the state of abortions in the Philippines, and what it means to create a film covering such a difficult topic. Free Generation Reporters (fGR): What sparked your idea for the film? Antoinette Jadaone: I don't know if you have heard of the film Jojo Rabbit by Taika Waititi. It is a little bit of a weird connection, but in the film, the lead character had an imaginary friend who is Hitler. While watching it, I wasn't able to focus on the film anymore. I had this light bulb idea of a teen...