A rustling sound. At first very quiet, barely distinguishable from the wind, then growing louder and louder, hissing and roaring. A flickering, bright light flashes on and off, clacking and clicking — until finally, slowly, a heavy hatch opens and thick steam hisses into the evening sky.
‘Do you think time travel is real?‘
The time machine is the mystery that gives this year’s Kplus opening film, A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo, its title. From the perspective of 10-year-old Manuellinha and her friends, the film explores questions about the past and future, among other things, and what it actually means to grow up.
After watching the film, we also took a closer look at these questions and collected various impressions as brief texts, which we would like to share with you here.
At the same time, this article allows us to travel back in time through our previous Berlinale years at various points along the way.
So let’s start at the very beginning:
‘In the beginning, everything was dark. Then God began to play and thought up all things. He created man from clay and woman from man… Would women be different if they had also been created from clay?’
The Christian creation story still justifies the oppression of women today. The Almighty Creator made women subordinate to men from the very beginning. Seduced by the serpent and greedy for more, Eve commits the greatest sin in Christian history and, like all women to come, is punished with the ability to bear children.
For Manuellinha and her friends, too, fertility and ‘becoming a woman’ are more like a punishment. In the environment in which they grow up, it seems that the only option is to become a mother and take on care work alone, with little to no opportunities for independence and freedom.
Contrary to all the power that God-given inequality holds, Manuellinha and her friends find their own perspectives and strength through dreams and friendship.
Liv Heyden
Our origins go back quite a long time. One of our first articles was written by Johanna, Liv, and Sarah at the 2013 Berlinale about the documentary film Tough Bond. And this interview with a ticket seller and a security guard, which offers a glimpse behind the scenes, also dates from the same year—the first year of Generation reports. Enjoy this journey back to our origins!
If we could play back the time
‘If we had a time machine, could we play with people who have grown up and no longer play?’
A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo sensitively and impressively documents the transition from childhood to adolescence, focusing in particular on those who still play, who still climb trees and invent worlds. The film captures precisely the moment in growing up when you know that something is about to change. Your best friend has already stopped playing. So has your big sister. One girl says, ‘I don’t want to become a teenager. They don’t play anymore, they just stare at their mobile phones.’ When do I stop being a child? The question becomes a political one in the context of rural Brazil, where big sisters take on care work and young girls have children as early as 14. Can, should, are we still allowed to play? A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo shows the challenges young girls face and is at the same time a loving plea for playing. After all, who says that we ever have to stop playing?Liv Thastum
Even our oldest team members were once kids who, in addition to playing, grew up with the Berlinale, reporting on movies and doing interviews—or even giving them. A particularly lovely example of this is this interview from 2017.
© Carol Quintanilha
’I’m glad I’m not a woman yet’, says one of the protagonists of A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo Becoming a woman means you’ll stop playing,submitting to men, and losing the freedom of a child. The girls see this in their mothers, older sisters, and friends who have already reached puberty. Despite their fear of growing up and becoming women, the girls dream of a future that is not like that of the grown women around them. Now that they are still children, there are no limits to their imagination.
The topic of growing up preoccupies the girls greatly. For them, it is a distant reality, an unknown world they do not yet want to enter. Even more than growing up, they are concerned with becoming women. They sense that as soon as they cross this invisible line into puberty, society will perceive them differently.
Somewhere between shame and pride, the protagonists of A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo transform from children into women.
Hannah Everitt
The Spanish Kplus film Las niñas from 2020 also deals with the theme of becoming a woman, especially in connection with religion. Sarah interviewed the leading actresses at the time and asked them about their impressions and thoughts on the themes of the film.
Emotional singing echoes through loudspeakers, filling the entire street. In small towns, many self-proclaimed preachers open their own evangelical churches in garages, with a few microphones and plastic chairs, hoping to make a good business.
In A Fabulosa Maquina do Tempo, an evangelical church is also an important part of the protagonists’ lives. It shapes the worldview of their environment and determines their everyday life. Unlike in Germany, the igreja evangelica in Brazil consists of a spectrum of different evangelical churches, but mainly members of the Pentecostal movement who represent conservative positions and the political right wing of society. Preacher Silas Malafaia has become a multi-millionaire through his presence in the media and politics. He supported former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in his election campaign and also organized Bolsonaro’s first appearance after his successful election as president. 73% of evangelical church supporters voted for Bolsonaro (Deutschlandfunk). Many of Bolsonaro’s ideologies are strongly promoted in these churches: from misogyny, demonization of abortion, and the reproduction of violence against women to homophobia and a focus on a stereotypical traditional family model.
In return for the political propaganda, Bolsonaro also supported the evangelical churches with tax reliefs, among other things. This allows the church to keep even more money, even though it has already taken in a lot. Running a church is good business: members pay a lot of what little they have, because the divine protection and blessings promised by evangelical churches are often presented as the only possible way out of personal difficulties, making these churches the gateway to a concealment of power relations.
Donating a tenth of one’s income is a moral obligation in many of these churches. In addition, the churches earn considerable income from the production and sale of books, teaching materials, audio and video recordings through the morally motivated consumption of their members. Around a third of the Brazilian population are now members of these evangelical churches, and the number is steadily rising.
Spreading right-wing political propaganda through religion and turning it into a business, allowing people from difficult socio-economic backgrounds to buy the hope of a better life, is unfortunately widespread in Brazil, but also in many other countries around the world.
Anouk Segebart
Liv also reported on former Brazilian President Bolsonaro in her 2019 background article, as he had just won the elections.
So now, with this special film, the 49th edition of the Generation section begins as part of the 76th Berlinale — we are already very excited and enjoying the unique Berlinale atmosphere. And how could this be described more beautifully than Johanna 2020 in her opening article — we look forward to watching films, discussing them, and being human together.
A wonderful festival to you all!
Sources:
Bolsonaro und die evangelikalen Pfingstkirchen – Gott über alles?
Brasiliens evangelikale Kirchen und ihr Einfluss auf die Politik – Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Brazil’s evangelicals stand with President Bolsonaro – The World from PRX
Evangelikale in Brasilien: Wie sie ihre Macht auf Politik und Gesellschaft nutzen
Brasiliens evangelikale Kirchen boomen | DW Reporter
