liv | Generation Reports

Windows of revolution – interview with the directors of Memories of a Window

19Feb

Windows of revolution – interview with the directors of Memories of a Window

One of the most moving and politically urgent films in this year's Berlinale program is the Iranian shot film Memories of a window by Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar. The film documents the Women, Life, Freedom protest in Iran in 2022 and the brutal oppression of the Iranian regime. At the same time, it is a poetic and deeply beautiful call to fight for your rights.I was eager to get to know the filmmakers behind this remarkable documentary. Since they couldn't make it to Berlin, we met online and I am very happy to be to share our conversation here. Amin Pakparvar and Mehraneh Salimian are both from Iran where they studied at Tehran University of Art. In 2023 they moved to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. As Mehraneh explains they are partners in crime, in lif...

15Feb

By Liv ThastumNo Comments

Film and Poetry, Review

There are no heroes left in the world

A poem written as reaction to the film „Not a hero“ by Rima Das houses transform into treesbig streets to forest roads a boy is sent to the village suddenly the only highway around, is the ant trail on top of the trunk “he can’t even read assamese“ say the children at school your parents left the language behind forgot the words in the village as they moved to the city when you look closely at the words their shapes transform into their meaning . গছ is a tree ঘোঁৰা is a horse বন্ধু is a friend . it all makes sense: "sometimes I talk to the trees" says the girl "sometimes I talk to myself" says the boy don’t be afraid to cry boy nature does it all the time the trees need the water there are no heroes left in the world just us Read also: Rain exhaus...

Oppressed, empowered, overlooked: Young Perspectives in the Berlinale Competition

28Feb

By Liv ThastumNo Comments

Review

Oppressed, empowered, overlooked: Young Perspectives in the Berlinale Competition

The first competition lineup under festival director Tricia Tuttle was presented at this year’s 75th Berlinale and featured several films with young protagonists in focus. The world of children and teenagers is portrayed in vastly different ways. How do these films differ? How is the young perspective brought to the screen? And which of these films are fitting for a young audience? Liv Thastum reflects on three of this year’s competition films: the Argentinian El mensaje by Iván Fund (Silver Bear winner), the Norwegian winner of the Golden Bear Drømmer by Dag Johan Haugerud, and the Ukrainian documentary Strichka chasu by Kateryna Gornostai. Oppressed: El mensaje © Iván Fund, Laura Mara Tablón, Gustavo Schiaffino / Rita Cine, Insomnia Films ...

Waiting until it gets dark – about one of America’s most dangerous migration routes

20Feb

By Liv ThastumNo Comments

Background, Film and Poetry

Waiting until it gets dark – about one of America’s most dangerous migration routes

Critique, background article, and poem on the short film Atardecer en América And suddenly, an uncontrollable sadness rises from my stomach, and I feel the tears running. I sit there in front of my computer, in the midst of my research, and find myself crying. I see the images from the short film reappear, I watch the landscape – the Altiplano high plateau – vanish; people, animals, and nature disappear. I see people dying. I hear the buzzwords from the articles I’ve read: Venezuela – the world’s second largest exodus, 7.7 million people, plus climate refugees, drought, rising temperatures, 7,000 kilometers from Venezuela to Chile, and countless unreported cases. “Atardecer en América” – Sunset over America – is the title of the short film that moved me so deeply and led me to the re...