An Irish drama with Cillian Murphy opened the Berlinale

An Irish drama starring Cillian Murphy, one of the favorites for this year's Oscarsopened the Berlinale on Thursday, in a context marked by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“Small things like these”, adapted from the book of the same name by Irish writer Claire Keegan, It is part of the twenty films in competition for the Golden Bear, the most important prize at the Berlin festival.

The film is based on real events about single mothers exploited by nuns in Ireland, a country where Catholicism had a predominant role for centuries.

“We are here to see how artists respond to the world we live in today. I am curious to see how they do it,” declared the Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'othe first black personality to lead the contest's jury.

The event in Berlin, which will take place until February 25opened the cycle of the three major European film festivals, before Cannes in May and Venice in September.

For its 74th edition, the Berlinale presents an eclectic program with directors and actors from around the world, big stars, political documentaries and auteur and experimental films.

Two productions in Spanish appear in the competitive section: “Pepe” by Dominican director Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, and “La Cocina” by Mexican Alonso Ruizpalacios.

The first is an unusual production that focuses on a hippopotamus killed in Colombia that returns in the form of a ghost.

For his part, the Mexican, awarded in 2021 with a Silver Bear for the best artistic contribution, reinterprets Arnold Wesker's acclaimed play about multiculturalism in a restaurant in NY in which someone stole money from the till.

Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, star of “Another End” by Italian Piero Messina, will also give a Latin touch to the competition. in which he plays a widower who implants his wife's memories in another person's body.

Tribute to Scorsese

In “Small things like these”, the Irishman Cillian Murphy, nominated for the Oscar for best actor for his role in “Oppenheimer”, works again with the Belgian filmmaker Tim Mielants from the popular series “Peaky blinders”.

Together with the Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley from “Game of Thrones” and the British Emily Watson from “Chernobyl”, Murphy plays a dedicated father who discovers the secret of the Madalenas asylum: between 1820 and 1990, The nuns in their convents enslaved young mothers after giving up their babies born out of wedlock for adoption.

“We are convinced that this story that brings together kindness towards the weakest and the will to rise up against injustice will find an echo in everyone,” recently estimated the Italian Carlo Chatrian, who is co-directing the Berlinale for the last time with the Dutch Mariette Rissenbeek.

Next year they will be replaced by American Tricia Tuttle.

Among the stars expected in Berlin, the legendary American director Martin Scorsese stands out, who will receive an honorary Golden Bear for his career.

Delicate political context

The festival, historically characterized by its political commitment, is celebrated in a delicate context after four months of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.

Shortly before its opening, around fifty Berlinale collaborators asked the festival management in an open letter for a stronger position on “the current offensive against Palestinian life.”

Until now, those responsible for the contest have expressed their “compassion for all victims of humanitarian crises in the Middle East and beyond” and expressed concern about “the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment.”

Among the few films from the region at the Berlinale, “No Other Land,” by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, shows the destruction of the Masafer Yatta villages in the West Bank by Israeli authorities and the unlikely association of a Palestinian activist with a Israeli journalist.

During a press conference, German director Christian Petzold referred to the decision not to invite deputies from Germany's far-right AfD party to the opening ceremony.

These “five types” matter little, he said. “There are hundreds of thousands of people [en Alemania] who are demonstrating against them and are much more important than those five people,” continuous.

About 30 people from Berlin's arts sector demonstrated before the opening of the festival, holding signs that read “no seats for fascists anywhere.” [ningún asiento para los fascistas en ninguna parte].

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