Lights, camera, action

You can't just talk about one central theme at such a major film festival. "There are a lot of films in this festival about changes happening in the world," festival director Dieter Kosslick said. "We are showing the films in order to create a bigger picture about upheaval and awakening...It was natural to link these films with our other activities."

But the same could have been said about previous years' festivals as well. With 400 different film premieres, it's always possible to find several dozen films that deal with social upheaval.

And when personal upheaval is likewise described as the trend among many other films, then the desperate search for a theme at Berlinale 2012 ends up becoming a farce. Which films aren't about upheaval anyway?

Small-time can be big-time

More important than the unedifying search for a theme for a major, widely-scoped film festival is the quality of the films being shown. And the quality can only be determined once the films have actually been viewed. Kosslick and his team have been harshly criticized in recent years for the poor quality of many of the competition films, so people are anxious to see who will end up going home with Golden and Silver Bears this year.

Hardly any famous names or well-known directors can be found among the competition films announced for the festival. The big-timers still tend to prefer Cannes. Hollywood has also made itself scarce in Berlin in the past few years, with participation in the film festival on the Spree River unnecessary for marketing - or even detrimental to it.

But all that doesn't necessarily have to be disadvantageous for the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, which opens on February 9 and runs through the 19th. Debutants, unknown directors, and countries not associated with film-making can offer a great deal of opportunity for the festival, as long as the films are good. Twenty-three films will be screened in the competition program, with 18 of them vying for Golden and Silver Bear awards.

Many German films are on the program, with renowned mid-generation directors such as Hans-Christian Schmid, Matthias Glasner and Christian Petzold sending their work into the ring. They are three tales of personal hardships and conflicts in relationships and the family.

Other international co-productions based on German financing are also on the program, demonstrating a clear trend of late: Globalization has brought forth greater and greater cooperation among producers from different countries, with the concept of a national form of cinematography losing steam.

Strong European presence

European film is widely represented in the 2012 competition, with films from France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Greece and Hungary. The French film "Les Adieux à la reine" ("Farewell My Queen"), which depicts life at the Versailles court at the start of the French Revolution, will open the competition for the Golden and Silver Bears.

On the other hand, the Berlinale's ambition of showcasing Eastern European films has slacked off. No Russian films will be in the competition. China, on the other hand, has three. Two of these promise to be exciting: "White Deer Plain" is a three-hour epic of 1,000 years of Chinese history by director Wang Quan'an, who took home the Golden Bear award five years ago.

"The Flowers of War" (which is not competing for an award) by Chinese director great Zhang Yimou was made with funding from the United States and addresses the 1937 massacre of Nanjing, China by the Japanese. The film has already opened in China and has been scolded by the Western press for its nationalistic slant.

Films from the Philippines and Indonesia round out the small Asia "focus" of the competition. The so-called unknown film continent - Africa - is contributing one film from Senegal.

The United States is keeping a low profile and is participating in the competition with only one film. In "Jayne Mansfield's Car," director and actor Billy Bob Thornton offers a family drama set in the US at the end of the 1960s.

Despite the scarcity of American films in the competition, Hollywood will still grace Berlinale's red carpet. In special screenings, a few films from the dream factory will be shown out of competition. Producers and actors do use the red carpet in front of the Berlinale Palast as a glamorous springboard to celebrate cinema releases. "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson, for instance, as well as Christian Bale, Uma Thurman, Michael Fassbender and Keanu Reeves are expected in Berlin.

Angelina Jolie will be there as well, promoting her first film as a director. Lacking Hollywood's typical happy-end allures, the bleak drama focuses on the war in Bosnia.

One person who may give Hollywood stars a run for their money is Indian actor and heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan, who will be attending the Berlin International Film Festival for the third time and is sure to draw throngs of fans.

Forum & Panorama: political films

The Berlinale is not one of the leading film festivals in the world solely because of the competition surrounding the Bear awards, however. The many interesting films in the Forum and Panorama sections are what so clearly distinguish the festival. Many of the works shown in these sections are offbeat or political and come from countries not known for being film-making nations.

Then there's the Retrospective section that showcases directors and milestones in film history and which this year devotes its attention to a German-Russian studio. Also included in this year's Berlinale are the Culinary Cinema series, the Talent Campus (an educational and networking platform for up-and-coming filmmakers), an homage to actress Meryl Streep, a series commemorating 100 years of Berlin's Babelsberg Studios, and two sections strictly devoted to new German cinema.

No one can really keep track of all the films and events. It's best to limit one's focus and concentrate on just a few things. That aspect has prompted criticism in recent years as the program grows, but Dieter Kosslick rightly points to public interest. Someone must be doing something right when most of the festival events are sold out. Some 300,000 viewers stormed the Berlinale cinemas last year, and that's likely to be the case again this year - so it's easy to forgive an artificial-sounding theme that's supposed to tie together all the movies of the world's largest general audience film festival.

Author: Jochen Kürten / als
Editor: Kate Bowen