This year’s Golden Bear of the the 59th Berlinale goes to the movie La Teta Asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) from Peru.

The complete list:

Golden Bear for the Best Film

La teta asustada (The Milk Of Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa

Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix

Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade and Gigante by Adrián Biniez

Silver Bear - Best Director

Asghar Farhadi for Darbareye Elly (About Elly)

Silver Bear - Best Actress

Birgit Minichmayr in Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade

Silver Bear - Best Actor

Sotigui Kouyate in London River by Rachid Bouchareb

Silver Bear - Outstanding Artistic Contribution

Gábor Erdély and Tamás Székely for the Sound-Design of Katalin Varga by Peter Strickland

Silver Bear - Best Script

Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger by Oren Moverman

Alfred Bauer Prize (for a feature film that breadens the horizons of the art of filmmaking)

Gigante by Adrián Biniez and  Tatarak (Sweet Rush) by Andrzej Wajda

Congratulations to the winners!

Kunsten å tenke negativt

I went to the cinema yesterday evening. Precisely to the Cinema, my favourite cinema in town. It’s small, has a cozy café called “Garbo” and always shows a nice selection of independent films. And it still has the kind of cinema feeling I miss when I am going to watch a movie at one of those big cineplexes.

So, yesterday I watched the Norwegian film “Kunsten å tenke negativt” (The art of negative thinking). A minor annoyance which I have with most films in Germany: it was synced. I would have loved to watch it in the Norwegian original with German subtitles.

A short summary from the Norwegian Film Institute:

The Art of Negative Thinking is a burlesque drama about Geirr (33), who has become severely handicapped in a traffic accident.Given his isolation, weapons fixation, self medication and limitless bitterness, his girlfriend Ingvild (30) doesn’t know how to handle him any longer. She therefore invites a municipal positivity group to their home. Consequently, the stage is set for 24 intense hours at Geirr and Ingvild’s place. Geirr is the only one who refuses to see anything in a positive light. Gradually, he is joined by all the positivity group members. Geirr forces everyone through a tunnel of desperation, anguish and hopelessness, before the day dawns and they once again catch sight of light, if only as a faint glimpse of hope.

The film is really worth to see and I can recommend seeing it.

I really like Scandinavian films: their obscure humour and characters,  and especially concerning crime movies, their reality and grittiness.