Ten films to look out for at Berlin Film Festival 2020

The Berlin Film Festival turns 70 this year, and is attempting a course correction. In recent years, it has been accused of increasing irrelevance and being just a tiny bit unimaginative with its programming. But now there’s a new director (two, in fact), and a minor rebrand, with snazzy abstract festival posters popping up all over the city. Helen Mirren will receive a lifetime achievement award, Cate Blanchett will teach a masterclass, and there’ll be a film or two (or 400). It can be daunting to attempt to whittle down such a mammoth programme into a list of films you’ll actually want to see. Don’t fret, because The Upcoming has you covered.   

My Salinger Year 

It’s nice to see the exquisite Sigourney Weaver sink her (presumably beautiful) teeth into a meaty role. For years she has popped up in effective and amusing cameos (Paul and The Cabin in the Woods) or glum supporting parts, such as her charitable efforts to help Taylor Lautner become a credible action star (stop laughing) in Abduction. My Salinger Year opens the 2020 Berlinale, starring Weaver as the reclusive writer’s agent, overseeing young assistant Joanna (Margaret Qualley), who is tasked with answering Salinger’s extensive fan mail, acting as the line of communication for a man who doesn’t want to communicate. OJ

Onward

Isn’t it lovely that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son-in-law has made inroads into the entertainment industry? Chris Pratt leads the voice cast of Pixar’s Onward, in which he and Tom Holland play elf brothers sent on a mystical quest (is there any other kind?) to resurrect their deceased father. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer co-star. Alongside Jurassic World, The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy and assorted marvels from Marvel, maybe Pratt is fast becoming the king of the franchise, so he’s probably hoping that this will turn out to be another Toy Story or Monsters Inc. instead of The Good Dinosaur (remember that? No? Didn’t think so). OJ

Berlin Alexanderplatz 

In this loose adaptation of Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel, director Burhan Qurbani relocates the story to modern-day Berlin. Francis (Welket Bungué) has made the painstaking journey from West Africa to the German capital, where his attempts to establish himself despite his lack of legal status trigger an elegant slide into Berlin’s seedy underbelly (which the city has in abundance). OJ

Siberia  

As a director, Abel Ferrara is often aggravating in an intriguing way. He’s made some curious choices, such as casting Madonna as his leading lady in Dangerous Game. Ah, the stuff you could get away with in the 90s. He reteams with his regular collaborator Willem Dafoe in Siberia, for which the synopsis is interestingly vague: a man finds himself in a cave, and is forced to confront his demons. Are these demons figurative or literal? Is it just Willem Dafoe in a cave for 92 minutes? Even when Ferrara’s films don’t quite come together, they’re never dull. Well, almost never. OJ

The Roads Not Taken

Sally Potter’s beautifully esoteric movies seem to be accepted at Berlinale as soon as she’s finished them. In The Roads Not Taken, Javier Bardem stars as Leo, a man with learning difficulties who has an eventful 24 hours in New York with his daughter Molly (Elle Fanning). He will undoubtedly end up having to take a few roads during his journey, where he will be accompanied by co-stars Salma Hayek and Laura Linney. OJ

Mogul Mowgli

This intriguing music drama stars Riz Ahmed as Zed, a fledgling British-Pakistani rapper diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The highly rated Bassam Tariq directs his first fiction feature, which looks to reconcile the spiritual concerns of a mixed identity with the physical repercussions of a sudden illness. Ahmed co-wrote and produced the project, which is likely to make capital of his own skills and experience as an MC on the London circuit. JO

Minamata

Johnny Depp tries again to breathe life into his recent filmography with this serious-minded biopic of Life photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, who wants to uncover the effects of mercury poisoning in Japan’s coastal communities during the early 1970s. Minamata adds some celebrity wallop and worthy politicking to an otherwise carefully curated Berlinale selection. Andrew Levitas directs while Hiroyuki Sanada, Minami Hinase, Jun Kunimara and Bill Nighy fill in the supporting roles. JO

Last and First Men

Revered Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died prematurely in 2018. This film, which has its origins in a British sci-fi novel of future history published in 1930, began life as a multimedia work performed in the year before Jóhannsson’s death. Tilda Swinton reads over discordant percussion and images of Yugoslavian brutalist concrete. The Tito era is evoked and transformed through sensory syntheses and discombobulating transitions. Short in length and massively promising. JO

The Eddy (series)

After the muted response to his chilly, ambiguous space drama First Man, Damien Chazelle returns to musicals with an eight-part series made for Netflix. Set in contemporary Paris, The Eddy has an impressively robust, multinational cast that includes André Holland and Joanna Kulig. Chazelle directs the first two episodes. Expect visual kinesis, organised chaos, and songs written by legendary American songwriter Glen Ballard. JO

Dispatches From Elsewhere (series)

Tall comic actor Jason Segel produces, directs, and stars in this gaudy anthology series, rooted in speculative paranoia and futurist anxiety. Four strangers (Segel, Sally Field, Andre Benjamin, newcomer Eve Lindley) are linked through the secretive, likely nefarious, nominally artless Jejune Institute. Richard E Grant presides over it all as Octavio, the ubiquitous puppet master, who appears equal parts sinister and absurd, planting seeds of dread and uncertainty. Coming to AMC. JO

Oliver Johnston and Joseph Owen
Image: My Salinger Year