Fest in Show

BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL | Five top films from this year’s virtual Berlinale.

I’M YOUR MAN

Maren Eggert became the first ever recipient of the festival’s inaugural gender-neutral acting prize – winning the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. And she was a worthy winner as the chilly academic Alma, who is talked into road-testing a humanoid life partner. Dan Stevens, getting his tongue round some hugely tricky German, is excellent too as Tom, the romantic robot who will attend to your every whim. Emmy-winning Unorthodox director Maria Schrader helms a wry comedy that potently explores issues of desire, love and loneliness.

PETITE MAMAN

Playing in competition, Céline Sciamma’s latest may have been curiously overlooked by the jury, but don’t let that discourage you. Her first film since the sizzling Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, this 72-minute subtlety is pure joy. Like a modern-day fairytale – or the least scary ghost story ever – it follows the adventures of eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) after her grandmother passes away. Also starring Joséphine’s twin, Gabrielle, as the girl Nelly befriends in the film’s bewitching woodland setting, Petite Maman is a delightful, timeless exploration of childhood.

LANGUAGE LESSONS

A two-hander between director Natalie Morales and her co-writer Mark Duplass, this will resonate with all of us perpetually stuck on Zoom calls this past year. She’s Cariño, a teacher living in Costa Rica. He’s Adam, a gay man living a lush lifestyle in America, whose partner buys him a bulk-load of Spanish lessons. Talking over video chat, the two gradually get to know each other in a story about male-female platonic friendship that doesn’t tread the traditional ‘will they-won’t-they’ route. A charmer that, under the surface, tackles some big issues.

TED K

Sharlto Copley goes all out in this comeback performance as Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, who was finally caught in 1996 after years in the wilderness. Director Tony Stone (Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery Of America) brings a documentary-like feel to this telling of the fringe terrorist who protested humanity’s destruction of the environment by waging a homespun letter-bomb campaign. Using real-life extracts from Ted K’s manifesto to form the voiceover, there’s an oddball authenticity to this minimalist piece, while Copley is the best he’s been since District 9.

DRIFT AWAY

Xavier Beauvois, who made the Bafta-nominated Of Gods And Men, delivered this timely competition entry starring the Dardennes’ favourite son, Jérémie Renier. He plays Laurent, a French police officer in a small Normandy town whose life is ripped apart when he’s faced with a loose-cannon farmer. In truth, it’s a slow-burn start, an intense middle act and a genuinely unexpected finale, with strong work from Renier, who looks like he’s been through hell and back by the end. Making full use of the dramatic coastal locales, Drift Away is a memorably stormy affair. JM