From this Thursday the Berlin Film Festival reopens to the public, with precautions

Berlin.- The Berlin Film Festival opens to the public again starting Thursday, although with reduced capacity and a calendar of just seven days, to try to clear the threat of the coronavirus.

The Berlinale is a contest known for its commitment to new values ​​and avant-garde cinematography, and this year’s edition promises to strengthen that commitment, very different from Cannes or Venice.

Two Spanish films and a Mexican production Argentina are part of the official competition, with a total of 18 feature films.

French director François Ozon will open the competition on Thursday night with Peter von Kant, a free adaptation of the film The bitter tears of Petra von Kant of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

stand out then Avec amour et acharnementby French director Claire Denis, the ligneby Ursula Meier, or So-Seol-ga-ui Yeong-hwafrom the South Korean Hong Sangsoo.

Italian Dario Argento present outside official competition Occhiali Neri, a tape in which he directs his daughter Asia.

“Movies are, as every year, a good description of the world in its current stage of mutation, but they also talk about how the world used to be and how it should be”, said the artistic director of the festival, Carlo Chatrian, at the presentation of the contest in January.

“Never before had he seen so many love stories like this year: crazy, improbable, unexpected and intoxicants” he added.

Although organizers claim that only two films in competition evoke the pandemic, the Berlinale promises out of the contest a good portion of arthouse cinema, peculiar works and fully inspired by confinement.

The event has invited Isabelle Adjani, Emma Thompson, Sigourney Weaver, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Juliette Binoche or Mark Rylance to support the presentation of feature films.

The Berlin festival awards a prize for the best performance regardless of gender, either actor or actress.

Isabelle Huppert of France will receive a special Golden Bear for her long career, in which she has worked with renowned German-language authors such as Michael Hanecken.

The Berlinale will face, although reduced and some virtual sections

The contribution in Spanish

From the Spanish side stand One year, one nightby director Isaki Lacuesta, an adaptation of the book Peace, love and death metal, a fiction that draws on Islamist attacks in Paris in 2015.

One year, one night It features starring Nahuel Pérez Argentine actor, who lives in France, where his film career he has won awards as Best Actor Cesar in 2017.

The Italian-Spanish co-production Alcarràs by director Carla Simón is also in competition, as is the film robe of gems, Natalia López Gallardo’s debut feature, a film produced by Mexico, Argentina and the United States.

Carla Simon shot last year AlcarràsSet in the countryside in the Catalan province of Lleida, having won awards and critical acclaim with his first book, Summer 1993in 2017.

Alcarràs narrates the last harvest of a family that has lived for generations in the countryside. Y Robe of Gemsrural life and the constant threat of violence in Mexico.

In another contest of the Berlinale, baptized “Encuentros”Arise riskier films, as A little love package, Of the Argentine Gaston Salnicki. And there are other special guests, like the musician Nick Cave in This much I know to be true.

The Berlinale also presents the first documentary filmed in South Sudan, No Simple Way Home. The event, with politicized airs proclaims its intention to contribute to the “decolonization” of the film industry.