BERLIN – MISSION. Breakfast (waking), minimum breakfast (food), morning (viewing). The last one with more yawns and some people sleeping normally in chairs in a dark room that now also recline, making Morpheus’ task even easier. It’s the start of the day at the Berlinale, the great film festival is gaining momentum as it approaches its first weekend. Aside from drowsiness, the second danger that lurks in the halls is that you’ll be run over by one of the event sponsor’s completely silent electric cars, which are the only ones circulating in those places.

We have, however, avoided all that for now and have enjoyed films at a festival that, on the face of it, is on a fairly high level compared to last year. And not just in terms of competition: the best film we’ve ever seen is probably Austrian director Patrick Chichi’s Beast in the Jungle, which turns Henry James’ short story of the same name into an unusual love story. The main characters here are May (the lovely Anais Demoustier) and John, two young men who meet by chance at a club in the mid-1970s.

The attraction between them is not that romantic, but even deeper: he looks forward to when this “thing” will happen in his life, and she promises to support him. Years pass, and these two invariably find themselves every Saturday in the same club, and the world around them changes. Mitterrand is elected President of France, the nightmare of the era breaks their generation, the Berlin Wall collapses, the twin towers collapse. Somewhere between fantasy and reality, the film simultaneously speaks of the joy of life and the disappointment of the end, playing one of the best musical compositions that we have recently heard in the cinema.

We enjoyed the films at the festival, which at first glance seems to be quite high compared to last year.

Out of Panorama comes Reality, another special film that essentially cinematically broadcasts the exact (and recorded) footage of the FBI arrest. On June 2, 2017, the young reality show winner, played by our Euphoria friend Sidney Sweeney, arrives at her home where two men are waiting for her. They politely explain to her that they are from the FBI and they have a warrant to search her house. What follows lies somewhere between room drama and documentary as the viewer is slowly revealed who this particular girl is and why she is in trouble with the authorities.

But let’s also move on to those who will claim the Golden Bear. Matt Johnson’s The Blackberry may not be one of my favorites, but it’s certainly a watchable movie that tells a compelling true story. In 1996, computer genius Mike Lazaridis and ruthless businessman Jim Balsillie meet. The former invents a revolutionary device that combines the telephone with the Internet and e-mail for the first time. The second undertakes to sell it. The birth of the legendary Blackberry. Johnson’s film chronicles the rise and fall of a tech empire, from its DIY origins to the fearsome competition in today’s smartphone market. In between, he also makes some interesting comments about how specific technologies have shaped today’s consumer and (mostly) social habits over the past two decades.

Emily Ateff’s novel Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything also has interesting historical and social references, set somewhere in the East German countryside, just after the fall of the Wall. The first part of the film in particular depicts this great change in the German countryside (rare), before a doomed romance follows (unfortunately) in a decidedly less original second half.

Be that as it may, the Berlinale once again confirms its political subtext, which becomes even more noticeable with the screening of Sean Penn’s documentary “Superpower” about the war in Ukraine. Right from Wednesday’s opening ceremony, the American filmmaker lauded Ukraine’s “David vs. Goliath” resistance as exemplary before giving the floor to Volodymyr Zelensky, and today’s press interview is also expected with interest, where he will also answer journalists’ questions. By then we will of course see a few more films and we will have a lot to say about the 73rd Berlinale, which will run until February 26th.