The image around the Berlinale Palasta, the imposing theater that hosts the Berlin Film Festival, was very different this year from what we saw a year ago in the same location. Where buses stood as mobile COVID testing stations last year, this year a small crowd huddled behind curtains awaited the arrival of the stars. The 2020 Berlinale was the last major film festival before the pandemic, and the 2023 festival is arguably the first to take place in terms of absolute normalcy. People, Berliners, as well as residents of other places like us, took it in, filling the halls and selling out most of the screenings.

Another characteristic of the “end” of a pandemic is that it puts us face to face with films made during its existence.

Judging by what we managed to see in the previous days, the winner was … love. Indeed, most of the films in all sections of the festival were about love relationships of all kinds and times. A young East German woman has a passionate affair with a much older man somewhere in a Bavarian countryside, just after the reunification of the country (“Someday we’ll tell each other everything”); a lone food critic finds love in the arms of a young photographer; in the slow, multi-layered “Tower Without a Shadow” by the Chinese Zhang Lu; in Patrick Czych’s Belgian Jungle Beast, arguably the most interesting film we’ve seen at the Berlinale, John and May live a strange, platonic life. love to come back again and again to the same club for two and a half decades; Finally, in Korea’s Past Lives – considered a Golden Bear favorite at the time of writing – we trace another relationship that spans decades and continents, from Seoul to New York. And much more.

All this, of course, is not necessarily from the top cinematic shelf. In particular, in the competition section this year there were several mediocre films (in Panorama and Meetings things were better) and certainly less well-made than Vasilis Katsupis’ Inside, which, perhaps unfairly, did not make it there.

The Berlinale’s tribute to the women and men fighting for freedom and justice in Iran was warmly received.

The Greek director made a splash with almost flawless construction of the original concept and starring Willem Dafoe’s “nuclear weapon” in top form. The American actor was at the Berlinale along with several other stars such as John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei, Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Dinklage, Sidney Sweeney and others. – the largest that has appeared there in at least the last five years.

One of the most anticipated guests of the event was, of course, Sean Penn. The American actor and director brought with him the (out-of-competition) documentary Super Power, which he filmed during two separate visits to war-torn Ukraine, starring Vladimir Zelensky as a…superhero. Apparently, the film did not leave the best impression, which was noticed by the reaction of the annoyed Penn at the corresponding press conference. On the contrary, the events associated with the dedication of the festival to women and men fighting for freedom and justice in Iran were much more intense. Last Saturday, indeed, a large group of contestants, members of critics committees and other filmmakers symbolically walked the red carpet with posters about Iran in their hands.

More broadly, what we’ve been hearing over and over again these days in Berlin, from artistic director Carlo Satrian to committee chair Kristen Stewart, is about how “political” the Berlinale is. Indeed, on the face of it, this year’s event also appears to be sensitive to political stimuli both inside and outside the darkroom. On the other hand, the confusion between realpolitik and the sterile – and somewhat mechanical – political correctness that is becoming the norm in the selections of major film festivals does little to help in this direction. The notable exception is Asian cinema and its representatives, which more and more people are turning to for inspiration or just to copy.