“20,000 species of bees” received one of the biggest ovations in the official part of the Berlinale

After a long time on the international scene, Spanish cinema received a splash of self-respect last year with the Golden Bear won by Carla Simón and her alcarràs. Simón is part of this edition’s jury that will award new prizes. and Basque film 20 billion beesquite unexpectedly selected for the official Berlin section in 2023, it was in his press pass that he received the biggest ovation of all the screenings held so far in the competition.

The film is the directorial debut of Estíbaliz Urresole. And it directly belongs to that increasingly widespread category of so-called thematic films. In this case, the gender dysphoria suffered by Cocó, who was born a biological male and who, at the age of 8, feels an obvious discomfort with his gender assignment. It is already known that this festival – in a very specific way – has always given a plus to cinematography that approaches issues of personal rights, among which of course are those of the LGTBI community, films that fight against racism and show ethnic and cultural richness, political films that condemn dictatorial regimes and social content that raise flags against intolerance or the tragedy of immigrants in an irregular situation.

But I doubt that is enough for the place 20,000 species of bees in the favorite position for the Golden Bear that fails on Saturday. Its strict artistic values ​​are the correction of the invoice and the undeniable tone in the explanation of this conflict suffered by those who have not yet been discovered, and are already suffering the damage of disagreement with their biological attribution.

The girl Sofia Otero has intuition and vision. However, this film is by no means a work that exposes some great creative assets. Estíbaliz Urresola is an honest film. But his screenplay is unnecessarily stretched – up to 125 minutes, quite endless – and is lost in a certain dispersion with the character of the mother, played by Patricia López Arnaiz, which distracts from the conflict of his young and suffering protagonist. It is true that in his last part he has more skill and resolves with some dramatic conviction this existential funnel on identity itself.

A very warm reception of the Palast de magazine 20,000 species of bees it does not seem decisive for the weight of the jury, whose composition – a priori – would seem to bet on something less conventional. President Kristen Stewart is an atypical North American, working regularly in Europe with Olivier Assayas and non-industry filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt, Pablo Larraín and, more recently, Cronenberg.

And what about the Romanian director Radu Jude, the aforementioned Carla Simón or even the German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach, blessed in Cannes. Less noticeable can be snipers such as Johnnie To from Hong Kong or Iranian actress Golshifthe Farahani. Since it was screened here on Monday, the Mexican film’s magnitude of style, sensitivity and subtlety of screenplay has mesmerized Totem, which also has the director, Lila Avilés, in her second feature. And it sounds very much like a golden candidate.

“Fire”, an excellent film by Christian Petzold

It is not at all surprising that the German Christian Petzold served the cinematography of the highest creative and emotional line during his competition fire. Petzold is a clear author of reference in German cinema so far this century. A veteran who reached the sublime with his grand opera Phoenixfrom which his films finally started to be seen in our country.

This last phase of his filmography was characterized by stylization with dreamy, spectral and even Hitchcockian overtones. But in fire he seems to be returning to the less flamboyant path of the early part of his career. And it is also, perhaps, his most accessible film, with a very brilliant dose of humor, almost identifiable with Coen’s films, and it has also been applauded in its media coverage.

Action of fire It is focused on a house in the woods, in the last decade of the last century. And in it, Petzold develops a braid of human relationships that start from that subtle atmosphere of comedy and become serious, with a focus on the raging fire that approaches and warns of fatal events.

The leading anti-hero (an egocentric, insecure writer, somewhat overweight, as if taken from an American indie comedy, played by the inspired Thomas Schubert) suffers from one of those spells or love fascinations that Petzold wisely evokes. And that magnetism is expressed by the superb Paula Beer, with her character of a woman of Russian origin around whom she revolves and condenses. fire, until the memorable one when Petzold seems to want to tell us that, beyond the lightness of the first part of his film, life was serious. And the fire is a poetic purifying element of desires and neuroses, in the ultimate cinematic brilliance where great sadness crackles. With this, Petzold adds to his candidacy for the Golden Bear that has been denied him in his three-decade career.

Brandon Cronenberg, the new school of meat

With his third feature film, infinity pool, Brandon Cronenberg seems to be getting more comfortable carrying the weight of his last name. Stripped of the brash aspects antivirus and holderthe film is an unrestrained round bath of sex and violence that has as its overworld the environment of a luxury tourist resort, where a sect and conspiracy are brewing that introduces a new school of meat, that brings hedonism to the hardest side of the world Cronenberg father.

In this frenetic and dreamy vortex of cloned bodies and orgy of madness, the main roles are played by Alexander Skaargard and the muse of recent, most author’s horror films, torrential Mia Goth, protean after her triumphant year as the protagonist of the diptych horror story North American made by Ti West in feature films Pearl and x.

it’s not that far infinity pool crazy scenarios related to elite tourism that feeds the big television series of the moment, White lotus. Although in the universe of Cronenberg II, the credentials lead to loading more ink in the explicit cruelty of his sadistic-lysergic feast, full of stunning visual resolutions, than in the twists of the script. And we can only make his super-energetic film a little ugly without finding an end to the whirlwind at the level of divine barbarities with which he takes us out of the ostentatious showcase.