The 66th edition of the Berlin Film Festival  (it was one of the first starting up in 1951 at the height if the Cold War) -- is so firm and fully packed that it is almost like ten festivals rolled into One.

In the nine day cinema Marathon starting from Thursday february 11 and running until Saturday, Feb. 20, better than 200 feature films from every corner of the planet will be presented along with scores of shorts, animations, and anything else you can think of-- even certain historical Television excerpts.

Twenty three films, all world premiers  will be competing  for the coveted golden and silver bear prizes - The Bear is the totem animal of the city and the name of the city itself, Berl-in, means "a Place of Bears. Presumably, in the good old days before the area was invaded by two logged predators there were lots of bears gathering honey in this neck of the woods.

The opening film, out of competition, will be the new Coen Brothers satire of  golden age Hollywood "Hail Caesar" which has been making waves on general release, starring George Clooney  as a clueless old time movie star and a maturing Scarlett Johanssen now metamorphising into a belle  comédienne. Leave it to the Brothers from upper Minnesota to upend expectations and play actors off counter to image. 

Comp films with high profile thespians include "Alone in Berlin"  by Vincent Perez, starring Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson and polyglot German actor Daniel Brühl, who seems to be all over the map these days; "Midnight Special" by Jeff Nichoks, with Joel Edgerton and Kirsten Dunst; "Genius", a high end literary pic with a lush cast, Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Guy Pearce; "L'avenir" starring Isabelle Huppert; "Quand on a 17 ans" by veteran French director André Techiné; a new film from Iran "A Dragon Arrives (Ejdeha Vared Mishavadi) and "Zero Days", the latest documentary from American ace documentarist Alex Gibney (of  "We Steal Secrets", the Wikileaks story).

As a tribute to recently deceased super pop personalty David Bowie, his 1976 film debut "The man who fell to Earth", in Tribute to Alan Rickman, who just died in January at age 68, "Sense and Sensibility" directed by Ang Lee in 1995, with again Emma Thompson, early Kate Winslett and classic Hugh Grant.

The international Jury is headed up by non other than Her Hollywood Royal  Highness Meryl Streep, who has been seen and awarded many times in Berlin but has never in her entire career sat on a film jury -- one for the  books.   British actor Clive Owen is also on jury duty this year, as well as star British film critic and editor of the prestigious Sight and Sound film journal, Nick James.

German born cinematigrapher Michael Ballhaus will receive an honorary golden bear and an eleven film retrospective  with such well known titles as "The color of money" (Paul Newman, 1986), the Marriage of Maria Braun by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979, and "Quiz Show" directed by Robert Redford in 1994.

Another Golden Camera award for American actor Tim Robbins will be bestowed personally by Berlin fave catalan director, Isabel Coixet. his multi-awarded "Dead Man Walking" 1996 will be screened.

Retrospective Deutschland 1966

This being year 66 of the festival an appropriate homage is being paid to the Year 1966 in German cinema with twenty features from that year, many rarely seen films from Communist East Germany. Among the titles, "Der Junge Törless", by then young director Volker Schlöndorff, now a much awarded senior citizen of the European film world.

A most interesting sidebar is a slate ofn six digitally restored older film classics. Notewirthy, Fritz Lang's 1921 silent "Der Müde Tod",  Ozu's 1951 classic  "Bakushu" (Early Summer ) and "The Road Back" the rarely seen 1937 WWI  followup to "All Quiet on the Western Front", plus a rare DDR (East German) anti war film called "The Russians are Coming", banned by the Communist government of East Germany when it was made in 1968.

The Panorama and Forum sections, each with enough films to form a festival on their own, will present the usual listings of films by "rebellious Spirits" and newer or first time directors from an extremely wide range of countries.  Organizer Wieland Speck calls it "Today is yesterday's tomorrow" -- nice turn of phrase.

A very special sidebar will be the presentation in the EFM (European Film Market) and elsewhere by invitation only of "Exodus to Shanghai" a new film by London born Anthony Hickox. This film takes up a little known aspect of the pre-Holocaust when a large number of Jews in Berlin were bailed out by the Chinese and given safe transit to Shanghai.

Ho the Chinese Consul in Vienna in 1938 issued Exit Visas to many Jews against the instruction of his superiors. Together with Fannia and Bruce they must leave Vienna as the Gestapo is after them trying to repossess a portrait of Hitler. Some of these Jews were anything but mild sheep and fought back: As the poster informs us, "The only good Nazi is a Dead Nazi".

Shades of Tarantino's Inglorious Berstards.

Film top-lines Romanian top star Maia Morgenstern

Details on this as soon as we see it on February 12. 

ALEXFARBA FILM WEBSITE:

http://www.alexfarbafilm.com