To strive, to seek, to find…

In the end it came down to a single-page letter, written in Hebrew and Arabic and hand-delivered by an Israeli army officer who knocked at the front door. The letter spelt the imminent destruction of the whitewashed three-storey home and small, tree-lined garden that Bassam Suleiman spent so long saving for and then built with his family a decade ago.

It was a final demolition order, with instructions to evacuate the house within three days.

From The Guardian

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Gotta love Berlinale comments.

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I’ve been hard at work, me.

Extraordinary Rendition, which first caught Netribution’s attention ahead of its premiere at last year’s Edinburgh festival, is due to be released on DVD on 28th April, and broadcast on the BBC in the same week.

Suchandrika Chakrabarti met up with director Jim Threapleton and producer Andy Noble, childhood friends turned filmmaking collaborators, to get an update on the improvised film’s editing and innovative distribution, as well as to discover what “the opposite of documentary” means…

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Chris Rogers: From panto dames to internet auditions

Chris Rogers found his latest role through a website. He signed up to Bethemoviestar.com , which he was sure was “a hoax, an absolute hoax.” Luckily for him, it wasn’t. A 30-second clip of his acting was all that was needed to bag him a role in a mobysode called GSOH. It’s also led to his first feature film role, in Rapture.

Suchandrika Chakrabarti met up with Chris in the BFI cafe to find out how he got from pantomime dame roles to feature films, while playing the odd Nazi along the way…

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Vicki Psarias: “As a director, you’re a mum, you’re a dad, you’re everything.”

27-year-old director, writer and magazine editor Vicki Psarias has been making films since she was 11 years old. With her TV-experienced dad, George Psarias , on hand as cameraman, she directed a film about litter on the streets of Leeds, where she grew up. As she says, “I was actually directing, which is quite freaky, because I was 10, 11, and I was saying to my dad, get a shot of that over there, quick! Look at this!”

Vicki studied film at Goldsmiths, University of London, and her graduation film, ‘Rifts’, about two warring kebab shop owners, won a number of awards at film festivals, including Best Screenplay at the Portobello Film Festival. Her second short, Broken, was based on the story of her mother and grandmother, who are of Greek Cypriot background, and their experiences of moving to the UK in the 1960s. Vicki is also the editor of Film & Festivals Magazine.

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Five Oscars for Berlinale Stars and Films

“We are delighted and warmly congratulate Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis and director Stefan Ruzowitzky to their Oscars,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick to the presentation of the prestigious trophies Sunday night.

Yesterday, two Academy Awards went to the two-time Bear winner of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson. For his compelling tour de force, lead Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for Best Actor. This oil drama from the USA also received an Oscar for Best Cinematography. One week ago in Berlin, director Paul Thomas Anderson was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director; and composer Jonny Greenwood, the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (music).

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The FIPRESCI team found a much better picture for this article than I did…

“I’m just a twat from Leytonstone,” says Damon Albarn in the documentary BANANAZ (Ceri Levy, UK, 2008), which had its world premiere last night in Panorama Dokumente. The quote is typical of the film’s filthy, silly humour, which also encompasses a giant penis and fart gags. BANANAZ is able to take such an intimate look at its subject, the animated band Gorillaz, thanks to the director’s friendship with the group. It is this quality that was missing, or felt manufactured, in Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones pop promo, SHINE A LIGHT (USA/UK, 2008), which opened this year’s Berlinale.

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I saw the film of The Kite Runner recently. It was good…

Warning: Spoilers ahead

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