50th International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg
A jubilee festival a cordial celebration enriched with a round of toasts, bouquets of flowers, reminiscences over »discoveries« of past and present, tales stretching back a half-century, stories of how Mannheim was launched in 1952 under Walter Talman-Gros, how it prospered for three decades under Hanns Maier and Fee Vaillant, and how it broke brand new ground in the 1990s under Michael Kötz to become a unique twin-city event on the film festival calendar! For the full story of the first 35 years in Mannheim’s distinguished history, just pick up a copy of KINO German Film, Nr. 23, the special »Mannheim Issue« published in the summer of 1986. It makes for delightful reading on the Czech New Wave and New German Cinema, the Polish Masters and the American Independents, the Soviet Dissidents and the Latin American Revolutionaries.
This year, for the 50th anniversary (8 - 17 November 2001), the numbers alone tell the story: 65,000 visitors (10% more than last year), and 80 films of which 60 were world premieres. »This was the best festival in Mannheim’s illustrious history,« remarked Fee Vaillant, who served as director until 1991. Praise, too, was extended by the city-mayors and media officials of Land Baden-Württemberg to Michael Kötz and his team for the foresight in promoting the »Mannheim Meetings« to assist worthy projects with production grants and other forms of coproduction financing.
Of the ten prizes voted by five juries, three were awarded to Scandinavian entries each film striking for its absurd humor or comic twists. The Art of Film Award of Mannheim-Heidelberg for Best Feature went to Tomas Gislason’s P.O.V. (Point of View) (Denmark) »for its inventive aesthetics and reflection of a troubled society today and for its excellent acting.« A road-movie that begins as a comedy, then shifts gears to become a psycho-thriller, it’s what happens to a young Danish girl who travels with her boyfriend to the States to marry in Las Vegas, only to get cold feet at the altar and run off with a passing biker. The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Award went to Jonas Elmer’s Monas Verden (Mona’s World) (Denmark) »for the unconventional love story about very opposite characters and for its original narrative.« Imagine an amateurish bankrobber who falls in love with his shy hostage, a winsome lass given to hiccups, and you get the drift of this witty, wacky yarn. And the Prize for Best Short Film was awarded to a Norwegian entry: Erik Smith Meyer»s Sveits (Switzerland) »for seven minutes of crazy humor« constructed around the premise that when you have a brand new sled and no snow in Norway, then you’re better off heading for the Swiss Alps ...
The jury awarded Best Documentary to Ulises Rossell»s Bonanza (Argentina): »This is a film about people surviving poverty, beyond the law and the filmmaker doesn’t play the judge.« A Special Award of the Jury went to Lukas Nola’s Skies Satellites (Croatia) »for the absurdity of war experienced by a compassionate traveller out of nowhere.« The International Critics (FIPRESCI) Award went to John Williams’s Firefly Dreams (Japan) »for telling a clear, straightforward story on one hand and dramatizing a positive universal metaphor on the other.« And the Ecumenical Jury praised Ole Christian Madsen’s Kira’s Reason: A Love Story (Denmark) as »a passionately differentiated portrait of the inner life of two people ... the audience is confronted with an interior landscape of the soul, seldom seen in films today.«
The Audience Prize was awarded to Polish-born Stanislaw Mucha’s Absolut Warhola (Germany), a hilarious, warm-hearted sketch about a visit to family and friends of Andy Warhol (Andrijku Warhola) in the Ruthenian village of Mikova where Slovakia, Poland, and the Ukraine meet. Here Europe’s only Pop Art Museum can be found, stuffed with paintings and memorabilia sent by Andy’s brother John in Pittsburgh at the request of the Warholas. Mucha views his film both as a »humoresque« on the authentic roots of Pop Art and as a documentary on the breakdown of socialism. Absolut Warhola was also awarded the Planet TV Audience Prize and Best Camera (Susanne Schüle) at the Leipzig DOKfestival (see report in this KINO issue Ed).
Dorothea Paschen