Each, in its own way, exemplified the national cinema’s shortcomings.

The Competition offered two German films. Perhaps the reason is, as Doris Dörrie suggests in interview, that “the gaze becomes sharper when the terrain is unknown.” (1) Perhaps, however, the flight from Germany reveals a lack of imagination. Domestic filmmakers, in another major trend, were this year more eager to jet to far-off places than explore local realities or fantasies. Characters with serious psychological ticks and traumas animated stories about death, revenge or hate. The productions were darker and more perverse.

In general, German films grew up since last year’s many coming-of-age tales. 2003’s ambitious family dramas of identity politics ( Good Bye, Lenin!, Lichter, Der alte Affe Angst ) were missing, not to mention the sheer variety from 2006: Elementarteilchen ( Elementary Particles), Sehnsucht ( Longing), Der freie Wille ( The Free Will), and Requiem. The productions were uniformly lacklustre in comparison to, for example, last year’s Berlin School showcase of Yella, Ferien ( Vacation), Nachmittag ( Afternoon) and Madonnen ( Madonnas), plus the excellent documentary Prinzessinnenbad ( Pool of Princesses). On offer was one of the weakest crops of German movies since Dieter Kosslick took over as festival director in 2002. This year’s Berlin International Film Festival could hardly quell worries about the German patient. Even the more accessible works of the excellent Berlin School including Christian Petzold’s Yella, moreover, have failed to break out of a very limited arthouse niche. Enterprising or provocative films which might lure locals to the movies, such as Am Ende kommen Touristen ( And Along Come Tourists), Vier Minuten ( Four Minutes) or Fatih Akin’s Auf der anderen Seite ( The Edge of Heaven) were scarce. However, one can hardly blame the audience for avoiding movie theatres or for German films’ market share decrease (to 17% from 26% in 2006). Cinema ticket sales dropped 9% in 2007 vis-à-vis 2006, a period in which most European territories experienced admissions increases. Industry trade papers have pronounced yet another German crisis.

Heart of Fire by Senait G. Mehari