"Congratulations, Gentleman" ("Congratulations, Sir"). Monday noon on the fourth floor of the "heart" of the Festival, in the Berlinale Palast hall. Vittorio Taviani takes out his briefcase and says the above words to me as he shakes my hand tightly as he bids me farewell. Our interview with his brother Paolo has preceded.
The inseparable duo of veteran Italian creators ("Father Master", "Chaos", "Alonzanfan") was in Berlin for the presentation and promotion of the movie "Caesar Must Die". But when they heard that someone from the small group of journalists in front of them was Greek, showed undivided interest. «The Greece, the Greece…Vittorio murmured plaintively.
It had only been a few hours before the night Athens turned into hell. The nightmarish images had been beamed across the planet and the Taviani were aware, like everyone else. "A lot of bad things in Greece at this time" Paolo Taviani told me. “I still mourn the good man, my very good friend, this great director and man, Theodoros Angelopoulos. And now this disaster… In Italy we are afraid. We are afraid of what we see happening in Greece and what we cannot predict will happen. Maybe I'm naive, but I still believe in Europe, in the European Union and in the capacity of this institution, through capital and banks, to solve the problem of debt and the financial crisis".
"Spain's position is worse"
This year in Berlin, every time you said you were from Greece, the looks were changing. Others joked (black), others assumed a mournful tone, others were surprised to see me there, while some were of the opinion that Greece was the easy target, the weak link, the scapegoat of the European Union.
Talking to Spanish actor Juan Diego Boto, who played the inquisitor in "El Greco" by Yiannis Smaragdis (and whom we will see in the latter's next film "And God Loves Caviar"), I was surprised by the severe criticism he leveled at his own country: “Our position is worse than yours, because today in Spain the opinion of the people does not count at all" said Boto, giving as an example the demand of the European Union that his country include in its Constitution the control of its deficit.
"The Constitution of Spain prohibits changes unless voted by the people. So what they did was to change the Constitution so that the people didn't have to be asked. They changed the Constitution so they could… to change the Constitution. After that I stopped believing in a cheating system".
"The only solution, let the streets burn"
"My opinion is that the collapse of the communist system can only lead to the collapse of the capitalist one," German director Christian Petschold told me., who was also competing with the film 'Barbara', the story of an East German doctor (Nina Hoss) who is determined to escape to the West. "The only real chance for things to change and for the rotten system to die that is not only suffering Greece but the whole world is in the lower layers, to the people themselves. But this will be a very bloody business and people are afraid of it, as I fear her too".
Petschold, however, is in favor of extreme demonstrations in Greece. "The roads must be burned, this is your only chance" he said referring to last Sunday's events. "You saw how the Socialist Party of Germany reacted; It is against the oppression that Greece receives. We Germans must show solidarity towards the Greeks. The workers must stand with the workers. This is not a war of states but a sign of solidarity among the workers of all peoples".
"Despair is not an option"
The positive in all this ominous situation is that a Greek-speaking film represented our country in the official competition program of the 62nd Berlin Film Festival. "Meteora" by Spyros Stathoulopoulos, co-production of Greece / Germany, they refer to the love of a monk and a nun of Meteora (Theo Alexander – Tamila Kulieva). "Everyone has their own opinion on the crisis," the young director told reporters. "I can only be objective when I see and hear everything,what is going on inside my own house. The strict austerity measures have affected everyone in Greece, a fact I experienced seeing my grandmother's pension halved. For’ that's why I decided to give her a role in my film" he concluded, causing a lot of laughter in the room. Referring to the unpleasant phase that Greece is going through, Theo Alexander in the same interview said the most hopeful thing. The actor, who is currently making a good career in America (plays one of the vampires in the hit TV series 'True blood'), found a way to combine film with reality: "I think that in their hearts the “Meteora” they say that in the dark times we live in these times, despair is not an option. We are lucky to be among the living. And as the living we have a duty not to give up and to fight".
Source : tovima.gr