Another Berlinale aka Berlin Film Festival has wrapped and overall, it was a pretty uneventful year. It’s hard to come back strong with last year’s lineup, which included A SEPARATION, one of the best films of the year and is nominated for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award.  If you read Part 1 of my Berlinale 2012 report earlier this week, then you know I was a big fan of IRON SKY, the crowd funded sci-fi film about Nazis from the Dark side of the Moon. Perhaps that was the biggest success story from the Festival, racking up many international sales, including the US, and 5 million views of its official trailer on Youtube after a week online. Not to belittle broad, schlocky film fun, but that was the story that came out of Berlin, with the more traditional, art house fare not delivering.

But, I was able to catch some films that I thoroughly enjoyed. Here are some highlights from the latter half of my Berlinale stay:

POSTCARDS FROM THE ZOOThe latest film from Indonesian director Edwyn, this magical realist film is a fusion of Hayao Miyazaki and Penek Ratanaruang. The story is about a young girl who is abandoned in the zoo and grows up surrounded by the animals, especially a giraffe. She soon departs the walled confines of the zoo into the city, where she meets a magician cowboy. Yeah, it sounds weird, but the film totally works. With beautiful, serene shots of animal and nature, the film is poetic, sometimes meandering, but a treat overall. POSTCARDS is a milestone, because it is the first Indonesian film to participate in the official competition of the Festival.

TWO LITTLE BOYSThis black comedy from New Zealand stars Bret McKenzie (FLIGHT OF THE CONCORDS) and Hamish Taylor, popular Kiwi comedians. The film follows Nige and Deano’s riotous misadventures as they struggle with their imploding long-term friendship which has been put under pressure by an unfortunate incident involving a hot meat pie, a ginger cat and the untimely death of a Scandinavian soccer star. This film is DUMB AND DUMBER meets SHALLOW GRAVE and was such a dark, twisted romp of a film. I highly recommend and I hope it gets play in the States.

OUR HOMELAND

From the late 50s and into the 70s, more than 90,000 of the Koreans resident in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice and an end to discrimination. OUR HOMELAND tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. There, he encounters his young sister, Rie, for the first time, who is rebellious against him, as different life perspectives clash. OUR HOMELAND isn’t drippy or didactic. On contrary, it is infused with humor, as Sonho reunites with his old grammar school friends, including a flamboyantly gay restauranteur. There are comic moments, but also an infusion of numerous possibilities in a coming-of-age sense, especially for Rie. This is an affecting family drama that is framed in world politics.

THE RAW AND THE COOKEDI want to go to Taiwan right now and eat through the entire island nation! THE RAW AND THE COOKED is a documentary expedition through the culinary traditions of Taiwan, showing how closely food is connected to the various cultures of this multi-ethnic state. Taiwan is one of the most diverse gourmet heavens in all of Asia. The journey begins in the capitol Taipei at high-end restaurants, night markets and tucked away food stalls, but then the doc fully explores the multi-ethnic flavor of the island, with stops all over, ranging from Hakka cuisine to aboriginal ways of cooking and living off the land. A German production, director Monika Treut, paints a beautiful film that goes beyond the travelogue trappings and instead, crafts a spectrum of Taiwan food and cuisine that marries tradition and modernity as farm to table and organic farming become key in this country’s rich cuisine. Seriously, I want to go to there!

ELECTRICK CHILDRENCan you get pregnant through music? On her 15th birthday, Rachel, a Mormon girl, discovers a forbidden rock music tape. Having never heard anything like it, she has a miraculous experience and three months later, claims to have had an immaculate conception from listening to said tape. Her parents arrange a marriage, but Rachel runs away to the closest city, LAS VEGAS, to search for the man who sings on the tape, and whom she thinks is the father. From first time director Rebecca Thomas, I loved this film, with its nuanced performances and lush cinematography. I’ve harped that the Festival’s films were not really up to snuff this year, but ELECTRICK CHILDREN, and many of the other films in the GENERATIONS section (the youth or coming-of-age section of the Festival) always delivers every year. I’m honestly surprised that Sundance passed on this film, because it is charming, yet deeply emotional on many levels.

NAMELESS GANGSTERAlready breaking box office records in South Korea, where it was released on February 2nd, NAMELESS GANGSTER is the Korean, more bad ass version of CASINO. Starring CHOI Min-sik of OLDBOY fame, this period film takes place in the early 1980s, where CHOI plays a public officer who clashes against a rising gangster in the tough streets of Busan. It’s one of the best Korean films I’ve seen in a couple of years! Highly recommended!

So, that’s about it. Heading back to LA, where I get a brief respite before heading on the road again. Next stop: SXSW! Yeehah!