Yesterday I touched down back in England after spending five days in Berlin. I was in no fit state to write last night, but now, sat here with the first decent cup of tea I’ve had in a week, it’s time to talk about my time at the Berlin Film Festival. Admittedly, I only watched three films- which is bad. But I only really had three whole days, and I’ve never been to Berlin before, so obviously I needed to fit in some sightseeing as well. This post is about my trip in general, there will detailed reviews of the films I watched coming soon.

Day One:

There were absolutely no film related activities on day one. We got there in the evening and we were all tired, so that night consisted mainly of drinking and getting excited about the German McDonalds menu- they have wraps with caesar salad in, it’s great.

Day Two:

Day two started with perhaps the best experience of the week. Whilst walking to the box office to get tickets for the week, I walked past Willem Dafoe on the street. He was there for his film Siberia, which I didn’t get to see, but from the sounds of it that was probably a good decision. Still it was exciting seeing him in person just walking down the street. In the afternoon I watched Domangchin yeoja (The Woman Who Ran). I wasn’t a fan of this film overall, but it was a fun experience This was the premiere event, so the director Hong Sangsoo and two of the actresses were there. It was also held at the Berlinale Palast (the main cinema at the festival), which was probably the most beautiful cinema I’ve ever been in. Later I watched Funny Face directed by Tim Sutton. I didn’t know much about this film going into it, but I ended up really enjoying it. This was at the International, a smaller but still very nice cinema. Honestly, all the cinemas which host the festival are so grand and fancy. It was exciting just being in the cinemas, nevermind watching the films.

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Day 3:

On the wednesday I watched Sa-nyang-eui-si-gan (Time to Hunt) at the Zoo Palast. This was an excellent film, and I would highly reccomend watching this when it gets a general release, if you like action films (especially Korean action films).

Day 4:

Day four was your typical sightseeing day. I went to saw the Reichstag building, the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the East Side Gallery. I also went to a Body Worlds exhibit- you know like the one James Bond runs through in Casino Royale. If you don’t know what Body Worlds is, it’s the Gunther von Hagens exhibit that uses real human bodies to make art. That was a morbid but very interesting experience. Oh yeah, and I ate food in a terrible touristy Bavarian restaurant where the band exclusively played German sounding versions of an early 2000’s British school disco playlist. If you think that sounds fun, you’re wrong. Maybe it would be more fun if you weren’t stone cold sober. This is something I rectified as soon as I escaped that place.