After the accident, the super-rich land from the cruise ship on a lonely island, where the balance of power is reversed: in order to survive, the upper class has to do the cleaning lady’s bidding.
The shipwreck metaphor in Ruben Östlund’s bitter farce “Triangle of Sadness”, the favorite for this year’s European Film Awards, is indicative of the situation in Europe. The 35th European Film Awards will be presented in Reykjavík this Saturday, and once again the crux of the industry on the old continent is obvious: the insurmountable language barriers between the small, unprofitable markets.
Especially this time the cohesion becomes clear. Solidarity with Ukraine as a victim of the Russian invasion – whereby the European Film Academy goes beyond the complete boycott of Russian films, since it also hits critics of the regime like Kirill Serebrennikov – a new award for sustainability, for standing together in the face of war and climate change , Inflation: Films about the crisis for cinemas in crisis, that’s how the current situation could be summarized.
The Berlinale winner “Alcarràs” by Maria Simón, another main prize candidate, also tells of the life-threatening turning point. A Catalan family of peach farmers meets one last time for the summer harvest, the leased land is to be evicted for a photovoltaic park, unemployment is threatening.
Once at the Berlinale for the main prize nominations, four times at Cannes: Marie Kreutzer’s daredevil historical film about Sissi, “Corsage”, the Belgian coming-of-age film “Close” and the woman-killer thriller “Holy Spider” by Ali Abassi join Östlund’s grotesque. which is set in Iran: Perhaps in these days of women’s revolt, Iran is also in Europe.
However, the restriction to candidates that ran at the big festivals also shows that visibility is lacking, Europe remains fragmented. That is why the Academy, whose almost 4,500 members decide on the awards, proclaimed European Film Month in November. Cinemas in 35 countries are involved – and the art house streaming service Mubi, which has posted 100 European films for subscribers. We and the neighbors, the cinemas and the streamers, together they have a chance.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years now and I have worked for some of the biggest news websites in the world. My focus has always been on entertainment news, but I also cover a range of other topics. I am currently an author at Global happenings and I love writing about all things pop-culture related.
