by Sérgio Maia Tavares Marques, Managing Editor

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From 11^th to 21^st, Feb. 2016, Berlin will be the European (and not only) movie capital as the 66^th Berlinale Festival takes off. 128 countries, more than 400 films presented, over 30000 people involved and more than 330000 tickets sold. However, apart from that commercial, industry façade of the Festival, a deeper artistic side has also its seat on Berlinale. Sections such as Panorama, Forum, Culinary Cinema and NATIVe offer a different view of the seventh art: independent movies, new comers, experimental art and indigenous people story-telling, for instance. Berlinale Talents section intriguingly revolves around “The Nature of Relations”.

Each programme brochure can be found here.

Nevertheless, the most impressive message of this year´s edition of the Festival is described by the Berlinale Director, Dieter Kosslick. He declares that the Festival is devoted to the refugees. In his words, “since the festival was launched in 1951, we have only had positive experiences with what is today known as “a culture of welcome”. Moreover the Berlinale would not exist if it were not for foreigners. The eleven days of the festival at Potsdamer Platz demonstrate how cultural diversity can celebrate a peaceful fest with great energy and verve.”

According to him, it is vital to follow Steinmeier´s principle of six eyes. “Each of us has our own perception of things, our own two eyes, and with each of them we should try to see the view of the other, to find a joint view, so to speak, so as to achieve, through a shift of perspective, a view shared by both sides (…). In the cinema the principle of six eyes is a matter of course. We look through a screen like we do through an open window into another world or we are right in the middle of it.”

Cinema and all arts are platforms to explore societal issues. They are a narrative of our lives and our time. His editorial urges us all to not misunderstand themes and that refugees arrival can carry out social tolerance (UNIO Blog’s motto for the time being, by the way. As should remain EU law’s. In fact, legal systems as a whole can take in many lessons.).

Picture credits: La Berlinale s’en va!  by Charlotte Noblet.