Berlinale 2013, day 6 (the value of perseverance)

Senzo ni naru (Roots, ?????)
Japan 2013, Kaoru Ikeya, 118′

Naoshi is an 80-year-old lumberman and farmer, living in Rikuzentakata, one of the towns completely swept away by the Tsunami of 2011. Having lost his son, but not the house he built himself 55 years ago, even though it was flooded until the second floor, he toughs it out and perseveres against almost everyone’s wishes trying to rebuild his house so he can spend his last years there, remembering his lost son.

TL;DR most wonderful stubborn old man ever. I’m not crying, there must be onions hidden nearby.

He is old, he is stubborn, but at the same time he is also incredibly determined to not let the Tsunami win. Naoshi tries all he can to convince his neighbours and family to not give up the town and fights for rebuilding together with some friends and acquaintances even though the city and prefecture try to dissuade them. One incredibly moving moment is Tanabata of 2011 (July 7th): the city celebrates their traditional festival on this day and is known for its demonstration of giant wooden floats crashing into each other in a reverse tug-of-war. Three of the four floats representing the districts have been swept away so it looks like there will be no festival, however Naoshi succeeds in motivating the local youth to try and with his help (he is still a very skilled lumberman at his age) they manage to repair the remaining float and to hold the festival. At the end one of the young residents, after thanking everyone for coming, cries out that they will not be defeated and that they will rebuild. Cue everyone on and off screen crying. The film alternates between those stories of little achievements and setbacks (especially when dealing with the government) and little tidbits about Naoshi who is just wonderfully witty, especially when he explains how he once did “research” while bathing so he could carve a big wooden penis for a local fertility shrine: “Now it’s not as magnificent and hard as this wooden one anymore.” Unfortunately he does not reveal where he got his “inspiration” for the giant wooden vulva on the other side of the shrine.

For the Q&A we had the director and cameraman. Both were overjoyed about the long applause (I suppose it will be the longest I witnessed at this Berlinale) and the director read a message from the “stubborn old geezer” as he called himself, because he could not come to Berlin due to his health. In a very teary moment (I guess the director just cries easily) he explained that his cameraman lost his son too, a few months before the earthquake so that is probably the reason why Naoshi was able to relax around them so they could get him to talk and get this wonderful portrait of a simple, but proud and witty man.

Sieniawka
Germany, Poland 2013, Marcin Malaszczak, 126′

Docufiction about the homeless and residents of a mental asylum in Sieniawka, a little village in Poland’s weird southwestern Appendix bordering massive open-cast mining of brown coal.

TL;DR just don’t watch it

If a movie does not have plot it can somehow save itself by having a great atmosphere or style, or the way round. If it lacks both, screens at night and I am tired then I just walk out halfway. Dialogue and plot were nearly nonexistent and the mood shots of the open-cast mining and the mental asylum were neither interesting nor “beautiful” So I did the unthinkable and just like many others fled the scene.