The event I have been anticipating for weeks is to attend a screening of the Berlinale with O. I saw that it’s recommended for 4 year olds (the only screening recommended for this young age group), and I was pleased to see that, of course, there would be plenty of overly eager parents with their 2 and 3 year olds. After 2 1/2 Berlinales of leaving O with my parents so I could attend the screenings, I am finally able to share the experience with him, yay!
We spent a very calm morning, took a nap from 10.30am to almost 1pm and got to the venue almost 45 minutes early. In fact, we were able to get in first and snatch two of those booster seat cushions such that Oskar’s head was almost at my height and he could see very well despite sitting in the comparably deeper (but very comfortable) special seats that you normally pay an additional fee for. The seats were so big that O asked “Have to put on your seat belt?”
It’s embarrassing to think about it, but when the Berlinale opening sequence was playing, I teared up, that is how much it meant to me that I am finally able to show the Berlinale to O. Ever since, O recognizes the Berlinale logo on all of my Berlinale bags…
As expected, O loved the experience. This was his first time in a cinema theater ever, and I was afraid he would be scared of the movie theater becoming very dark. I warned him beforehand and he saw that all the kids around him were not scared either, so it went very well. It helps that all the films were short, so even though there were some that he didn’t like as much (the second and the second to last) he was fine because he was anticipating the next story.
By the way, I ended up kicking out all other short film screenings from my Berlinale schedule this year because I somehow felt more like watching feature films this time. I saw a bunch of great short films with Shii in Uppsala, and I had doubts the Berlinale selection could surpass that.
After the film, we did not stay for the Q&A because O’s German is not good enough for him to understand and enjoy it, but we were able to get some postcards stamped with the adorable stamps by the same lady as 2015. O loved those stamps so much that he declared her film as his favorite – sounds like her marketing machine is working even better than I expected.
Later on, O was very excited all evening and it took him awhile to get settled for sleep, so I ended up leaving much later for my evening screening than I anticipated.
Sabaku
Netherlands 2016, Marlies van der Wel, 3′
A bird loves to sit on top of other animal’s heads, but whenever he opens his mouth, a huge loud trumpeting sound comes out and chaos ensues. Finally he gets to meet an elephant with whom he becomes best friends and they trumpet together while the bird sits on his head.
The kids loved aforementioned ensuing chaos, and O liked that there were lots of animals involved, but he didn’t seem to find it as funny as the other kids. I thought the film was cute, and a nice allegory on how everybody can find a suitable friend.
Dziedošais Hugo un vi?a neticamie piedz?vojumi (Singing Hugo and His Incredible Adventures)
Latvia 2017, Reinis Kalnaellis, 9′
Hugo, a chicken in a chicken coop, dreams of becoming a big star but his singing disturbs the other chicken and gets him abducted by chicken thieves. He gets sold to various places, a crazy chase ensues and Hugo accidentally ends up at a circus performance where he finally fulfills his dream.
I thought the story itself was enjoyable and nice, but the character design is significantly less cute than for most of the other segments, so O was less into it. I doubt O was a big fan of the action (or the sleazy human characters) either.
Odd er et egg (Odd is an egg)
Norway/Portugal 2016, Kristin Ulseth, 12′
Odd is the child of chicken and his head is essentially an egg that may break and thus needs a lot of attention and care. As a result, Odd has no friends because he can never play along with their dangerous ball games and the likes. One day, he meets a girl who dresses up like a bee and whose free spirit inspires him to shake off his fears, and she becomes his first precious friend.
When I saw that the story would involve an outcast school-aged child, I was worried that O would think the topic to be boring. I was so wrong, because the story was mostly about Odd and Gunn becoming friends – and O loves that! Even though he understood relatively little about what was said in the dialogues, he grasped that this is a heart-warming tale of two children becoming friends and doing fun things together, and that made him happy. I thought it was adorable too, even if the premise and the ending are also a little silly.
1Minuutje natuur (1Minute of Nature)
Netherlands 2016, Stefanie Visjager/Katinka Baehr, 7′
The film consists of five little segments of children talking about something of their lives for one minute, with some matching animation using stick characters and real-life objects as backgrounds.
I was not too into the style and O didn’t get how the animation illustrated what has been said. This film is actually a little more advanced than the others, but without really saying that much if you ask me. It was OK.
Der kleine Vogel und die Raupe (The Little Bird and the Caterpillar)
Switzerland 2017, Lena von Döhren, 4′
The little bird from two years ago still cannot fly, and befriends a caterpillar in this story who helps him get away from the mean fox.
Just like last time, this was extremely cutely animated and it surely helps for O that it had no dialogue at all. It seems like the films about the little bird are favorites with the audience every time. As for me, I already forgot what happened in the story, but I am glad that O had a good time and treasures his stamped postcard so much that it’s now hanging on his wall.
Hedgehog’s Home
Canada/Croatia 2016, Eva Cvijanovic, 10′
The hedgehog lives in modest housing within the forest. One day, the fox invites him to his house and offers him to stay over, but the hedgehog still prefers to go home. It’s a little tale about how your own home is always the best.
This is a classical fable with lots of dialogue and the animation is often dark and a little intimidating looking, especially with a bear, a fox and a wolf as characters. No wonder O wasn’t too into it, even though I thought the story itself was actually fine.
Jazzoo
Sweden 2016, Adam Marko-Nord, 9′
In these ultra short segments, various animals are doing fun things accompanied by jazzy music.
To me, this was the most humorous part of all of them, O really liked the colorful animation and the animals that were involved (in fact, it seems like he had a dream concerning one of the segments afterwards and then claimed he saw it in the cinema), and we were both very into the music. Sadly the parts were also so short that the content was ultimately not very memorable, but even so I remember I found it to be one of the best and most entertaining short films in the selection.
