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DRACULA SEX TAPE

Dir.: Olivier Godin, C: Leslie Mavangui, Chloé Germantier, Dominick Rustam Chartrand, DOP: Renaud Després-Larose, CAN 2021, 5 min., French OwEs – World Premiere 

“It’s nothing like a vice. Smoking cigarettes is like placing oneself under the sign of financial autonomy, and to inflict an affront to rectitude!” In an unknown, snow-covered river landscape, the actors of DRACULA SEX TAPE fire each other up with energetically obscure monologues. In just five minutes, this short film imparts the effects of a double espresso at 6 a.m. in the morning. Olivier Godin is one of the visionary voices of Quebec cinema and has steadily built his reputation since Berlin Critics’ Week screened his film WAITING FOR APRIL three years ago. We suspect it’s only a question of time before he achieves world fame.

RED POST ON ESCHER STREET (ESCHER DORI NO AKAI POSUTO)

Dir.: Sion Sono, C: Sen Fujimaru, Riku Kurokouchi, Mala Morgan, Tatsuhiro Yamaoka, Taro Suwa, DOP: Masaya Suzuki, JPN 2020, 147 min., Japanese OwEs – German Premiere

Everyone runs to the nearest mailbox to send in their casting application when they hear that the handsome and brilliant director Tadashi Kobayashi is planning his new project. Dreaming is par for the course in the film industry: Who doesn’t want to become the next star of Japanese indie cinema? The only thing standing in their way: all the others dreaming the same dream. For many, the mere prospect of meeting Kobayashi inspires a frenzy. Others find human greatness even in the margins of filmmaking. And for some, only the police baton awaits in the end. Even after almost 40 years of directing, Sion Sono remains playfully inventive and capable of self-irony. Made right before his first U.S. film with Nicolas Cage, RED POST ON ESCHER STREET breaks with the conventions of entertainment cinema and undermines its reflexes with excessive thoroughness. Can’t stand amateurism? Just go for it! Or even better: run for it!

CRITICS’ DEBATE – March 4, 8 PM

The Berlin Critics’ Week seeks to make possible what film festivals often do not dare: We challenge established discussion formats by trying out new methods and panel constellations to discuss films. Since 2020, we have been experimenting with a format in which two film critics react to one of our programs in a completely unbiased way. The only thing we ask from them is to explore what they disagree on!

Guests: Maggie Lee, Patrick Holzapfel
Moderation: Lucía Salas