“Small Things Like These” will open the Berlin Film Festival
The 74th Berlin Film Festival will open with an Irish drama about the treatment of women in the country’s Catholic institutions, starring actor Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead role in “Oppenheimer,” organizers announced Thursday.
Belgian Tim Millants directed the film, titled “Small Things Like This,” and its events take place in the mid-1980s. Milantis previously directed the series “Peaky Blinders,” in which Cillian Murphy starred.
The film deals with a scandal that caused a major shock in Northern Ireland in recent years, represented by the revelation that thousands of women who were considered by the Irish Catholic Church to be “fallen” were sent to the “Magdalene Laundry” washhouse in a nunnery, and were employed there to “wash away their sins.”
Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian said: “We are convinced that this story, which combines kindness towards vulnerable groups and the desire to fight injustice, will be welcomed by everyone” during the festival, which will be held from February 15 to 25.
On Monday, the festival will announce the list of films eligible to compete in its official competition for the Golden Bear Award, which was won last year by the documentary “Sur l’Adamant” by Frenchman Nicolas Philibert, which deals with the subject of a ship hosting people suffering from psychological disorders in Paris.
The second part of this trilogy on psychiatry will be shown at the festival, but outside the competition.
It was previously announced that the presidency of the jury would be assigned to the Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, who will be the first black woman to hold this prestigious position.
The Berlin Film Festival awards American director Martin Scorsese an honorary award for his entire cinematic career.
The German Ministry of Culture also announced that American Trisha Tuttle will assume the presidency of the Berlin Festival, starting in April 2024. Tuttle takes over from Mariette Riesenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, who have been running the festival together since 2020, and this will be the last edition of their reign.
(AFP)
