Pastor Roland Wicher is film commissioner of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. Barbara Manterfeld-Wormit met him for an interview during the Berlinale.
Berlinale Palace at Potsdamer PlatzAlexander Janetzka,
Mr. Wicher, what does a film officer do?
Roland Wicher: I primarily take care of film festivals and festival juries. The Berlinale means the most work for me, where I navigate the six-person ecumenical jury through the festival: a selection has to be made and a precise schedule drawn up for the day. The often international jury members also have to find their way around the city. And then there is the content, that of course I accompany the jury to the cinema and see the films that the jury members see and form my own opinion.
Can you still remember your first film?
That was as a child: “Unterten am Fluss – Watership down” (Great Britain 1978). This was a story between rival gangs of rabbits, a kind of fantasy cartoon. A serious film that moved me a lot!
Cinema can cover the whole range of emotions: drama, comedy, thriller or action, political or documentary – what is your favorite genre?
One of my favorite films, which we also honored at the time, is “In the Aisles” by Thomas Stuber. A very tender and carefully told love story in a huge wholesale market, where the employees drive through the aisles with forklifts. Then you get to know the life story of these people. The film also has political overtones, because it leads into this working world. But of course there are also films like those by the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who unfortunately still lives in captivity in Iran. There is no evil is a film about the death penalty in different episodes from different perspectives – very disturbing. The cinema is a cosmos in itself with many themes that move people. Especially the Berlinale as a political festival.
Over 400 films are shown there – what criteria do you use to make your selection?
In fact, in every film you somehow discover a link to faith. Moral, ethical issues are important and human encounters. There is a wide range that our jury has there. It is not uncommon for a film that we have received an award to also receive the Golden Bear.
There is the section of the International Forum of Young Film and Panorama. There is prize money of 2,500 euros for both categories, donated by the EKD and the German Bishops’ Conference. The young and less well-known filmmakers can really use that. So this is also a piece of film and culture funding from the church side.
Cinema doesn’t have it easy these days. Streaming services bring films into the living room. In the village or in the small town there is sometimes no cinema at all. Why does cinema remain indispensable for you?
In the cinema you have a different atmosphere because of the space and being together with other people whose laughter and popcorn crackle you can hear. It’s a social experience: the way the senses are engaged, the sound, the big screen, that’s what film wants. There are impressive productions that you can watch in your home cinema or on your laptop, but I’m interested in how that moves people. That’s why I’m convinced that cinema will remain an event, whether it’s the small box cinema on site run by enthusiasts or the open air on the summer meadow. It’s different than sitting at home and hitting the stop button because you want to get something out of the fridge.
The attractive thing about the Berlinale is not only the films, but also the opportunity to talk to the filmmakers afterwards…
This is festival air that you can sniff there. That’s exciting, because of course the production of a film is much more complex than what you see on the screen afterwards: You learn details about why a decision was made for a certain scene, you get something from the people behind the camera and directors who are responsible for telling a specific story and showing specific images. That’s great! There is a variety of subject matter and issues that are not always understood by people from other cinema cultures. This is where international encounters take place. The Berlinale opens the view to the whole world – a giant tanker!
Not every film makes it to the cinemas afterwards…
Last year we gave one of our awards to the film Klondike, a story set in a bombed house in eastern Ukraine. The wall is gone and the view of the battlefield opens up like on a cinema screen. A couple decided: they stay there, the woman is pregnant. A very dense story, but the film has not yet been distributed in Germany. It is our hope that our work will draw attention to such films.
What would you like to support the film work with? What does film need so that it will continue to exist in this form of cinema in the future?
I think that the presentation of films is becoming more important, that you can also show a film in a church, for example. Of course you have to clarify that this is legally secured. But you can get that through the production companies. In individual cases, films that are not distributed can also be shown within the framework of special permits. Imagination with a view to ways of showing film and making cinema an experience possible, in a wide variety of locations. This is important.
