Tom Toukwir will soon open the seventy -fifth Berlin Film Festival with “The Light”, a story at the right time in which a German, dysfunctional family is rescued by the Syrian housekeeper.
The film will start in German, which TykWer describes as a “militant political statement” in Berlinaly on February 13 in the troubled period to the general elections on February 21. A lot at stake with the upward right -wing alternative to the Germany Party (AFD), which slows down new tough bases related to immigration.
The “Light” stars from the ordinary Taiwir Ediner and his close friend Nicolete Kripitz in the role of Melina and Tim, and parents of the age of forty years of twins, 17 years old. Tala El -Din (“Tatort”) is a winding vision, the mastermind of their house, which says “has its own agenda.”
The joint drama, which TykWer “The Big Sister”, represents his leading movie “Run Lola Run”, the return of managers to the big screen-and to Berlin nowadays-after four seasons in the Helm of Hit Period “. Babel Berlin.” It is also the time The third in which TykWer opened Berlin, after “Heaven” in 2002 and “The International” in 2009, although both were not films in German.
Below, Tyker speaks to diverse About how “the light” has become of his personal life as a father, and why he is a political nature and shares his ideas about AFD.
She was flooded in Babylon Berlin for a decade. What was the emergence of “light”?
I wanted to make a movie about us now. I was dying to return to this day, because I realized that our day needs experiments on the big screen that we threw in this chaos in which we live to face potential questions and answers, shift and conflict. The main conflict I live is that I am a father. Like most of my friends, I have children saying, “How did this happen? How did we get here?” Then you respond, “Well, we really tried to do some good things.” They go, “Well, what have you done over the past twenty years?” This is when you realize that we missed a lot. It is an embarrassing feeling, it is a little dark feeling, but at the same time, there is a re -courage and empowerment. I would like to connect efforts with the generation of our children and know if we can return this ship to the right track together.
It is the third time that Berlinali has opened, but it seems symbolic that this is the first time that it has done it with a German -language movie. It is also centered on a Syrian immigrant on the eve of the German elections, when they are difficult new rules related to immigration in the spotlight. What are your thoughts about that?
Well, this is what happens with art. You create something with a group of people who really believe in it, and then suddenly, when it comes to the surface, it looks as if we were waiting for this moment to get a film that responds to a new chapter now opens Berlinali. I feel I also started the next chapter in my creative life. And I feel that Tricia (Tatter, director of the Berlin Film Festival) and her team have a very similar desire. They want films that really hold on the audience and challenge them, yet it is related to the place where the festival is rooted. It is of course Berlin.
As you know, there was controversy last year when members of AFD were invited for the first time and then were resolved from the opening night. Do you have a position on it?
Of course, it should not be unclear on this topic. You should say either “yes” or “no”. You must decide before making a statement. It is something we really need to discover here. We need to know, how do we deal with this complex situation? But I do not say it is easy to know that. The Film Festival is a general space. But if you are responsible for it, you should also put your character in putting yourself. You cannot show super progressive films, then welcome people who attack all the ideas that these films fight. I think you need to make options.
In other words, if you get this correctly, your position is that AFD members should not be invited on the opening night to watch your movie?
I didn’t say that. I suggest the thinking process. See, you made a movie clearly indicating the data. I am an artist, and I think my duty is to make clear data. I don’t like mixing this because I am not part of this process. As long as I felt that the operation was deep, I will accept and respect every conclusion they reached. But the film, which I show on the opening night is a militant politician. This is a deep statement that I can make regarding many situations related to this invitation game problems.
Below is a statement issued this week by the Berlin Film Festival on this thorny issue:
“It is a good tradition for the festival to teach its guests with honor and distinguished guests and does not comment on the calls of other festivals. Berlinale does not make the list of the invitation in general. What the festival can prepare for all guests: We offer them a comprehensive space where our values live and respect them.”
Return to the movie itself. It is clear that “light” has a lot of visual taste. There is a lot of amazing camera works. Talk to me about her common aspect.
There is an essential conspiracy in the middle of this film with this family in a state of turmoil, and then this woman faces “crazy”. But in this nucleus there is a wild hurricane of events, influences, emotions, calmness, landing and critical scenes that reflect the way life has for me now. Life became crazy. I feel crazy in the sense that its intensity is really different from up to 10 years. The way in which public life and private life have become this strange union, closing each other. How public is, even if we are just unilateral people, through all social media? Of course, how social media affects politics and how politics uses social media now. All this has become a really intense bubble in which we live. Of course, we have to embrace it because it will not disappear.
A way to address this, the possibilities of making this work really for us in life need to be represented in filmmaking. My life does not feel like one experience. It’s polyphonic. Mega Singhoni Solid Rock Chiseon and 12 Music Note Each together. Everything, everywhere, at the same time. This is life at the present time. So although I wanted to maintain the development of the personality and how people associated each other very clear, I needed enough to represent this explosion. I recently realized that, unconsciously, the “light” became the older sister of “Run Lola Run”. I suddenly remembered that Lula was my other experience in Berlin, where I also said, “Well, the possibilities of life should be reflected in the possibilities of filmmaking.”
This interview has been edited and intensified for clarity.
