Finnish sci-fi Nazi movie is hot ticket at Berlin film festival

Iron Sky, which imagines Nazi invasion from secret moon base, sells more tickets than Werner Herzog and Angelina Jolie films.

The queue for tickets at the Berlin film festival. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

There are a lot of worthy films premiering at the Berlin film festival over the coming 10 days. A three-and-a-half-hour epic tracing China's history, three documentaries about the Fukushima disaster, Werner Herzog's look at Death Row and Angelina Jolie's take on the Bosnian war.

But which film proved more popular than almost anything else the day the tickets went on sale? A Finnish sci-fi comedy about Nazis living on the dark side of the moon.

Iron Sky tells the story of how Hitler's top scientists moved to a lunar military base known as the Black Sun shortly after the second world war ended in 1945. For more than 70 years boffins beavered away on a fleet of spaceships that would one day return to Earth and finish what the Nazis started. In 2018 the invasion begins.

The Finnish-German-Australian co-production proved the second most popular film the day the box office opened at the festival, also called the Berlinale, according to Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper. It was beaten to the top spot by Don – The King is Back, the latest film from Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan. Fans of the Indian heartthrob camped out in a Berlin shopping centre for three days and nights in order to get tickets for the film, which sold out in minutes.

But elsewhere it was business as usual at the traditionally rather serious festival. This year's event, the 62nd, focuses on social upheaval and political awakening, screening documentaries and fictional works from Arab film-makers, which trace the turbulent progress of the 2011 mass uprisings across the region and explore political and philosophical questions left in the wake of the often bloody demonstrations.
The Egyptian film Reporting a Revolution, directed by Bassam Mortada, follows six journalists on the frontline during 18 days of anti-regime protests in 2011. In the Shadow of a Man, directed by Hanan Abdalla, has four women talking about how a new society should look.
The film festival is well known for engaging in political debate. Last year, it became a platform to protest against the arrest of the Iranian director Jafar Panahi. Accused of inciting opposition protests in 2009 and making a film without permission, Panahi was banned from travelling outside Iran and was consequently unable to take up the seat he had been offered on the Berlinale jury.
This year the festival will continue the debate about the position of the artist in society with the international premiere of a documentary about the dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Berlinale organisers have coaxed some of Hollywood's biggest names to sprinkle a little stardust over the icy German capital. Jolie will be hawking The Land of Blood and Honey, her directorial debut about the Yugoslavian civil war, while Javier Bardem will screen the documentary he produced, Sons of the Clouds: the Last Colony, about a forgotten colonial war in the western Sahara and its abandoned victims. Meryl Streep will sweep into town to accept an honorary Golden Bear – Berlin's answer to the Palme d'or – as a recognition of her 30-plus-year reign at the top of Hollywood's tree.

The biggest screams on the red carpet are likely to be reserved for Robert Pattinson, the British dreamboat who stars in the wildly popular vampire movie series, Twilight. The teen idol is expected to show up to promote his new film, an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami, in which he plays a scoundrel who rises through the ranks of 19th-century Parisian society by manipulating and seducing women.

This year, the organisers have gathered together a surprisingly starry jury to award the prizes. Jake Gyllenhaal and Charlotte Gainsbourg join the Dutch photographer and film-maker Anton Corbijn (who had a hit with the Joy Division film Control) on the international jury, which is chaired by the veteran British director Mike Leigh.
One film vying for the award, Les Adieux la Reine (Farewell My Queen), starring Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette, will launch the festival on Thursday with its world premiere.

The Berlinale, which runs until 19 February, is ranked as one of the world's top film festivals alongside Cannes, Toronto, Sundance and Venice.

Harrison Ford not set for Blade Runner sequel, say producers

The producers of Ridley Scott's forthcoming follow-up deny reports actor is being considered to reprise role from 1982 sci-fi classic

Replicant revival ... Harrison Ford hangs on in the original Blade Runner. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Warner Bros

The producers of Ridley Scott's forthcoming followup to his 1982 sci-fi cult classic Blade Runner have denied that Harrison Ford is returning to the role of Rick Deckard.

1. Blade Runner - The Director's Cut
2. Production year: 1982
3. Country: USA
4. Cert (UK): 15
5. Runtime: 117 mins
6. Directors: Ridley Scott
7. Cast: Darryl Hannah, Daryl Hannah, Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
8. More on this film

Twitchfilm reported yesterday that Ford was in early talks to reprise his role as the future cop, who is tasked with hunting down a gang of rogue bioengineered humanoids, called "replicants", in Scott's earlier film, itself based on the Philip K Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? However, producer Andrew Kosove of Alcon Entertainment told Deadline: "It is absolutely patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in Blade Runner. To be clear, what we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story, figure out the direction we're going to take the movie and find a writer to work on it. The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment."

Kosove compared the Blade Runner followup to Scott's long-awaited forthcoming return to science fiction, Prometheus, which has been described as a film which is not a prequel or sequel, but exists within "the same universe" as its predecessor, 1979's Alien.

"What Ridley does in Prometheus is a good template for what we're trying to do," he said. "He created something that has some association to the original Alien, but lives on its own as a standalone movie." Kosove was asked if Scott's plans might allow Ford to return. "In advance of knowing what we're going to do, I supposed you could say yes, he could," he replied. "But I think it is quite unlikely."

Talk of Ford returning to the series sparked huge online debate yesterday, with many arguing that the actor's appearance in the movie would ruin Blade Runner's central enigma: whether Deckard is himself a replicant. The point has been argued back and forth by fans in the 30 years since the original film's release, resurfacing whenever a fresh cut of the film emerges. There have been several of these: Scott's 1992 director's cut, which excised the original version's studio-enforced expositional voiceover and pegged-on "happy ending", seen by many as the definitive version.

How far do the narratives of the films you have studied for this topic explore questions of belonging and exclusion?

 ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ 1985, directed by Stephen Frears and written by Hanif Kureishi is a comedy drama, set in the suburban areas of London under Thatcher’s administration. The film’s narrative follows protagonist Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a second-generation Pakistani in Britain, who must bring his uncle Nasser’s failing laundrette to profit amid familial tensions and an unconventional relationship with Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis), a white national and punk. The film deals with social issues such as racism, homosexuality, identity and the economic climate’s effect on Britain. Alternatively, ‘East is East’  set in early 70s Salford, sees the Pakistani Khan family struggle under the patriarch chippy-owning George (Om Puri), his English wife Ella (Linda Bassett) and their family of six sons and daughter.

From the very start of ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’, it is made evident that the film will deal with exclusion or belonging within a community. We are introduced to Johnny and his fellow punk friend squatting in a house. Their costumes signifies the pair as outsiders – they are instantly identifiable as punks with their shaven ‘Mohican’ hairstyles and dark, leathery attire. Though the 80s were notorious for a rise in punk culture and gang communes, punks were still outcasts of society and not socially well-perceived – particularly under the conservative gaze of Thatcher’s government. And perhaps rightly so, due to these groups anti-social and often extremist right-wing political agenda. The nature of their eviction from their illegal residence is symbolic of this as they are driven out rather violently by antagonist Salim’s men. The fact Salim exerts more power in this particular scene – over that of Johnny is indicative of their changing times of Britain – the rising importance of capitalist ‘rat race’ and a decline in the importance of the race of the ‘rats’ involved. We are then introduced to Omar, who nurses over his drunkard father in a dingy, council estate apartment. The death of his mother still hangs in the air – the roaring train tracks serving as a constant reminder outside, becoming a symbol of the destructive power of a husband upon his wife. It is a train Omar’s mum is killed with – and it is implied Tania, Nasser’s daughter, meets the very same end and willingly too. The train could be considered to be a phallic image and therefore it’s killing of the two women could represent female’s subjugation under the patriarchal society. As well as this, the train suggests a sense of modernisation in the 80s, the rushing, hustle and bustle of London’s metropolis and the need to take off – and leave behind one’s roots in pursuit for fortune. Omar’s ‘papa’ warns him that ‘(they) are under siege by the white man’ and that ‘education is power’. Omar’s father recognises that racial tension exists between the Asian and black communities alongside the dominant white in Britain. He is represented as a hypocritical figure – eager to reap the rewards of a democratic society whilst simultaneously holding xenophobic views.  In contrast to this, Nasser, his brother seems to be embracing western culture and society. As a successful businessman, Nasser - when discussing Pakistan and Britain declares ‘that country's been sodomised by religion. It's beginning to interfere with the making of money. Compared with everywhere... it's a little heaven, here.’ -. It is with irony that Nasser appears to oppose the doctrines of religion, yet refers to Britain as a little ‘heaven’. Nasser shares similarities with ‘George’ from East is East’. Like Nasser, George appears to have one foot in his conservative Pakistani roots and the other firmly in Britain. He reminisces over the fact that when he first arrived in the country he came with ‘nothing’ and now he ‘has his own business’. Both Nasser and George recognise the commercial and retail freedom that can be gained from Britain – it is a place to make money. But, perhaps even more than this as George has chosen an English name to use – implying he is willing to fit in with British society and become part of it. He has also married an English wife, Ella. He even lives in the house that is under her name – thus it can be seen that George is not wholly conventional and may stray from traditional Muslim doctrines (such as marrying a fellow Muslim). The line ‘I’ll have a half cup’ is a recurring motif in the film and is the response George gives when Ella asks whether he wants a cup of tea. The reference of ‘half’ may be representative of the fact George is half Pakistani and half British. To conflict with this, he often displays old-fashioned ideas such as demanding the complete and unquestioning obedience of his wife and family and the idea of arranged marriage. Hypocritically, George has a traditional wife in Pakistan who he often uses as a tool to incite jealousy in his British wife Ella. Like ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ the ill treatment of women is also evident in George’s family. He aggressively beats Ella when she attempts to defend her innocent son 9whom he also beats) and then attempts to strangle or maim her after he humiliates him in front of the Shah’s. He repeatedly tells her and his family that ‘he knows what is best for them’ and that they must listen to him.

There are clear tensions between the Pakistani characters within ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ and the white punks who are friends with Johnny. In the end, the punks seek revenge on the family by beating up Salim and vandalising the laundrette. They feel threatened by Johnny’s switch in alliance and the fact he chooses to favour his relationship with Omar, rather than keep to them and their extremist ways. It is clear they feel a great amount of animosity toward the Asian community: ‘why are you working for them? Pakis.’ The Pakistani’s are referred to with this racist epithet for the duration of the movie. The subjugation of non-white races is presented by the fact Salim is smashed to the ground by vengeful punks and crawls shamefully away in fear. In ‘East is East’ the youngest Khan, Sajit befriends an English boy named Ernest. Ernest’s grandfather is a bigoted old racist, supporting the words of Enoch Powell and is a keen advocate for his repatriation programme – both are seen distributing leaflets at one point. Ernest is the opposite of his grandfather – he plays willingly with Sajit and appears intrigued and charmed by the Khan’s foreign ways. Ernest also indicates he fancies the Khan’s daughter Meena  who is considerably older than him, and who treats him dismissively – she’s too busy playing football with other boys on the block. This coincidentally alludes to ‘Bend it Like Beckham ‘ (2002), in which the main character – a second generation Pakistani girl; Jessminder and her culturally-rebellious ambitions of becoming a footballer.

During the conservative era of Thatcher’s Britian, the hegemonic and social norm was to lead a heterosexual lifestyle. Omar opposes this by maintaining a homosexual relationship with Johnny. It is implied Omar’s father is aware of his son’s homosexuality or at least jokes about it ‘fix him up with a nice girl…I’m not sure his penis is in full working order.’ Likewise in ‘East is East’, the oldest son Nazir is disowned from the family by George – after he disgraces the family by not committing to the full ceremony of his wedding – jilting his bride-to-be at the crucial moment. It is later revealed Nazir is gay and has run off to start a successful fashion-design company with his male partner. His siblings indicate clear disapproval in his new lifestyle and partner –acting awkwardly when he arrives and staring in an almost revolted way at their surroundings. It is clear, even within the family – that the heterosexual hegemonic ways are dominant

To conclude, both ‘East is East and ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ deal with belonging and exclusion in society within the UK. ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ seems to be havier on the homophobic aspect of 80s Britain, as well as the tensions between races. In ‘East is East’ the homosexual agenda is more downplayed and though there are racial tensions, there seems to be more focus on the strained bonds of immediate family members.  

Chinese government plans cut-price cinema tickets

Proposed laws to curb overpricing and boost cheap screenings in China contrast with rising ticket prices in the US

To the IMAX … China now boasts the third-largest box office returns in the world. Photograph: China Photos/Getty Images

It is a nation that strictly controls both the output of its own film-makers and the types of movies audiences are allowed to view at their local multiplex. Yet western filmgoers may be forgiven for casting an unusually jealous eye in the direction of their counterparts in China today, after it was revealed that authorities in the world's most populous nation are considering new laws to curb the price of cinema tickets.

The number of Chinese cinemas has skyrocketed over the past few years and the country now boasts the third-largest annual box office returns in the world. In 2011 alone, it rose by an annual rate of 18% to 12bn yuan (around £1.22bn). A ticket usually costs between £3.40 and £4.10 – already some way cheaper than the price of seeing a film in the UK or US, though such a figure represents a significantly larger chunk of the average person's income than in the west. Now authorities want to bring costs down further, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

"The ticket price is still on the high side and cannot meet people's expectations and demand for movies," said Tong Gang, head of the movie bureau at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Measures would include setting a maximum price for tickets and boosting the number of half-price screenings, he added.

China's spiralling demand for movies last year helped offset a drop in the US box office of 3.5% to $10.2bn, the lowest return in 16 years. Demand for Hollywood fare is particularly high, despite currently being held back by distribution rules which mean that only around 20 western films are allowed to screen at Chinese cinemas each year.

Rising ticket prices in the US have been blamed by some commentators for the current box-office malaise there. The film critic Roger Ebert said last month that the cost of a visit to the cinema had become prohibitive, and also blamed the lack of choice at mainstream multiplexes.

"Ticket prices are too high," he wrote on his blog. "People have always made that complaint, but historically the movies have been cheap compared to concerts, major league sports and restaurants. Not so much any longer. No matter what your opinion is about 3D, the charm of paying a hefty surcharge has worn off for the hypothetical family of four.

"[It's also] lack of choice. Box-office tracking shows that the bright spot in 2011 was the performance of indie, foreign or documentary films. On many weekends, one or more of those titles captures first-place in per-screen average receipts. Yet most moviegoers outside large urban centres can't find those titles in their local gigantiplex. Instead, all the shopping centre compounds seem to be showing the same few overhyped disappointments. Those films open with big ad campaigns, play a couple of weeks, and disappear."

DGA nominations 2012: old timers have their time again

Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese head up a Directors' Guild of America awards shortlist with average age of 58

Directors Guild of America award nominations … Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese are two DGA lifetime achievement award recipients this year vying again for the main title. Photograph: Joel Ryan/AP & David Gadd/Allstar

The Oscar engravers will be sharpening their chisels: the Directors' Guild of America has released its nominations. Since 1948 the winner of that award – this year to be held on January 28 in a ceremony hosted by Kelsey Grammer – has progressed to win the best director award at the Oscars 58 times out of 64.

This year's shortlist contained no surprises, just genuflection: Woody Allen, 76, who won for Annie Hall in 1977 and picked up a lifetime achievement award in 1996, is nominated for Midnight in Paris. He's up against fellow veteran Martin Scorsese, 69, for Hugo; Scorsese won for The Departed in 2006, three years after picking up a lifetime achievement award.

The young bucks hustling for the crown are Alexander Payne, 50, for The Descendants, David Fincher, 49, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Michel Hazanavicius, 44, for The Artist.

The most notable omission looks to be Steven Spielberg, who did not get a nod for War Horse. Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life has been all but ignored in the awards race so far.

Institutional News

The British Film Institute has announced plans to appoint a single executive to run its production and distribution funds, with a combined annual budget of £21 million ($33 million).
This follows the resignation of Tanya Seghatchian as head of the BFI's film fund in September, and the departure of Peter Buckingham as head of distribution and exhibition in November.
These posts will be replaced by the newly-created role of film fund director, reporting to BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill.
This moves toward a more integrated policy of development, production and distribution investment, in line with the expected recommendations of the U.K. government's film policy review to be announced in January.
According to a BFI statement, the film fund director will be responsible for leading the existing production and distribution teams, nurturing filmmaking talent across the U.K., championing creative excellence and encouraging a bold approach.
The BFI took over from the U.K. Film Council in April as the public body responsible for investing lottery coin into British film production and distribution. Both Seghatchian and Buckingham moved from the UKFC to the BFI, but decided to leave once the transition was complete.

Borders and Belonging 'My Beautiful Laundrette'

Borders and Belonging ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’

‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ 1985, directed by Stephen Frears and written by Hanif Kureishi is a comedy drama, set in the suburban areas of London under Thatcher’s administration. The film’s narrative follows protagonist Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a second-generation Pakistani in Britain, who must bring his uncle Nasser’s failing laundrette to profit amid familial tensions and an unconventional relationship with Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis), a white national and punk. The film deals with social issues such as racism, homosexuality, identity and the economic climate’s effect on Britain.

From the very start of the film, it is explicitly implied it will centre on the idea of being one – or belonging within a community. We are introduced to Johnny and his fellow punk friend squatting in a house. The mise en scene of their costumes signifies the pair as outsiders – they are instantly identifiable as punks with their shaven ‘Mohican’ hairstyles and dark, leathery attire. Though the 80s were notorious for a rise in punk culture and gang communes, punks were still outcasts of society and not socially well-perceived – particularly under the conservative gaze of Thatcher’s government. And perhaps rightly so, due to these groups anti-social and often extremist right-wing political agenda. The nature of their eviction from their illegal residence is symbolic of this as they are driven out rather violently by antagonist Salim’s men. The fact Salim exerts more power in this particular scene – over that of Johnny is indicative of their changing times of Britain – the rising importance of capitalist ‘rat race’ and a decline in the importance of the race of the ‘rats’ involved. We are then introduced to Omar, who nurses over his drunkard father in a dingy, council estate apartment. The death of his mother still hangs in the air – the roaring train tracks serving as a constant reminder outside, becoming a symbol of the destructive power of a husband upon his wife. It is a train Omar’s mum is killed with – and it is implied Tania, Nasser’s daughter, meets the very same end and willingly too. The train could be considered to be a phallic image and therefore it’s killing of the two women could represent female’s subjugation under the patriarchal society. As well as this, the train suggests a sense of modernisation in the 80s, the rushing, hustle and bustle of London’s metropolis and the need to take off – and leave behind one’s roots in pursuit for fortune.

Omar’s ‘papa’ warns him against spending too long working with his brother Nasser, whom he calls a ‘crook’. He mentions that ‘(they) are under siege by the white man’ and that ‘education is power’. Here, Omar’s father recognises that racial tension exists between the Asian and black communities alongside the dominant white in Britain. He is represented as a hypocritical figure – eager to reap the rewards of a democratic society whilst simultaneously holding xenophobic views.  In contrast to this, Nasser, his brother seems to be embracing western culture and society. As a successful businessman, Nasser declares ‘But that country's been sodomised by religion. It's beginning to interfere with the making of money. Compared with everywhere... it's a little heaven, here.’ (When discussing Pakistani and Britain). It is with irony that Nasser appears to oppose the doctrines of religion, yet refers to Britain as a little ‘heaven’. It enforces the fact Nasser exists with firm Capitalist beliefs. He refers to the making of money and seems to hold it in the highest regard – it is the most important aspect of life – rather than morality of which religion promotes.  Nasser is the epitome of a capitalist. He lords over his relatives with a patriarchal iron fist and takes a mistress in the form of Rachel. Rachel is a classic example of a middle class aspirer – common in the time of Thatcher where the middle classes were provided with greater opportunities to accumulate wealth as the divide with the poor grew. Rachel is dressed in white furs – both a symbol of wealth and a statement of white superiority. Nasser seeks the need to take a mistress to empower his king-like ego as well as to legitimise himself as a decent English ‘businessman’, with an English girlfriend. Like the rest of the females in ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’, Nasser’s wife is portrayed as longs-suffering. She represents the families old life in Pakistan – still accustomed to Pakistani traditions and Asian morals and is neglected by her husband – representing his abandoning of the old and embracing of the West. Nasser has abandoned the Islamic ways of his culture – he drinks and attends bars and is unfaithful to his family and wife.

There are clear tensions between the Pakistani characters within ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ and the white punks who are friends with Johnny. In the end, the punks seek revenge on the family by beating up Salim and vandalising the laundrette. They feel threatened by Johnny’s switch in alliance and the fact he chooses to favour his relationship with Omar, rather than keep to them and their extremist ways. It is clear they feel a great amount of animosity toward the Asian community: ‘why are you working for them? Pakis.’ The Pakistani’s are referred to with this racist epithet for the duration of the movie. The subjugation of non-white races is presented by the fact Salim is smashed to the ground by vengeful punks and crawls shamefully away in fear.

During the conservative era of Thatcher’s Britian, the hegemonic and social norm was to lead a heterosexual lifestyle. Omar opposes this by maintaining  a homosexual relationship with Johnny. It is implied Omar’s father is aware of his son’s homosexuality or at least jokes about it ‘fix him up with a nice girl…I’m not sure his penis is in full working order.’