Berlin - A love film story set against the tensions of the conflict between
Taiwan and mainland China is to open the 60th anniversary Berlin Film Festival on Thursday. The world premiere of Chinese director Wang Quan'an's Tuan Yuan (Apart Together) kicks off the race for the Berlinale's coveted Golden Bear with movies from independent directors in the main competition outweighing those from bigger names in the motion pictures business.
However the lineup includes new movies from leading US director Martin Scorsese and French-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski.
But Polanski will not be in Berlin for the Berlinale's 60th birthday celebrations and for the world premiere of his film The Ghost Writer, a political thriller set in London.
The 77-year-old Polanski is currently holed up in his Swiss chalet facing the threat of extradition to the US for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in a case dating back to the 1970s.
But The Ghost Writer's all-star cast, which includes Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan are expected to
travel to Berlin for the film's screening.
Another Berlinale guest who might be seen in public around the
festival is the notoriously elusive British street artist Banksy, whose debut film Exit Through the Gift Shop is to be screened in Berlin.
However, taking to the Berlinale's red carpet this year will be Hollywood topliners Ben Stiller, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore and Leonard DiCaprio, who will be in town for the screening of Scorsese's psychological thriller Shutter Island.
Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan and France's Gerard Depardieu along with Japan's Sayuri Yoshinaga are also on the guest list.
Launched amid the turmoil and destruction in Germany following the end of the Second World War, the festival was founded as part of US efforts to promote western cultural life in the new propaganda
war between east and west.
But the Berlinale quickly developed into a major cinematic event with the festival glamour offensive dating back in its early days and led by A-list celebrities such as Gary Cooper, Sophia Loren, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Rita Hayworth.
Since it screened its first film, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, the Berlin Film Festival has shown more than 15,000 films with their titles laid out on this year's Berlinale poster.
Helping to mark this year anniversary, the Berlinale plans to screen a restored version of Fritz Lang's 1927 classic Metropolis.
But despite the birthday festivities, this year's festival is again rather short on light-hearted or comic fare.
Now one of the world's top film festivals, the Berlinale has developed a reputation for showcasing films with a conscience; screening productions, which have hard-edged political and social themes.
This year's competition for the Golden Bear, which is to be handed out at a gala ceremony set down for February 20, includes 18 world premieres and with three debut features.
Among the main entries are acclaimed US independent director Noah Baumbach's new production Greenberg, about a middle-aged American man who opts out of life, and Shahada by Burhan Qurbani, who grew up in Germany as the son of Afghan refugees.
The festival also again puts the spotlight on Asian cinema with leading Japanese director Yoji Yamada's Otouto (About Her Brother) having been selected to close the festival.
But underscoring the Berlinale's European focus about half of the 20 forming the competition for the festival's top honours are from European directors.
Apart from Yamada and Wang who won the Golden Bear in 2007 for Tuya's Wedding several directors who have been honoured at past Berlinale will be returning to Berlin with their latest productions to help the festival mark its anniversary.
This includes Denmark's Pernille Fischer Christensen with En Familie (A Family), Sarajevo-born Jasmila Zbanic with her second feature On the Path and Iran-born Rafi Pitts' drama The Hunter.
Veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou also returns to Berlin with his latest movie San qiang pai an jing qi (A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop) which is about just that - a noodle shop owner whose wife gives her lover a gun to kill her husband.
Zhang Yimou's success in 1988 in winning the Golden Bear for Red Sorghum seen as a major step in opening up Chinese cinema to the world.
But the competition between the world's leading film festivals has increased in recent years with new rivals such as Sundance in the US, Toronto and Rome rapidly gaining ground.
And after two rather lacklustre years the Berlinale now needs a successful 2010 programme to reaffirm its role in shaping cinematic trends, which is the lifeblood of any film festival.
