Doha: The Doha Film Institute-funded movie Between Revolutions by Vlad Petri bagged the FIPRESCI prize, The International Critics Award, at the recently concluded prestigious Berlin International Film Festival, most commonly known as Berlinale.
The 2023 film also made its world premiere debut at the film festival.
Vlad Petri, the Director of the film told The Peninsula that winning at Berlinale is an “incredible experience.”
“After two years of pandemic, this was the first edition with full-house cinemas, with amazing audiences, with people eager to see cinema, to discuss, to meet the filmmakers. Firstly, I think to be selected at the Berlinale is an important thing for the future journey of a film. Winning a prize might help even more in terms of visibility. I think all the prizes are highly subjective and I am glad Between Revolutions received one, but with so many great films in all sections of the Berlinale, I have the feeling that all of them deserve it.”
Between Revolutions is a film made exclusively from archives, which mirrors the lives and destinies of two women, university colleagues and friends, one from Romania and the other from Iran, living in two patriarchal societies.
Petri explained that his film though happened in two countries and the characters go through specific historical events, “is a story that can work everywhere and can engage global audiences.”
“It can work for people in the Middle East that will see many similarities with their societies, but it can work for people from different countries and continents that can connect with the universal language of cinema and the poetics of the film,” he highlighted.
The filmmaker also stated that they are receiving invites to screen his film from several festivals in various countries, which is a promising indicator for the movie’s accessibility. About the film screening in Qatar, he stated there are currently no dates set, but he is eager for the Between Revolutions to be shown here.
According to Petri, the key takeaway of his film is that people should be mindful of the times when we get freedom, when, after a hard battle, we are seeing an important transformation.
“Just like the events Zahra and Maria are going through in the film and at that exact moment we should be more careful and we shouldn’t give our freedom so easily to the first people that are coming in power.
Maria is saying: “We are supposedly free, but I know from you that victories can be confiscated” referring to the experiences Zahra went through in Iran. We should not let other people confiscate our victories.”
Petri stated that the DFI grant included postproduction finance assistance. The institution provided assistance with colour correction, sound design, and other crucial post-production tasks.
And good news, Petri’s film has also been selected to be screened at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, an international documentary festival held every March in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Meanwhile, another DFI-granted film which made it to Berlinale is Under the Sky of Damascus by Heba Khaled, Talal Derki and Ali Wajeeh. It tells a story about a collective of young female actors who comes together to research the topic. They plan to use the moving anonymous statements of countless women to create a stage play that will break taboos.
