Berlinale Highlights, Part Three: Hummingbirds, Concrete Valley, Afire | Festivals and Awards


In the last days, I saw more and more public screenings, and visited some of the other places spread throughout the city. Some of these halls are truly amazing, competing with the main palace in their comfort and quality of presentation. For venues alone, Berlin seems to be the best on the circuit in terms of finding multiple locations to show the world’s best films in rooms worthy of such a prestigious event.

In one of the remote-but-impressive places, I caught “hummingbirds,” Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “young” Contreras’ happy indie hybrid. There is room elsewhere to parse the popular trend of movies blurring the line between non-fiction and scripted, but whether it captures moments in real time or simply trades in verisimilitude, this warm and revealing photo of two close friends was well received by the local crowd.

The film’s beauty lies in its mix of brutality and serious scrutiny, blending tone as much as its blending of styles. The whole thing could collapse at any moment into something insular or even extravagant, but the charms of these individuals, and the subtle push forward of his small but linear narrative, make for a It’s a really fun watch. It helps that the protagonists’ love is real but not trivial, and their discussions of life in their hometown of Laredo, Texas reject all sorts of stereotypes that plague such coming-of-age fare. .

This is almost what the movie is not that makes everything work, allowing quiet moments on top of a car looking at the stars, or reflecting on the river that serves as a literal border between two very different potentials life, which feels properly poetic rather than obnoxious or archaic. It’s just fun hanging out with the two and their circle, basking in their moments of grace and awkwardness. It is a film of deep honesty that is well made, and despite being rejected by some American festivals it is one of the best films of this kind that I have seen. It is most definitely worthy of attention outside of any documentary sidebar.



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