25/02/2010

Berlin 17/02/2010. Today at the Berlinale Talent Campus, between a discussion with legendary Japanese director Yoji Yamada and the psychedelic video performance of Iceland artist Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, we managed to sneak into a rather private event: Call it Fiction, the presentation of the Talent Campus’ script station.

At a round table, 12 young screenwriters (selected among the talent meant to take advantage of an assistance and mentoring programme), introduced by tutors, presented their projects and spoke of the process of writing, editing and revising their work during the Campus.

Sitting in a corner, out of the cold Berlin winter, we let ourselves be transported to the most diverse narrative universes and locations: from Israel to the seafront of Marseilles, from post-war Bosnia to a small Baltic island.

The stories (some still in the embryonic stage, others almost ready for the screen) included an on-the-road, difficult relationship between a vampire and gypsy woman; the psychological journey of an actor trying to liberate himself from his oppressive father; a pop star’s trajectory from dissatisfied and decadent gigolo to a happy and responsible protector of a community of only women; the difficult choice of a Pakistani girl in the US struggling with her terrorist brother…and many more. The stories are all different from one another, but are very clearly share the topos of the journey/sense of loss as a pivotal moment in a character’s psychological arc.

While the most significant aspect of the event was without a doubt the open sharing of approaches, the spirit of a collective work in progress, we admit to having been seduced above all by the narrations and to have awaited anxiously the beginning of a new story.