Viktor Kossakovski is one of those filmmakers for whom it is essential to show beauty through the camera. If in the documentary Aquarela he embodied the creative and destructive power of water, and in his latest work, Gunda, he proposed a heated debate around animal welfare and the consumption of meat with a story starring a sow who invited veganism , the prestigious Russian documentary maker is now seeking the Berlinale’s Golden Bear with Architecton. This is a fascinating German-produced documentary that explores how modern, unsustainable construction practices that rely on cement are destroying the planet and suggests that there are lessons to be learned from ancient constructions. “We have to stop the catastrophe before it’s too late”, he stated categorically in a press conference in which he presented numerous data on the short durability of cement and its ecological impact, such as the fact that its production releases 8% of CO2 emissions in the world.
With no narration, accompanied only by music composed by Evgueni Galperine, the work juxtaposes fascinating images of mountains dug up for raw materials, vast landfills, bombed and collapsed apartment blocks in Ukraine and earthquake-stricken cities in Turkey , with the majestic remains of the 2,000-year-old Baalbeck Roman temple complex in Lebanon, which still baffles archaeologists today as to how it was built. “People talk about sustainable architecture, but it’s not true, because sustainable architecture is really what was done in antiquity”, he says regarding a work that is a complete visual poem and serves as a meditation on the our very existence.
Focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, Kossakovski uses the circle to claim natural spaces in the center of cities. “Before, churches were placed in the center, today we place shopping centers and gyms there.” And he referred to the fact that a few years ago Potsdamer Platz, the square where the festival headquarters is located, was erected as a symbol of the new city, with projects by the most important architects from all over the world. “Now you come here and it’s empty almost any time of the year, except during the festival and at Christmas.” The filmmaker claims that 50,000 buildings were demolished in the UK alone last year and that, according to UN predictions, there will be ten billion inhabitants on the planet by 2050, so it is urgent to think about sustainable ways to accommodate so many people. “The planet will not resist if we continue to erect cement buildings everywhere”.
Also in competition, he already participated in the contest A traveler’s need in Ecuador, the new proposal of the South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, who collaborates again with the French diva Isabelle Huppert after En otro país and Claire’s camera. The veteran actress here plays a mysterious woman who is dedicated to teaching French to two women in Korea. He asks them about their deepest feelings and writes the answers in French on some cards. “Because he interrogates everyone obsessively, he gets them to realize something about themselves, to find a way to face their problems”, explained the performer about a minimalist plot that claims trust in people and second chances.
And yesterday it was the turn of the Catalan Anna Cornudella, who premiered The human hibernation, her first project as a filmmaker, in the Forum section with all venues sold out. An experimental science fiction proposal that was shot with natural light in the United States “for its incredible and powerful landscapes and the fauna there” and in which it imagines a hypothetical society of human beings who can hibernate. Thus, we see how in the spring they come out of holes, observe and touch each other. Animals are very present there. Especially the cows, captured in close-ups. For Cornudella, who has followed a long research process, it was essential to show nature in a “contemplative way”. “I wanted to remove the power of control from humans and that they were subjected to all these cycles that mark the rest of the animals”.
