Berlinale Classics 2023

ZA/AUS/UK, 1988, directed by Oliver Schmitz

Directed by Oliver Schmitz, 1988’s ‘Mapantsula’ is widely considered the first true anti-apartheid film to come out of South Africa. Schmitz wrote the screenplay in tandem with his lead actor, Thomas Mogotlane. Within the framework of the story about a small-time gangster, it examines racial discrimination and day-to-day acts of resistance to the regime. The restoration, supervised by Schmitz and Aaryan Trivedi, was produced by London-based What The Hero Wants (WTHW). The original 35mm negative was used by R3store Studios in London for the 4K scan. The colour correction, and picture and sound processing were conducted at Purple Dog Post in Canada with picture and logistic support by Studio Mitte in Berlin. The original analogue audio tracks were enhanced and re-mastered to do justice to the vibrant soundtrack. The world premiere of the digitally restored 4K version marks the 35th anniversary of the original release and honours Black History Month.

(‘Rome and Juliet in the Village’), CH, 1941, directed by Valerien Schmidely and Hans Trommer

‘Romeo and Juliet in the Village’, directed by Valerien Schmidely and Hans Trommer, is a poetic version of a novella by Gottfried Keller that sets the Shakesperean tale in a small Swiss village. The restoration was a collaboration between the Cinémathèque suisse and Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), and took five years to complete. The original negative had been edited down to 83 minutes and subsequently destroyed in the 1970s and the original sound mix was lost. So the reconstruction process used four incomplete and damaged nitrate prints and a later sound mix to restore the film as closely as possible to its original length. The 4K restoration was done at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna. The “Berlinale Classics” screening will be a world premiere of the restored version.

(‘Twilight’), HU, 1990, directed by György Fehér

Director György Fehér made the black-and-white film ‘Szürkület’ at the end of the 1980s, based on the crime novella “The Pledge” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. It is the story of a retired detective who uses a young girl as bait to try to catch a serial killer. Fehér made only two theatrical features in his lifetime. The 4K restoration, using the original 35mm camera negative and magnetic sound tapes, was carried out at the National Film Institute Hungary – Film Archive and Film Lab. The colour grading was supervised by the film’s cinematographer Miklós Gurbán. World premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K.

(‘Undercurrent’), J, 1956, directed by Kōzaburō Yoshimura

The brilliant melodrama is the first colour film made by Japanese meister Kōzaburō Yoshimura. It is the story of an artistically and commercially successful textile dyeing designer who begins an affair with a married man. The film was restored in 4K by Kadokawa Corporation  at Imagica EMS using the original 35mm Eastman colour negative. The colour grading was supervised by Masahiro Miyajima, for many years the chief assistant to the film’s cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Imagica EMS used a special measuring and analysing technique to ensure that the colours were as faithful as possible to the original. International premiere of the digitally restored version in 4K.