GERMANY/RUSSIA/FILE: BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL PREPARES TO OPEN WITH FILM ABOUT THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

Record ID: 390777

  • Title: GERMANY/RUSSIA/FILE: BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL PREPARES TO OPEN WITH FILM ABOUT THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
  • Date: 2nd February 2001
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 6, 2001 (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) FESTIVAL PROGRAMME DIRECTOR WERNER GONDOLF SAYING: "Enemy at the Gates" was chosen as the opening film because we wanted to present a huge German production which is almost completely financed with German money."
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY/ MOSCOW AND VOLGOGRAD, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russian Federation Germany
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVA1TVN5TZO4THC0SB34LZJRKRQY
  • Story Text: Final preparations for the 51st Berlin Film Festival are well under way in the German capital. The festival, for the second year in its new location on Berlin`s Potsdamer Platz, opens tomorrow Wednesday with the world premiere of one of this year`s most eagerly awaited movies.
    "Enemy at the Gates", directed by Frenchman Jean¬Jacques Annaud, is an epic account of the infamous World War II Battle of Stalingrad, in which an estimated quarter of a million soldiers under German command and four times as many Russians lost their lives.
    Jean¬Jacques Annaud, actors Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are all expected to attend Wednesday's official gala premiere.
    In Moscow and Volgograd (formerly named Stalingrad), Russian veterans who survived the battle, gathered to pay tribute to those who died and remembered the horrific events that were recorded as some of the worst in the history of European warfare.
    Preparations for the 51st International Film Festival continued on Tuesday (February 6). Despite the cold, organizers are expecting a good turnout of stars, fans and film lovers.
    Actors, directors and critics descend on Berlin for Europe's first major film showcase of the year opening on Wednesday, where 16 international feature films make their world premiere and Oscar-hopefuls seek the limelight.
    The Berlinale, considered one of the world's top festivals after Cannes and alongside Venice, is expected to attract 14,000 guests to some 300 films over 12 days.
    Asia, Europe, Argentina, Africa and of course Hollywood are all represented. Stars expected to attend are Anthony Hopkins for "Hannibal", Johnny Depp for "Chocolat", Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix and Geoffrey Rush for "Quills".
    Who will win the Berlin Bears? Both "Finding Forrester" and the "Tailor of Panama" are among 24 films competing for the festival's top "Golden Bear"
    prize for best movie, awarded on the closing day on February 18 along with the "Silver Bear" award for best actor.
    Veteranactor Kirk Douglas, 84, whose roles have ranged from cowboys and gangsters to Roman slaves in a career spanning 55 years, will receive a "Golden Bear" for lifetime achievement and the festival will show 23 of his more than 80 films. But the big film everyone is waiting for is the festival's opening film, "Enemy at the Gates" about the Battle of Stalingrad, a major turning point in World War Two.
    Directed by Frenchman Jean Jacques Annaud and featuring Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz and Ed Harris, this $80 million German-American co-production was shot exclusively in Germany, outside Berlin.
    Filmed in English, the drama pits a German and a Russian sniper against each other during the epic battle at Stalingrad, which Germany lost.
    The battle at Stalingrad is said to have cost the lives of nearly one million Russian and a quarter of a million German soldiers. The battle's wreckage have been compared by historians to Hiroshima after the atom bomb. It created heroes such as 2nd Lieutenant Zaitsev, who is said to have killed 149 Germans with his rifle.
    Together with old photos and documents, Zaitsev's rifle is now on exhibit at the Museum of Armed Forces in Moscow.
    Russian World War Two veterans and citizens that lived through the battle of Stalingrad gathered in Moscow last week to lay down wreaths for those who lost their lives in the battle.
    Stalingrad veteran Pavel Nevezhen remembered the battle.
    "We thought, or at least I thought being a young lad back then, that our tank division would just go through the first battle and drive forward, onward all the way to victory in Berlin! But after ten days, when we literally had nothing left, I understood what the Nazi troops were like and how strong they were. Their strength was incredible! And they also knew how to fight."
    In Volgograd, formerly named Stalingrad, three sisters who were orphaned during the Battle of Stalingrad visited the war memorial to lay down wreaths and flowers.
    "God saved us. None of us injured [and hiding in a basement in Stalingrad] were killed. And there was shooting around all of us. It was terrible." one of them said.
    When "Enemy at the Gates" opens the Berlin Film Festival tomorrow, German audiences will be the first to see this new attempt to tell the story of one of the worst battles in European warfare.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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