Aseem in Berlin
11
INDIA IN NEW YORK FEBRUARY 14, 2014
The 10-day festival features nearly 400 films.
A Movieable
Feast
L
ast week, New York City
was slammed by two
snowstorms — more like
ice storms, with many
inches of accumulation, slush
and slippery sidewalks.
It was a very pleasant change
to arrive in Berlin February 6 to
discover it was at least 15 to 20
degrees warmer here. This part
of Europe is experiencing a mild
winter.
The trip to Berlin — my seventh visit to the city to attend the
Berlinale — does not afford me
time to be out on the streets.
Most of the time one is indoors
in large, plush, movie theaters,
with giant screens. The theaters
are also comfortably heated.
T
here is a lot of history in
Berlin. The city was united
after the fall of the infamous
Berlin Wall in 1989, and in the 24
years since there has a lot of construction in the East Berlin part of
the city.
Many sections of the Berlin Wall
stand in different parts of the city,
including a 1.3 km (0.8 mile)-long
East Side Gallery where various
artists have painted colorful graffiti.
Throughout the city a metal trail
runs along where the Wall stood,
dividing the city into the
Communist and Western blocks.
Of course, there is the famous
Checkpoint Charlie, one of the
places where the Wall used to be
open for official movement
between the two cities in
Communist times.
Checkpoint Charlie is now a
tourist trap, where bus tours drops
off visitors from all parts of the
world. People can visit a museum
dedicated to the Wall's history and
on their way out can also buy small
concrete chips that are supposed to
be parts of the original Wall.
My favorite slab from the Wall
stands at the Potsdamer Platz, the
business hub of Berlin and also the
central point of the Berlinale,
where most of the theaters are
located.
The slab reads 'The Next Wall To
Fall: Wall Street.'
Just a few days ago, I watched
the documentary, Another World
that tracked the brief rise and the
collapse of the Occupy Wall Street
movement.
The 10-day festival features
nearly 400 films, in various sections, including competition,
Panorama, Forum and tributes
to master filmmakers. The choices are hard to manage, risks are
taken, but I am certain quite a
few films will blow me away.
Berlinale is also a great place to
see Hollywood and European
celebrities. This year, there have
been many such stars at the
press conferences after the
screenings — George Clooney,
Matt Damon, John Goodman,
Bill Murray, Wes Anderson, Tilda
Swinton, Uma Thurman,
Christian Slater and Shia
LaBeouf who walked out of the
gathering for his new film,
Nymphomaniac.
It is a big year for Indian films
at the Berlinale.
There are 10 films from India,
including documentaries. The
new Bollywood film, Highway,
will be shown here a week before
its opening in India and in other
Diaspora markets.
I am especially excited about a
rare screening of the restored
version of Satyajit Ray’s Nayak
(1966) with a very young Uttam
Kumar and Sharmila Tagore.
And a film that very few people
in India have seen — a 1977
adaptation of Vijay Tendulkar’s
controversial play Ghashiram
Kotwal, co-directed by the late
Mani Kaul and D K Hariharan.
B
erlin is heaven for foodies. The city has a large immigrant population and it a treat to find an array of
Asian, Middle Eastern, European and North
American food.
The largest concentration of immigrants in Berlin are
from Turkey; slightly less than 10 percent of the city’s population is Turk.
Berlin is the place to eat really good Turkish food, often
close to what we consider Middle Eastern food in New
York and yet different, at least in appearance, if not taste
and name.
Most popular at Turkish restaurants are the Doner
Kababs, usually with beef (or veal) and chicken. Doner is
similar to the Arab Shawarma or Greek Gyros.
This past weekend, I ate a platter of chicken Doner, thin
strips of seasoned and well-cooked chicken along with
pieces of Falafel. I have only eaten deep fried Falafel balls
in New York. At the Turkish place in Berlin, the Falafels
were flat and circular, similar to the Indian Shammi
Kabab.
A thoroughly satisfying meal, and very reasonably priced.
Wall to Wall: A slab from
the Berlin Wall in the city’s
business hub.
Berlin is a treat for Turkish food lovers.