Neue Zürcher Zeitung 13.02.2007

While the West is becoming increasingly wary of Russia, the Russian populace feels better and better under Putin, writes Sonja Margolina: "According to surveys of the Levada Centre, last year was one of the most peaceful and contented ever. 46 percent of Russians are optimistic about the future thanks to the real improvement in living standards for a significant swathe of the population. The results of the reforms that were implemented at the beginning of the 90s are finally trickling down to the man on the street. Ivan Consumovitch, who thanks to cheap loans can now realise his long pent-up spend-spend-spend dreams, is hardly interested in democracy and human rights. His spirits aren't dampened by the murders of Anna Politkovskaya or Alexander Litvinenko, and he couldn't care less about Western criticism. He's finally regained his self-esteem after the Cold War defeat, and approves of the Kremlin's policies – even its superpower aspirations."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 13.02.2007

Writer Maria Golia writes a portrait of Cairo in the paper's series on megacities. "The management of the city is split up into innumerable bureaus, whose lack of coordination is a comedy of errors fobbed off as a municipal service. It can happen that just a week after one authority finishes repairing a stretch of pavement, another comes along and tears it up. At the best of times the garbage removal is only sporadic, even in better neighbourhoods. And in less dignified areas the trash is simply burned or left to rot.... Cairo's bureaucracy is the target of numerous jokes, one of which takes place in the hereafter. Hosni Mubarak dies and meets his maker, who gives him the choice of the American or the Egyptian hell. He chooses the American one, and is astonished at the infernal heat. Cautiously he retreats to the Egyptian hell, where he finds himself in a typical government office, with people hanging around, drinking tea and chattering. 'What's this?' Asks the president, 'the Egyptian hell isn't so bad at all.' - 'You get used to it,' nods an inhabitant in agreement."


Frankfurter Rundschau 13.02.2007

Heike Kühn is a fan of the Forum section of the Berlinale. Here she feels wonderfully safe from the effrontery of pop cultural zeitgeist, here where the emphasis is on risk taking. "You will not find a film at this festival to rival Guy Maddin's 'Brand Upon The Brain!' for zaniness or originality. Cinemania and Oedipus complex celebrate an amour fou in all the films of this idiosyncratic Canadian. 'Brand Upon The Brain!', his greatest coup to date, is like all his films black and white with silent movie aesthetics. This time, though, the filmmaker has explicitly outed himself as a son of the cinema and the film worships the classics and acts out the symbolic murder of film's überfathers in a spectacular balancing act. The images fade into dissolves and blends, and the glistening light of Caligari-ish grotesques. Shadows are menacing, the rhythm seems jumpy, because in the silent movie understanding, cutting from a full-body shot to a close up - let's say of eyes blackened to abysses - dramatically deepens the situation, allowing the soul to oscillate into visibility."


Berliner Zeitung 13.02.2007

In an interview with Jens Balzer, Jung Ji-hoon alias Rain, the first pan-Asian popstar, talks about his role models. "I love Ray Charles and James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, and I worship Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. My dance style is a combination of Michael Jackson's moonwalk and martial arts elements. I always create my own choreographies. I want them to look different to what people are used to from American artists." Rain plays the leading male role in "I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK" and is currently a guest at the Berlinale.


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.02.2007

However many letters they may have written claiming responsibility for their attacks, the German RAF terrorists never really admitted to their crimes, writes Frank Shirrmacher. At least: "never in the one truly relevant question of which individual carried out the attack. The murders in the German embassy in Stockholm, the murder of Jürgen Ponto and Hanns-Martin Schleyer, of Gerold von Braunmühl and Heinz Hillegaart were all carried out anonymously. No flesh and blood person has ever taken responsibility. Their confessions were nothing but publicity."