It might sound strange, but it looks like I needed a documentary film festival to arrive at a little personal revelation, after having spent the better part of the last year in my home: it looks like I am in the midst of an escapist period, which was probably brought on by the late pandemic. It’s harder than ever for me to watch the outside world through a screen, and to wait for the moment in which I will be able to fully live it on my own. If I managed to overcome my weariness of online festivals easily, in regards to the Berlinale – this time around, I found it very hard to concentrate; maybe it also has something to do with the fact that, after an entire year of horrifying news, both on a global and local scale, after the arrival of spring (in its physical and metaphorical sense, once better news finally began to come in), it was hard for me to take a look at many of the films from this year’s outing of Visions du Réel, many of which have tragic premises – from the occupation of Palestine to particular incidents such as the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, or the case of the Germanwings deliberate plane crash.

Flavia Dima

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Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.

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