Young filmgoers have their say at Berlin Film Festival

Children may not be the easiest crowd to impress, but Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Ali Talebi had them cheering at the Berlin Film Festival premiere of his latest film this week. Wind and Fog is among the works being considered for Crystal Bears, the awards handed out in Berlin for movies targeted at children and youths. Its fate lies in the hands of a jury that ranges in age from 11 to 14.
Regarded as a small adjunct to the festival when it was inaugurated in the 1970s, the children's programme - known as Generation - has grown significantly in recent years, attracting ever-bigger and older audiences.
All told, 59 feature and short movies from 30 countries are being screened in this year's Crystal Bear award section. Some are being shown in one of Berlin's largest cinemas, inside the voluminous House of World Cultures building.
The Tehran-born Talebi, who for 30 years has specialised in making films for children and teenagers, flew from Tehran to Berlin to attend the premiere of Wind and Fog.
It tells the story of an 8-year-old boy who loses his ability to speak after witnessing his mother being killed in an Iraqi rocket attack on Iran in 1980.
Talebi, 53, said all cast members were newcomers to cinema, "non- actors who all had to be patiently rehearsed for their roles."
Maryanne Redpath, the head of the Generation competition section, described the resulting film as "extraordinary and coming from the heart of Iran."
The movie was shot over two-and-a-half months in a mountainous region of northern Iran and an arid, desert area in the south of the country with oil refineries on the skyline.
The entries for children at this year's festival also featured two other Iranian films, Fereidoun Najafi's Where is Fatemeh's House? And Behzad Farahat's animated One Line Stories.
An early Generation entry to win praise in Berlin was Chinese director Zhang Yimou's latest film, Under the Hawthorn Tree, which depicts a tragic love story between two young people set against the background of the Cultural Revolution.
One of China's leading moviemakers, Zhang Yimou has for years enjoyed close ties with the Berlin Film Festival, which is also known as the Berlinale. In 1988, he won the top Golden Bear award in Berlin for his movie Red Sorghum.