Cold War film tipped to snare Berlin Golden Bear award

By Mike Collett-White

BERLIN (Reuters) - The Berlin film festival lived up to its reputation as a champion of world cinema in 2012, bringing tragic tales from China, France, the Philippines and beyond to the big screen.

But a local production is the narrow favourite to win the Golden Bear for best picture at an awards ceremony late on Saturday, bringing the curtain down on the 10-day cinema showcase.

"Barbara", set in a secluded East German village in 1980 where a doctor has been sent as punishment for wanting to travel to the west, examines the country's recent political past and the limits to freedom the old system imposed.

With prizes handed out just a stone's throw from where the Berlin Wall once stood, the award would have extra resonance for the festival and would be the first home victory since 2004.

Barbara is one of 18 movies in the main competition eligible for honours, decided by an eight-member jury led by British director Mike Leigh.

But hundreds more have screened in cinemas across the city, to journalists and critics, members of the public and industry executives looking to buy and sell titles on the European film market.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt walked the red carpet when she presented her Bosnian war drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey", and "Twilight" heart-throb Robert Pattinson gave Berlin a late boost by presenting his film "Bel Ami".

Meryl Streep also flew in to receive a lifetime achievement award on Valentine's Day and was presented with flowers, a gift and a kiss by reporters at an unconventional press conference.

FOCUS ON THE PRIZES

At the closing ceremony, the focus is on the competition which forms the spine of the festival -- 18 entries which have ranged from hits to flops with just about everything in between.

Festival director Dieter Kosslick chose a high number of unproven directors this year, raising eyebrows among regular Berlin attendees, but the consensus is the gamble paid off.

Alongside Barbara, two titles widely tipped for the big prize are "Caesar Must Die" by veteran Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani and "Tabu" by Portugal's Miguel Gomes.

Caesar Must Die is a black-and-white docu-drama filmed in a tough Italian prison near Rome where inmates rehearse for and perform a jail production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar".

Mafiosi and murderers are among the cast, and the verse carries extra weight when coming from men whose sentences range from 14-years to life.

Tabu is a romance set first in modern-day Lisbon, where old lady Aurora gambles away her money, and then in Africa decades earlier where a younger Aurora embarks on an illicit affair.

Gomes, who used to be a film critic, plays with cinematic conventions -- sound and silent, colour and black-and-white, 35 mm and 16 mm -- and his inventiveness struck a chord in Berlin.

Another African tale, "War Witch", was warmly applauded and drew an impressive performance from young Congolese newcomer Rachel Mwanza as a child soldier.

"Sister", which features French actress Lea Seydoux in one of her two starring roles in Berlin, was generally popular, telling a touching story of a young boy who steals ski equipment from a smart Alpine resort to make ends meet.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)