I've usually been at the Berlin Film Festival in February u00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0094 this is my 20th year as South Asia Consultant to the Berlinale
Illustration/ Ravi Jadhav
I've usually been at the Berlin Film Festival in February — this is my 20th year as South Asia Consultant to the Berlinale. But, I was additionally invited to attend the Rolex Arts Weekend, also in February in Berlin, this year. So, rather than go back and forth to Mumbai, I preferred to stay on, visiting friends in Berlin and small-town Germany, savouring the delights of dialling down. Especially, after the thrilling privilege of lunching with author Pico Iyer during the Rolex Arts Weekend, I'm more inclined than ever to follow his advice and enjoy sitting still. Don't laugh.
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The German language comes back to me slowly; my colleagues at the Berlinale have spoilt me, as most of them speak English. The first time I came to Germany was on a Goethe Institut scholarship to study German in 1994. I was disarmed by the language — not so much by the sound of it, but by the words. Some of my favourite words in the German language include Handschuhe and Glühbirne. The German for gloves is Handschuhe or "hand shoes". And the German for (electric) bulb is Glühbirne or "glowing pear" from glüh (glow) and birne (pear). So charming.
This time, I also visited my friends Dorothee and Uli, who have chosen to fall off the map. After years in Frankfurt, they have moved to the tiny village of Oberwalgern in Marburg, an hour from Frankfurt. This is an exquisite Hansel and Gretel kind of village, with a population of 510. The biggest annual event, the village Christmas party, is organised by the fire brigade, which is run by volunteers. Dorothee and Uli live in a spacious 19th century farmhouse, sprawling around a yard with a walnut tree. The house is on one side, and Dorothee's office and Uli's photography studio is on the other. The house is built in the "fachwerk" style, with brown, criss-crossing timber frames, holding together white walls made from a mixture of clay and hay, that have survived centuries. They go across to Ludwig's next door to get freshly-laid organic eggs directly from the hens, and when Ludwig isn't in, they just leave the money in an egg crate.
We go for a long walk in snowy woods. The thing about snow is that it covers everything in white, and it absorbs all sounds into a deep silence. Soon, all I can hear is my own heartbeat. After walking alongside the tracks of a man and his dog, we finally walk in "virgin snow" without any footprints; just the occasional tiny, claw marks of birds who have pottered there that morning. Dorothee has seen deer, rabbits, hares and foxes in the woods.
One evening, they take me to the farmers' market-turned-makeshift-cinema-hall, to see Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas, a documentary on land grabbing in Ethiopia. Chinese and Indian investors have bought vast hectares of forest land in Ethiopia's national park, to grow basmati rice for export, displacing the locals and increasing starvation. The journalist who exposed the scam has been forced into exile in the USA. Following a post-film discussion, Oberwalgerners contribute money to pay the journalist's lawyer to help him return. I am humbled by this small-village activism, feeling connected with the world and actively trying to help find solutions to its problems. In this, it connects with a core belief of another Rolex award, given for enterprise: "Anyone can change everything."
Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com
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