Tortured

Torture seems to be one of the major topics at the 58^th Berlinale. Innumerable children suffer any kind of violence like war, rage, abuse or abandonment while grown-ups are painfully tormented by repression, punishment or barbaric torture. And such disturbing stories are completed by the experience of what one might call the everyday torture of a film critic, sitting in an overcrowded cinema closely packed with hundreds of colleagues in a screening starting way too early in the morning. Some journalists are heavily breathing or snoring peacefully while others cough and sneeze straight to one’s neck – especially now since the influenza virus has infected everybody. The most terrible thing, however, is being trapped in a tier in a darksome cinema among all of them when suddenly out of nowhere some unpleasant odour billows through the tiers – wafting like an invisible mist through the seats trying to grab attention while displacing the film for an instant. Disturbing and annoying! Some days started like that and proceeded just exchanging the tortures.