Films at this week’s Berlinale have launched searing criticisms of capitalism and global inequality.
In “Los Lobos”, a young, recently widowed Mexican nurse sets off for the US, promising her children the very pinnacle of the American dream; a trip to Disneyland.
Yet as penniless protagonist Lucia takes on work in a laundry, her two sons are left alone in the family’s dingy bed-sit, dreaming up an imaginary world in order to escape the misery of daily life.
“The migrants who do the hard work are the invisible ones,” said lead actress Martha Reyes Arias.
Mexican director Samuel Kishi Lopo shows the importance of cheap, immigrant workers for the economic production of wealthy countries.
“Immigration will not be stopped by a wall,” said Lopo.
“We need more opportunities in our countries, a better social system.”
“The big question is about neo-liberalism. Capitalism is like a big monster.”
The immigration issue is also picked up by Lei Yuan Bin in his documentary “I Dream of Singapore”.
The film highlights the fate of the thousands of Bangladeshi workers who head to Singapore in search of work and better judicial security in the prosperous Southeast Asian city-state.
Making the unseen people visible is also the aim of Nigerian twins Arie and Chuko Esiri in their first film “Eyimofe”, about a factory technician who works without protective gloves.
“He is a victim of the country of which he is a citizen,” explained the directors, adding that their protagonist also has no chance to emigrate.
“These people really have everything to lose by leaving Nigeria — their families, their culture, their loves and even their lives, if you think about certain journeys.”
Finally, the film “One of these Days” by German director Bastian Guenther, which is based on real events and depicts an endurance contest in which participants attempt to win a pick-up truck by keeping their hand on it for the longest time.
“When I first heard about this endurance contest it felt to me like an exploitation of the poor,” said Guenther, while also warning of the risks of a drift towards populism.
“What (US President Donald) Trump is doing right now using these current frustrations for his own agenda.
“And what’s ironic about it is that people, in their desperation, will choose to follow somebody who embodies this system of inequality more than anybody else.”
