Roman Polanski, holed up in his Swiss ski chalet and facing possible extradition to the US on a 30- year-old child-abuse case, is a notable absentee from this year's Berlin Film Festival, where his new film is showing.
The Ghost Writer, competing at the festival for the Golden Bear prize, will be represented by its stars Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Williams. Based on Robert Harris's novel Ghost, it tells the story of a writer assigned to compile the memoirs of a former British prime minister, a thinly disguised Tony Blair.
"The film is in competition because it is a really good political thriller," Dieter Kosslick, the festival director, told a group of foreign journalists in Berlin. "Polanski won't be there, and I don't think there will be a video message."
Twenty films are competing for golden and silver bears at the festival, which runs from today until February 21, and this year celebrates its 60th birthday. Among the contenders are the Chinese director Zhang Yimou's A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, the story of a domestic tyrant who runs a noodle shop near the Great Wall, and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, starring Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Among the high-profile premieres is Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, a psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley that is showing out of competition.
Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, the movie is set in 1954 on an isolated island in a hurricane. It traces DiCaprio's character's efforts to track down a multiple murderer who has escaped from a psychiatric clinic on the island.
Like Polanski, the British street artist Banksy will be steering clear of photo calls and the red carpet, according to his press agent Jo Brooks. The artist, who guards his true identity to avoid prosecution for graffiti, is showing his debut film Exit Through the Gift Shop out of competition. He describes it as "a film about a man who tried to make a film about me" and "the world's first street art disaster movie."
Excited fans
Also showing out of competition is My Name Is Khan, with the Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, whose public appearances are usually accompanied by hordes of excited fans. He plays an Indian Muslim suffering from a mild form of autism who crosses the US in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The opening film is Apart Together by the Chinese director Wang Quan'an, the winner of the Golden Bear best film award at the 2007 festival for Tuya's Wedding.
This year's competition entry traces an ageing soldier given permission to visit the Chinese mainland from Taiwan for the first time in 50 years. He sets out for Shanghai to find the only woman he ever loved and was forced to leave behind.
A restored version of Fritz Lang's original 1927 Metropolis, including negatives that were believed lost until they came to light in Buenos Aires in 2008, will be screened at the Brandenburg Gate tomorrow. With temperatures hovering around freezing, it will be interesting to see how many cinema enthusiasts brave the cold.
