Author's note: This review was published on Spanish language on April 21st, 2019. It may content spoilers.
The people who watched Paris Je T'aime may realize what this collection of shorts directed by different directors, all located in the city of Berlin, will be about. In several of these stories we will see certain famous faces as Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Iwan Rheon (yep, even Ramsay Bolton is there), Mickey Rourke, Diego Luna and Luke Wilson.
Like its predecessors, ( it is the fifth collection of the franchise created by Emmanuel Benbihy), Berlin, I love you exposes a series of current issues little or very much to do with the central theme, love. In each of its nine stories we see the intercultural clashes arising from migration; divorce, depression, abuse of power, loyalty to oneself, corruption, labor bullying, and sexual diversity as well as the different types of love and connection between the characters.
A particularity that attracted my attention is the recurrence of two characters, Sara and Daniel; both, from very different cultures (she's from Tel Aviv and he's from Berlin), are like two sides of a single coin. Sara represents optimism, the desire to live, to fulfill the dreams; Daniel represents pessimism, realism, the awareness of surviving every day. Both are complementary; their love makes them see that they are made for each other, and knowing each other helps them to support both in many ways.
Being honest, seeing these two recurring characters tell their own story in the middle of the interludes of the others was the best of the film. It is not that some short films are taken away their credit from addressing sensitive topics; on the contrary, it seemed very nice and great to do so. There is simply one and other story that could have developed better; in the case of the older man and the girl in the hotel bar, for example, I would have liked to see how the subject of the love of father and daughter could have been deepened (both were about to have sex, but in the end it could not be). However, the producer, the directors and the scriptwriters will have their reasons to leave those stories that seem unfinished and, in some cases, meaningless.
If you are looking for an entertaining movie for this holidays, you can add this film to your repertoire or look for its soundtrack and download it.
