MAGAZINE - Berlinale Talent Campus - Top-IX

PORTRAITON THE ROADDARING AND EXCEPTIONAL, BRAZILIAN FILMMAKER WALTER SALLES, WHO SPEARHEADED THE RETURN OF BRAZILIAN CINEMA TO INTERNATIONALPROMINENCE IN THE LATTER HALF OF THE 1990S, HONOURS US WITH HIS PRESENCE AT THE CAMPUS.Walter Salles at the 2005 Berlinale Talent CampusVoted by the Guardian in 2003 as one of the 40 Best Directorsof the World, Walter Salles won eight international awards forFOREIGN LAND (1995), including the award for Best BrazilianFilm of the year. Nevertheless, it was with CENTRAL STATION(1998), that he burst into global cinema tic consciousness.Set in Brazil, this unflinching yet empathetic examination ofhumanity‘s capacity for good and bad garnered overwhelmingkudos from critics. It took home, amongst other awards,the Berlinale‘s Golden Bear for best film and best actress.The film helped establish Salles as a prominent member ofa new wave of filmmakers emerging from Central America.His follow-up, BEHIND THE SUN (2001), further cemented hiscompetencies and inimitable style.Salles began his filmmaking career with a spate of awardwinningdocumentary films, before turning his attention tofeatures with the thriller, EXPOSURE, in 1991. Though he continuedto make documentaries – mainly for European televison– Salles slowly began to flourish in the world of featurefilms. When asked by a Guardian reporter his reason for venturinginto the documentary vein, he responded, “I think Iturned to documentary filmmaking very early on as a wayto know a little bit more about my country and my roots.My father was a diplomat for part of his life and I jumpedfrom country to country and culture to culture. So when Iwas very young, I longed for Brazil. I really wanted to knowthe heart of it much better than I did“.Salles‘ work revolves around the themes of travel and thesearch for identity. He states quite explicitly, “I‘m completelyuninterested in what you may call a career in filmmaking.I‘m much more interested in living specific experiences infilms.“ But his career has been on a roll. His biggest internationalsuccess, the 2004 THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, is aboutthe life of young Ernesto Guevara who later became knownas Che Guevara. It was Salles‘ first foray as director of a filmin a language other than Portuguese and earned a GoldenGlobe nomination for Best Foreign Film.Moving away from Central American fare, he made his firstHollywood film in 2005, DARK WATER, an adaptation of the2002 Japanese film by the same name. His latest cinematicventure, ON THE ROAD, is currently in production.SUNDAY 11, 11:00 HAU 1IN THE LIMELIGHT: WALTER SALLES28BERLINALE TALENT CAMPUS #5