It's Berlinale time. Our annual sojourn to our favorite European Film Festival is one of the highlights of the year and the programme looks intriguing with a host of big names in art-house cinema showing their latest work. This is the first of a two-part episode in which we bring our thoughts to bear on the big competition entries and fiction and documentary films from other sections of Berlin's extensive programme. We also interview various critics also in the city no only on their festival picks but on any emergent themes of this year's event. Wild mushroom picking, toxic masculinity and signature central sequences were just some of the obvious motifs. 
Dario and Neil see a film together (Hang Songsoo's wonderful The Woman Who Ran) at the festival for the first time and they ruminate, as usual, on all aspects of the experience. Please enjoy.
Thanks so much to the following critics for giving up their time. Please check out their writing and share/support it on your networks:
Joseph Owen - https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2020/02/24/berlin-film-festival-2020-first-cow-review/
Savina Petkova - https://savinapetkova.contently.com/
Alex Billington - https://www.firstshowing.net/
Serena Scateni - https://vaguevisages.com/2020/02/25/berlinale-2020-review-hong-sang-soos-the-woman-who-ran/
The films discussed in this episode are:
First Cow - Kelly Reichardt
The Salt of Tears - Philippe Garrel
Undine Christian - Petzold
Never Really Sometimes Always - Eliza Hittman
Pinocchio - Matteo Garrone
Little Girl - Sébastien Lifshitz
Malkkrog - Cristi Puiu
Shirley - Josephine Decker
The Assistant - Kitty Green
Mogul Mowgli - Bassam Tariq
The Woman Who Ran - Hong SangSoo
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