It is rather ironic, given the Berlin Film Festival’s geographic and temperamental distance from the long grind of awards season, that this year’s opener should call to mind several titles fated to ride that circuit another four weeks once the Teutonic showcase comes to a close.
But then, the glove certainly fits, as director Tim Mielants’ “Small Things Like These” explores many of the same moral questions of “Zone of Interest” while neatly synthesizing a competitive best actor race – offering a melancholy tale of yuletide loneliness led, wouldn’t you know it, by a haunted Cillian Murphy.
An impressionistic morality play about a good man wrestling with his own complicity in sin, “Small Things Like These” could also indirectly play into the logic of the modern Oscar campaign, that PR scheme to emphasize career narratives, setting standalone performances against wider questions of an actor’s past, present and future.
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