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By Alex C. Deleon, Filmfestivals.com

Romy Schneider look alike Marie Bäumer at Quiberon  Press Conference Watch the Video

Though this was obviously not going to be the star powered program we have become accustomed to under flamboyant festival top hat Dieter Kosslick at Berlin (no Clooneys, Decaprios, or their likes in sight this year) the competition program alone had a number of high expectation films, among them, "Three Days at Quiberon", a study of the last days of Romy Schneider, "7 days at Entebbe" a new take on the daring israeli raid on a landlocked African country to liberate a planeful of hijacked Jewish Passengers, and "U-22, Utoya",  the first filming of the right wing massacre in Norway of innicent young people on a summer island outing, 

To start with no actress but German star Marie Bäumer could have possibly pulled off such a believable Romy given the uncanny physical resemblance and the ability to flit back and firth between French and German. as did Romy in real life.  The film focuses on the last warts and all interview Romy gave the high profile German magazine Stern in 1981 which turmed out to be the last interview of her tortured life at age 42.  A fuller review will follow, Suffice it to say that Actress Bäumer hooks you from the very beginning but German director Emily Atef doesn't let us off the hook until, we have over agonized to the point of numbness. In short, it goes on too long.

As for Erik Poppe's take on the Uttoya  Island massacre in 2011 such a film was a long time coming and had to be made, but, did it have to be made in such a harrowing traumatic  manner totally from the point of view of some desperate survivors, or could more have been nade of the Perpetrator whom we hardly see except as a distant shadowy figure amongst an endless medley of shotgun blasts?

Result. We are  reminded of the day in a way that is more traumatizing than informative. We know these survivors will escape but do we need to be traumatized while watching to confirm our hopes?

As for Entebbe; How could such a momentous real life thriller be reduced  to a poltical argument between the highest Israeli government figures, Shimon Peres and Itzhak Rabin, whike creating sympathy for a couple of Gernan hijackers. See the ball Spot? --Run and jump - look and see,..