Autistic drama opens 56th annual Berlin Film Festival

The Berlin Film Festival opened Thursday with a story of love and loss starring Sigourney Weaver as an autistic woman whose daughter dies in a car crash and Alan Rickman as the man who helps her cope.

With snow falling on the German capital, the bittersweet British-Canadian co-production “Snow Cake” kicked off the 56th annual “Berlinale,” regarded as one of the top three European festivals alongside Cannes and Venice.

Weaver, whose diverse film credits include the “Alien” films and “The Ice Storm,” spent the better part of a year meeting people with autism to prepare for the role -- an experience she said gave her a new view on the disorder.

“I think we have to begin to see it as a gift,” she said. “We may not understand what it’s there for, but if you’re in the presence of someone with autism you learn so much. You learn how to play, you learn how to see things, you learn how to experience things and how jarring the world is.”

“Snow Cake” headlines what critics have described as a strong but morbid lineup of films featuring murder, drug addiction, exorcism and rape. The festival runs through Feb. 19 and is also expected to draw George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Natalie Portman.

A record number of 18,000 film buyers, sellers, producers, directors, actors and journalists will crowd the screening of 400 films, including “A Prairie Home Companion” from Robert Altman and “The Road to Guantanamo,” an account of three British men held at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba.

“Snow Cake” was directed by Marc Evans and written by first-time screenwriter Angela Pell. Pell was inspired by her autistic son, Johnny.

“I wanted to write a film that showed that sometimes living with autism can be harrowing but that actually most of the time it’s really good fun,” Pell said.