Venting Steam at the Berlinale

So... the cultured people in us (aka me) decided that it would be rather pleasant and entertaining to go and see some movies at the Berliale (aka Berlin International Film Festival). Thus, having picked out a couple of movies we went to the ticket office at Potsdammer Platz so we can exchange money for goods and services (aka the movie tickets). Standing in line... waiting... for what must have been at least 30-40 mins (and in my post-soviet mind that's a significant chunk of life that I'll never get back), and having a little child right in front of us being a complete and utter brat... mind you if I was a little kid and had to stand in line for that long, I would've done the same thing....

Sidetrack on the child thing... this kid was running off from his Mum to a distance of about 10-20 meters and then with a loud scream 'AAAAA' was running back into her arms... in which time Jack was quietly making comments such as "put that child in the bin!" as he might be a little less annoying and loud then. This line of conversation continued for about 20 mins at which point on one of his 'home runs' the kid actually bumped into a steel bin and produced a rather interesting sound :)

Anyhoo... so after standing all this time in line we got to the ticket booth just to be told that tickets to all films can only be purchased at most three days in advance... meaning we could only get tickets to one of the four movies we wanted to see. After complaining that "it would be nice if someone could write it somewhere in big letters before people have to line up for so long" we were told that this was mentioned in every program. And after consulting the program, indeed, in small (mind you - German) print it said that same thing.

I ask you - WHERE is the bloody famous German efficiency?! It's non-bloody existent I say! The only reason for this silly thing that we could think of is that it prevents people from buying too many tickets at once and reselling or smth like that. You can buy tickets online, however each ticket attracts a 2 euro charge, PLUS you are not able to buy tickets to all sessions, meaning if you want one that's not available online you gotta line up anyway... which also sucks. On a positive note we still get to see one of the movies and if we feel like we can spend another 40 mins of our humble earthly time on standing in line we might see some more.