Bob Hoskins opens the Berlinale

BERLIN, Germany -- Actor Bob Hoskins, one of the first big names to appear at the Berlin film festival, is happy to have cornered the market playing dictators.

"Fortunately for me, most of the world's dictators have been short, fat, middle-aged men with a bald head," he said of his latest role as former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

"And apart from Danny DeVito there's only me left. It's done me a right favour."

The British actor was speaking after the premiere of his new film Enemy at the Gates on the opening day of the Berlinale.

He has previously played the role of the Italian dictator in Mussolini and I.

Enemy at the Gates, stars Hoskins, 58, playing Khrushchev in his early days as political commissar at the crucial battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43.

Jude Law plays a handsome young sniper lionised by Soviet propaganda, and the $80 million German-American co-production also stars Ed Harris and Joseph Fiennes.

The Berlinale, considered one of the world's top film festivals after Cannes, is expected to attract 14,000 viewers to 300 films over 12 days.

Kate Winslet, the British star of blockbuster Titanic is promoting her latest film, Philip Kaufman's Quills about the French writer the Marquis de Sade.

Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs starring Anthony Hopkins is to be shown and Sean Connery is pushing Finding Forrester, the story of a reclusive writer who is mentor to a tough inner-city boy.

Veteran U.S. actor Kirk Douglas, 84, is set to receive a Golden Bear for lifetime achievement for a career has spanned 55 years and more than 80 films.

The festival will also showcase a raft of international films. Asia is particularly well represented with contenders for the best movie Golden Bear award including China's The Bicycle, South Korean box office hit Joint Security Area and Taiwan's Betelnut Beauty.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Berlinale

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