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Berlin International Film Festival · 2009

Berlin International Film Festival 2009

Berlinale Shorts

Since 1955, the Berlinale has awarded a Golden and Silver Bear to the best short film. Since 2003, short films have had their own international jury and since 2006 their own section. The international jury awards, alongside the Bears, also the Prix UIP for the best European Film and a DAAD scholarship award. With the introduction of a dedicated section, the festival has expressed its commitment to raising the profile of short films in terms of film production.

Every year the Berlinale presents roughly 60 short films, not only in Berlinale Shorts, but also in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Generation and Forum expanded sections. They are presented in programme blocks of up to two hours, and are guaranteed to take audiences on a special journey.

For shorts screening in specific programmes, the programme name is shown in italics.

Programme

65 films · 2 reviews

Jump to a film

16-18-4

This film was shot by a still camera with 16 lenses, which takes a series of 16 pictures within 1.5 seconds. It shows scenes of Tokyo Racecourse, when it was holding the biggest race of the year, Japanese Derby.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2008; Director: Tomonari Nishikawa)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

26.4

A young woman clad in bike leathers looks for her mobile in the brambles.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2008; Director: Nathalie André; Stars: Da Boit Lisa)

Berlinale Shorts III & Sunday Mix II

Akbulak

Review preview for Akbulak

A pleasant hymn to old-fashioned simple memories

Scott Macdonald · 3.5 out of 5
Eight years after moving from Russia to Germany, 17-year-old Olja spends her summer holidays with her grandmother in a Russian village.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Tatiana Korol; Writer: Tatiana Korol; Stars: Janina Rudenska, Sergey Vidrashku, Milla Kaminskya)

Full review

Generation Mix & Short Films 2 14plus

Ali And the Ball (Ali & The Ball)

Eight-year-old Ali lives with his mother and sister Fatima in a refugee camp. When the guards take away the knitting needles that are so very important to his mother Ali just has to do something. He hatches a plot involving a ball and a girl on the other side of the barbed wire fence.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2008; Director: Alex Holmes; Writer: Alex Holmes; Stars: Ali Soummaka, Camilla Ah Kin, Luci Hughes, Rayan El-Saghir)

Short Films 2 Kplus

Aphrodite's Farm

The milk from Aphrodite’s Farm is truly a dream. What is the secret of the milk’s legendary creaminess? Mother knows the answer and protects her three enchanting daughters with a shotgun under her arm. But you can’t extinguish a smouldering heart.

(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2008; Director: Adam Strange; Writer: Peter Force, Adam Strange; Stars: Ashley Hawkes, Geneva Alexander-Masters, Cherie James, Rod Lousich, Serai Te Kani, Tayla-Lee Griffin, Maiya Collins, Merv Smith)

Short Films 1 14plus

Birth

Amina, 17, is pregnant. She is afraid of giving birth. She asks her friends and aunts for more information, sympathy and support. She receives quite the opposite.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2009; Director: Signe Baumane; Writer: Signe Baumane; Stars: Clyde Baldo, Kim Gatewood, Kimmy Gatewood, Karen Gilliam, Rebecca Honig, Kamala Sankaram, Eileen Stevens, Anne Thibault) , Official site

Berlinale Shorts II & Sunday Mix II. In Competition

Block B

A building becomes a living painting.

(Country: Malaysia, Canada; Year: 2008; Director: Christopher Chan Fui Chong; Writer: Toni Kassim; Stars: Shanthini Venugopal)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

Blooming In Spring (Bom-e Pi-eo-na-da)

Sometime during spring Yeon-ah discovers that her body doesn’t only smell – it actually stinks. She lets her classmates know immediately. Class representative Seong-eun takes an interest in this strange phenomenon... but it isn't long before they are both victimised.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2008; Director: Jung Ji-yeon; Stars: Gim Ye-ri, Gwon Ji-won, Bang Eun-ju, Kim So-suk)

Short Films 2 14plus

Bric-Brac

A director tries to convince his leading man to take on the main role in a film about the Romanian revolution. But the actor is having problems with his girlfriend and, before long, the borders become blurred between fact and fiction.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2008; Director: Gabriel Achim; Stars: Paul Ipate, Ioana Blaj, Gabriel Achim)

Berlinale Shorts I & Sunday Mix I

Bronx Princess

Rocky Otoo lives with her mother in the Bronx in New York. She has just finished high school and wants to study. She is always arguing with her mother, a Ghanaian immigrant, who expects her daughter to start working in her hairdressing salon. But before she obliges her mother Rocky wants to visit her father, a tribal chieftain, in Ghana.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Yoni Brook, Musa Syeed; Stars: Rockyatu Otoo, Yaa Otoo, Chief Nii Adjedu)

Generation Mix & Short Films 2 14plus

Buddha's Smile (Ulybka Buddy)

Gombo lives in the Buryat Republic in a tiny village on the banks of Lake Baikal. Dawdling on his way home from school, the boy doesn’t get back to his house until nightfall. Nobody is at home and there are some sweets next to Buddha on the family shrine on the wall. Does he dare to steal one of the goodies? But then, just as Gombo reaches for the grub, he hears a voice…

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Bair Dyshenov; Stars: Lkhasaran Tangatov)

Short Films 2 Kplus

Cathrine

Sixteen-year-old Cathrine has fallen in love with Lars. She met him while out shopping at the local mall. But Lars is 33. And that’s why she’s keeping her relationship hidden from her parents...

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Mads Matthiesen; Writer: Mads Matthiesen; Stars: Helena Wagn Ivansdottir, Mads Riisom)

Short Films 1 14plus

Cocoon Child

A poetic film about the imagination of an autistic child showing the moment where the inner world connects with the world at large.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Sonja Rohleder)

Short Films 1 Kplus

contre-jour

Blurs, flashes and stroboscope montages disintegrate reality into shadowy images that inflict pain on the retina, apparently... needless to say this comes with a warning that it is not suitable for epileptics.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Christoph Girardet, Matthias Müller; Stars: Elisabeth Masé, Ralph Kostrzewa)

Berlinale Shorts III & Sunday Mix I. In Competition

Diagnosis (Diagnoz)

Tragic story of a pregnant woman.

(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2009; Director: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy; Stars: Karina Belova, Maksym Kushov, Olexandr Semyshkur, Volodymyr Gubernachuk)

Berlinale Shorts III & Sunday Mix I. In Competition

Dish

Two emos in eastern Los Angeles chat about the sexual escapades of others.

(Country: USA; Year: 2009; Director: Brian Krinsky; Writer: Brian Krinsky; Stars: Matthew Monge, Jeffrey Martinez, Octavio Altamirano)

Berlinale Shorts II

Dive Into Mankind

From East to West and West to East. Between clean and dirty water.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2008; Director: Ria Pacquée)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

Five Miles Out

A few carefree days away from depressing thoughts at home are what Mum has in mind. But at the beach Cass doesn’t feel in a very holiday-like mood. She just wants to fall off the face of the earth.

(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Andrew Haigh; Writer: Andrew Haigh; Stars: Dakota Blue Richards, Thomas Malone)

Shorts 3 Kplus

Good Will (Buenas Intenciones)

Felipe learns the hard way that good will is not always welcome.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2009; Director: Ivan Lomelí; Stars: Jorge Adrián Espíndola, Andree Magali, Armando Hernández)

Berlinale Shorts V

Grown Up (Yalda Gdola)

Ami arrives at their rendezvous with a bottle of wine and hopes of a quiet evening in with Dalia. But their meeting turns out to be nothing like they expected as the border between childish flirting and seduction begins to blur.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2008; Director: Dana Neuberg; Writer: Dana Neuberg; Stars: Lia Philosof, Roni Tal, Shimon Mimran, Ariela Rubinowich)

Short Films 2 14plus

Hocus-Pocus (Hokus-Pokus)

Story of a lonely magician.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Anna Samoylovich)

Short Films 1 Kplus

The Illusion

After having spent the past 26 years imagining what her father is like Susana sets out from Cuba to England to meet him for the first time.

(Country: Cuba; Year: 2008; Director: Susana Barriga)

Berlinale Shorts II & Sunday Mix II. In Competition

Invisible Loneliness

Combining computer animation and hand drawings, this film explores the fears and loneliness faced by ‘latchkey children’.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2009; Director: Lin Jung-Hsien)

Generation Mix & Shorts 3 Kplus

The Island

After receiving a letter which asks: ‘why don’t all gays just go and live together on an island and infect each other with Aids?’ filmmaker Trevor Anderson sets out across the ice and creates a gay scenario with a happy end.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Trevor Anderson)

Berlinale Shorts III

Jade

Jade is pregnant. She has to make a decision. Which path will she take?

(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Daniel Elliott; Writer: Daniel Elliott; Stars: Aisling Loftus, Jonathan Phillips, Michael Socha)

Berlinale Shorts IV

Jerrycan

A young boy is bullied into making a life or death decision, but can Nathan prove himself to his mates?

(Country: Australia; Year: 2008; Director: Julius Avery; Writer: Julius Avery)

Shorts 3 Kplus

Kaïn

Two young men are walking in the woods. They begin to argue and this escalates into an archetypical situation. A young man runs for his life.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2009; Director: Kristof Hoornaert; Writer: Kristof Hoornaert; Stars: Bart Desloovere, Kevin Plet)

Berlinale Shorts I. In Competition

Kehua

This is the first time that Caleb, a young Maori, has ever been to a Marea, a Maori public gathering place and ritual site. His mother, Sarah, has never explained much about his ancestors’ culture and he senses that his initial fears are more than justified. But it seems as though supernatural powers are at work because the boy appears to have very special talents.

(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2008; Director: Wiremu Grace; Stars: Arama Vincent-Wihapi, Nicola Kawana, Grant Roa, Api Taylor, Nelson Solomon)

Generation Mix & Shorts 3 Kplus

Laitue

A hand-drawn animation film that describes a short journey of loss and reunification.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Nicholas Brooks)

Berlinale Shorts V & Sunday Mix I

Lint Lent Land

Rather cryptically, the programme says: "does that mean "Dust has temporarily given this land its form"?"

(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Isabell Spengler)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

The Little Crow With The Naked Bottom (De Kleine Kraai Met Blote Billen)

No sooner does the little crow hatch from her egg, than feathers begin sprouting all over her body – except, that is, for her bottom which is quite bare. This worries her mother a great deal. Together the two birds set out to find a solution for the problem.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2008; Director: Raimke Groothuizen)

Short Films 1 Kplus

Maggie And Mildred

Mildred is left to look after Maggie and the two of them now have the whole house to themselves. It doesn’t matter if they are discovering old furniture, saving a young prince or baking huge cakes – every room is full of adventures.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Holly Klein)

Short Films 1 Kplus

Maima Long-awaited (Maima dolgozhdanniy)

It’s spring again and grandmother is explaining a few things about life to Maima. He comes to a decision: the evil Sikhircha must be conquered. That is the way it should be, says grandmother. Maima is to receive some assistance in the shape of a pair of wings, some courage, and a horde of cunning mice.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Inga Korzhneva)

Short Films 2 Kplus

Mama, L'Chaim! (Mama, L'Chaim! (To Life!))

A non-judgemental look at the way in which the Holocaust continues to affect the lives of the children of survivors.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Elkan Spiller; Stars: Chaim Lubelski, Nechama Lubelski)

Berlinale Shorts V

A Mango Tree In The Front Yard

The programme says: "This film was inspired by the dreams of a generation that have been dashed by the barbaric oppression of the Sri Lankan government and a 25-year-old struggle for liberation."

(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Raveendran Pradeepan)

Berlinale Shorts II. In Competition

Man Of The North (Karai norte)

An old woman in the pampas of the Paraguayan hinterland. A tiny hut. A rider on horseback. A cowboy. The woman is startled. He wants something to eat. She has next to nothing, but she shares it with him. He returns what was taken from her.

(Country: Paraguay; Year: 2009; Director: Marcelo Martinessi; Stars: Lidia Vda. de Cuevas, Arturo Fleitas)

Berlinale Shorts IV & Short Films 1 Kplus

The Mouse (Musen)

Ten-year-old Liv has fallen in love with her classmate, Mike, who gives her his beloved white mouse. Shortly afterwards, Liv observes Mike talking to her girlfriend, who is top of the class, and, for the first time, she feels something she has never felt before – jealousy.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Pil Maria Gunnarsson; Stars: Eva-Theresa Jermiin Anker, Magnus Wettendorff Dyring, Frederikke Hjort Arentz, Christine Exner)

Shorts 3 Kplus

My Very First Wedding (Meine erste Hochzeit)

A young girl asks her mother: “Why doesn’t anybody marry me?” Her mother looks at her daughter, wide-eyed in amazement. “But you’re only five!” she retorts, “Isn’t that a bit early to get married?”

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Ralf Kukula)

Generation Mix & Short Films 1 Kplus

Netherland Dwarf

Harry really wants a rabbit. Harry's dad really wants his wife back. And somehow in the middle of all this wanting, they both seem to have forgotten that they already have each other.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2008; Director: David Michôd; Writer: David Michôd; Stars: Jack Egan, Ewen Leslie, Mirrah Foulkes, Justin Rosniak)

Short Films 2 Kplus

Nine Stairwells Together (Devyat prolyotov vmeste)

Short evoking the French New Wave.

(Country: Russia; Director: Alexander Karavayev; Stars: Anna Goryushkina, Yuriy Tarabanov, Mariya Ryvkina)

Berlinale Shorts IV. In Competition

Oh, My God!

OH, MY GOD! It’s pretty exciting, all the stuff you have to find out in order to keep up with your girlfriends. And it’s good to know that, when it comes to sex, the others don’t always know everything either.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2008; Director: Anne Sewitsky; Stars: Ebba Tangen, Julie Solberg, Ella Victorie Henriksen Haagensen)

Generation Mix & Shorts 3 Kplus

Out In The Light

Experimental video "follows the elusive line between human consciousness and trustingly giving in to a possible loss of control".

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Martin Ebner, Katja Eydel, Klaus Weber)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

Please Say Something

Set in the far-off future, this is the story of the difficult relationship between a very emotional cat and her husband, a tedious mouse.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2008; Director: David O'Reilly)

Berlinale Shorts I & Sunday Mix I. In Competition

Point Of View (Eynayim Sheli)

Noa’s parents are away and so this seventeen-year-old girl has to stay with her grandmother. The old lady is way into her seventies and is a pretty tough cookie to boot. Granny’s slowly going blind and this is why, at four o’clock in the afternoon, Noa has to read her the subtitles on her favourite television series. The task is no easy one for Noa – because Granny Herta has plenty to moan about when it comes to her granddaughter.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2008; Stars: Efrat Aviv, Rivka Michaeli, Alex Salucov)

Short Films 1 14plus

The Prince (Der Prinz)

It’s summertime. Two young girls are on their way to Rome, by InterRail. They are looking for adventure – and find a prince.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Petra Schröder; Stars: Jytte-Merle Böhrnsen, Paula Kalenberg, Hannes Hellmann)

Berlinale Shorts V & Sunday Mix II

Princess Margaret Blvd.

Isabelle Rodarte is out in the snow, looking for her house. The beginning is the middle is the beginning.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2008; Director: Kazik Radwanski; Writer: Kazik Radwanski; Stars: Tim Braddock, William Forrest, Declan McCarthy, Julie McCarthy, Gina Sylvester) , Official site

Berlinale Shorts I & Sunday Mix I

Pure

Deconstruction of the action film.

(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Jacob Bricca)

Berlinale Shorts IV

Ralph

Showing as part of UKFC Completion Fund Shorts at EIFF 2008.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Alex Winckler)

Short Films 2 14plus

Renovation (Renovare)

A watermelon runs through a family story of a house renovation.

(Country: Germany, Romania; Year: 2009; Director: Paul Negoescu; Stars: Simona Bondoc, Clara Voda, Andrei Runcanu)

Berlinale Shorts III

The Sea (Havet)

Pella and Agneta are both around 60 years of age; they’ve been a couple for many years. Although Pelle is not in the best of health they are both delighted to accept an invitation to a birthday party. Nevertheless, Pelle decides to get up and boogie – and it’s not jealousy that forces Agneta out onto the dance floor.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Jöns Jönsson; Stars: Lennart Jähkel, Ann Petren, Per Lasson)

Berlinale Shorts V

Slaves (Slavar)

Review preview for Slaves

There is a concrete sense of just how true and harrowing this testimony is.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Animated documentary sees two Sudanese children recall time they spent as slaves.

(Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: David Aronowitsch, Hanna Heilborn)

Full review

Short Films 1 14plus

Spot And Splodge In Snowstorm (Prick och Fläck snöar in)

Spot is spotty and splodge is splodgy. They enjoy snowball fights together and making angels with arms, legs and ears. And when they cuddle up on the couch inside their warm house everything is just as it should be.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2008; Director: Lotta Geffenblad, Uzi Geffenblad)

Short Films 1 Kplus

The Suffering Of Mr Karpf The Birthday (Die Leiden des Herrn Karpf Der Geburtstag)

It’s Mr Karp’s birthday and nobody phones him.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Lola Randl; Stars: Rainer Egger)

Berlinale Shorts IV & Sunday Mix II

Summer Breaks

A day in the lives of two teenagers during the summer holidays.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2008; Director: Sean Kruck; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Jake Allen, Cash Weijers, Richard Wilson, Emily Wheaton)

Generation Mix & Short Films 1 14plus

Toads (Kröten)

Images of a stream in southern France: it's the toads' mating season.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Milena Gierke)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

Tomorrow

When Kirsten, a teenager from a small town in Australia meets Laura, a businesswoman on the way to Brisbane, she makes a discovery that makes a deep impression on her in spite of their differences.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Simon Portus; Writer: Simon Portus; Stars: Leah Purcell)

Short Films 2 14plus

Top Girl

Donna is fifteen and fearless – the hottest babe in the whole of Brixton. She and her best friend Felicia are looking for Legz, a cool guy of around 20 who has a sound studio – in the bedroom of his mother’s flat. But Donna’s date with him doesn’t exactly go as she expected...

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Rebecca Johnson; Stars: Rumbi Mautsi, Naomi J. Lewis, Alexis Rodney, Jay Brown, Kerron Darby)

Short Films 1 14plus

Triangulum

Past, present and where they meet.

(Country: Germany, Egypt, Brazil; Year: 2008; Director: Melissa Dullius, Gustavo Jahn)

Forum expanded Mix: Sensory Spaces

Trip To The Wound

Shila meets Carlo on a bus one night. Shila is a collector. She collects stories of wounds. Shila is constantly pining for the wound’s existence. This is a trip that Carlo will never forget.

(Country: Indonesia; Year: 2007; Director: Edwin; Stars: Ladya Cheryl Baharrizky, Carlo Genta)

Berlinale Shorts III. Special Screening.

Varmints

Dark clouds appear on the horizon, burying the untouched landscape in grey towers of steel and concrete. A small creature refuses to give up hope of saving this world.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Marc Craste)

Short Films 2 Kplus

Vostok'

A slant on the Soviet space missions of the 1960s and what could have been.

(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Jan Andersen)

Berlinale Shorts V

Vu

A young woman who has lost her memory following a car accident meets her sister in Rome. The beauty and lightheartedness of the summer is tainted by painful memories of a beloved dream/man.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2008; Director: Leila Albayaty; Writer: Leila Albayaty; Stars: Hana Al Bayaty, Leila Albayaty)

Berlinale Shorts I & Sunday Mix II. In Competition

Wanderers (Musafir)

The film portrays a couple living on the steps of a mosque that scrapes a living together by selling things that can be recycled.

(Country: Indonesia; Year: 2008; Director: Bagus Wirati Purba Negara)

Berlinale Shorts IV & Sunday Mix I

A Way Out (BaDerech Hachutza)

A story of immigrant Russian Jews in Israel.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2008; Director: Elad Pankovski; Stars: Arthur Marchenko, Oksana Peshin)

Berlinale Shorts II

When Apples Roll (Kad aboli ripo)

A cat lives with a devoted mouse. It’s autumn and, as usual, the cat would like to pick apples in an orchard on the outskirts of the old town. But the plan is interrupted when a strange egg suddenly rolls into the field of fruit.

(Country: Latvia; Year: 2009; Director: Reinis Kalnaellis)

Short Films 1 Kplus