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Berlin International Film Festival · 2012

Berlin International Film Festival 2012

Berlinale Special

Programme

22 films · 9 reviews

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Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Review preview for Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Weiwei is such a fascinating subject that even a documentary that never seems to stray into the experimental is compelling, but white text on a black screen does not a revolution make.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has garnered international attention as much for his ambitious artwork as his political provocations and increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government.

(Country: US, China; Year: 2011; Director: Alison Klayman; Stars: Changwei Gu, Ai Weiwei, Evan Osnos, Ying Gao, Tehching Hsieh, Huang Hung, Zuzhou Zuoxiao, Yanping Liu, Danqing Chen, Inserk Yang) , Official site

Full review

Anton Corbijn Inside Out

Review preview for Anton Corbijn Inside Out

Every time the film brings out [...] his photographs, I found myself leaning forward - drinking in their beautiful details.

Scott Macdonald · 4.5 out of 5
Documentary following the work and life of an extraordinary photographer

(Country: Netherlands / Belgium / Ireland; Year: 2012; Director: Klaartje Quirijns; Writer: Klaartje Quirijns, Thomas den Drijver; Stars: Anton Corbijn, Bono)

Full review

As Luck Would Have It (La chispa de la vida)

Can a freak accident help a washed-up ad executive help to care for his family?

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2011; Director: Álex de la Iglesia; Writer: Randy Feldman; Stars: Salma Hayek, José Mota, Fernando Tejero, Blanca Portillo, Juan Luis Galiardo)

Bliss (Glück)

A pair of lovers find themselves caught between their tenuous feelings of trust, long lost tenderness and a wretched situation.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Doris Dörrie; Stars: Alba Rohrwacher, Vinzenz Kiefer, Matthias Brandt, Oliver Nägele)

Death Row (On Death Row)

Review preview for Death Row

Bleak, stripped down and haunting.

Owen Van Spall · 5 out of 5
Series of portraits of inmates on Death Row.

(Country: USA / UK / Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Werner Herzog)

Full review

Death Row. Portraits: James Barnes, Hank Skinner

Series of portraits about inmates on Death Row in Texas.

(Country: USA / UK / Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Werner Herzog)

Death Row. Portraits: Linda Carty, George Rivas and Joseph Garcia

Series of portraits about inmates on Death Row in Texas.

(Country: USA / UK / Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Werner Herzog)

Don - The King Is Back

Shah Rukh Khan is back as charming gangster Don, in this Bollywood blockbuster full of showpiece and spectacle which culminates in Berlin.

(Country: India / Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Farhan Akhtar; Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Om Puri, Lara Dutta)

Farewell To The Frogs (Abschied von den Fröschen)

Tribute to director and producer Ulrich Schamoni.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Ulrike Schamoni)

In the Land of Blood And Honey

During the Bosnian conflict, an army officer encounters a woman he was enamoured with prior to the war - only now, she is his prisoner.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Angelina Jolie; Writer: Angelina Jolie; Stars: Rade Serbedzija, Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Branko Djuric, Nikola Djuricko, Dzana Pinjo, Jasna Beri, Fedja Stukan, Goran Jevtic, Jelena Jovanova, Ermin Bravo, Dolya Gavanski, Vanessa Glodjo, Irena Mulamuhic, Alma Terzic)

I, Anna

Review preview for I, Anna

Given the Rampling family pedigree there are certain expectations of quality, and Southcombe largely lives up to the promise with this sharply stylish crime mystery that gives plenty of space for Rampling to flex her acting muscles.

Owen Van Spall · 3.5 out of 5
A detective falls for a woman who may be mixed up in a murder case.

(Country: UK, Germany, France; Year: 2012; Director: Barnaby Southcombe; Writer: Elsa Lewin, Barnaby Southcombe; Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Gabriel Byrne, Hayley Atwell, Eddie Marsan)

Full review

Keyhole

Review preview for Keyhole

To enjoy this kind of adventure, you have to get lost in Guy Maddin's house, because he has made a ghost of a film - 'but a ghost isn't nothing.'

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A criminal undertakes a surreal and supernatural journey through his own house.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Guy Maddin; Writer: Guy Maddin, George Toles; Stars: Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier, Brooke Palsson, Kevin McDonald)

Full review

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Powell & Pressburger's great classic about a life well-lived

(Country: UK; Year: 1943; Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; Writer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; Stars: James McKechnie, Neville Mapp, Vincent Holman, Roger Livesey, David Hutcheson, Spencer Trevor, Roland Culver, James Knight, Deborah Kerr, Dennis Arundell, David Ward)

Marley

Review preview for Marley

The charisma of the interviewees is what makes the film interesting to watch.

Donald Munro · 3.5 out of 5
A documentary charting the life of the famous reggae star.

(Country: UK / USA; Year: 2011; Director: Kevin Macdonald; Stars: Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Rita Marley, Cedella Marley, Junior Marvin, Lee Perry, Cindy Breakspeare)

Full review

Michael

Review preview for Michael

Quietly, in the background, details become almost too horrible to watch.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A look at the day to day life of an unremarkable man who is keeping a ten year old boy prisoner in his basement.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2011; Director: Markus Schleinzer; Writer: Markus Schleinzer; Stars: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger)

Full review

Winner of Max Ophuls prize

Oktober (Oktjabr)

Commissioned by the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The film reconstructs the trajectory of the Russian Revolution and comments on events through the use of suggestive montage and ironic imagery.

(Country: USSR; Year: 1928; Director: Sergej Eisenstein; Stars: Vasili Nikandrov, Vladimir Popov, Boris Livanov, Nikolaj Podvojskij, Eduard Tissé)

Reporting... A Revolution (Althawra... Khabar)

Made in just eighteen days, this is the biography of a nation and six courageous young reporters.

(Country: Egypt; Year: 2012; Director: Bassam Mortada)

Side By Side

Review preview for Side By Side

You will learn a few things here, even if you are a film buff.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Documentary exploring the science behind the development of digital cinema technology and its effects.

(Country: USA; Year: 2012; Director: Chris Kenneally)

Full review

Sons Of The Clouds, The Last Colony (Hijos de las nubes, la última colonia)

Highlighting the lives of the Sahrawi people who, often forced into exile, vacillate between desperation and militancy.

(Country: Spain / USA; Year: 2012; Director: Álvaro Longoria)

The Story Of Film: An Odyssey 1 + 2

Mark Cousins' series on the history of cinema.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Mark Cousins)

The Story Of Film: An Odyssey 3 + 4

Mark Cousins' series on the history of cinema.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Mark Cousins)

Young Adult

Review preview for Young Adult

The script by Diablo Cody is a real gem, painful and darkly funny throughout.

Donald Munro · 4.5 out of 5
Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Jason Reitman; Writer: Diablo Cody; Stars: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser, Collette Wolfe, Jill Eikenberry, Richard Bekins, Mary Beth Hurt, Kate Nowlin, Jenny Dare Paulin, Rebecca Hart, Louisa Krause, Elizabeth Ward Land, Brian McElhaney, Hettienne Park) , Official site

Full review