Eye For Film >> Festivals >> BIFF >> 2012 >> Forum
View other Berlin International Film Festival Films by strand: Berlinale Special, Berlinale Special Tribute, Competition, Culinary Cinema, Generation, German Cinema - LOLA@Berlinale, Happy Birthday, Studio Babelsberg, Homage, Panorama, Panorama Documentary, Panorama Special, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Retrospective - The Red Dream Factory, Short Films
Avalon and For Ellen
12 Sisters (Puthisen Neang Kongrey)
(Country: Cambodia; Year: 1968; Director: Ly Bun Yim; Stars: Vireak Dara, Ly Patanak, Nop Nem, Saksi Sbong, Yeak Nhorm, Kim Nova)
Fairytale sees 12 beautiful sisters face trouble after they all marry a king.
349 (for Sol LeWitt)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Chris Kennedy; Writer: Chris Kennedy)
“This digitally animated version of Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #349 [...] careens through emblazoned emblems, lifted from walls and transported into dialogue with LeWitt’s exploration of spatial systems and human emotion.” Andréa Picard
All Divided Selves
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Luke Fowler; Stars: RD Laing)
An unconventional, multiple-perspective documentary focused on the counter-culture psychiatrist RD Laing.
American Colour
(Country: Canada / USA; Year: 2011; Director: Joshua Bonnetta)
A journey to the end of film? Shot on discontinued 16mm Kodachrome film stock, this travelogue traces a journey from the stock’s birthplace in Rochester, New York to Kansas, where a small photolab developed the last rolls in early 2011.
As They say
(Country: Morocco / United Arab Emirates; Year: 2011; Director: Hicham Ayouch)
A father and his son go to the mountain for a fishing weekend, the son makes a revelation which is going to change their lifes.
Tomorrow and Kid-Thing
At The Back/The Details
(Country: Israel; Year: 2012; Director: Avi Mograbi, Noam Enbar, Ariel Armoni, Adam Scheflan, Yoni Silver)
Avi Mograbi, assisted by a quartet around musician Noam Enbar, will fill the stage of HAU 2 with music and images. A film and an installation of Mograbi's will be remixed live, initiating a musical adaptation with guitar, keyboard, clarinet, and drums.
Austerity Measures
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell)
A colour-separation portrait of the Exarchia neighborhood of Athens.
Avalon
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2011; Director: Axel Petersén; Writer: Axel Petersén; Stars: Johannes Brost, Peter Carlberg, Léonore Ekstrand)
When a nightclub owner accidentally kills a labourer, he finds himself with a dangerous debt.
Bestiaire
(Country: Canada, France; Year: 2012; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté)
Documentary meditation on man's relationship with animals.
Betty Drunk
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Laure Prouvost)
In the new episode of Laure Prouvost's series “The Wanderer,” Betty constantly drinks herself out of all conventional framings.
Bestiaire and The Delay
Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (Kino to ashita no aida)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1954; Director: Kawashima Yuzo; Stars: Tsuruta Koji, Tsukoka Yumeji, Awashima Chikage, Shindo Eitaro)
A young man hands in his notice at work and breaks up with his girlfriend in order to pursue his true nature and dream of shaping the world according to his own desires.
Beyond The Hill (Tepenin Ardi)
(Country: Turkey / Greece; Year: 2012; Director: Emin Alper; Writer: Emin Alper; Stars: Tamer Levent, Reha Özcan, Mehmet Özgür)
Faik, a proud old forester, is having trouble with nomads grazing their livestock on his land. For revenge, he and his hulking farm hand Mehmet snatch a goat to butcher for a family holiday, unwittingly sparking a dire blood feud.
Blames & Flames (Falgoosh)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Mohammadreza Farzad)
The history of the Iranian revolution as the history of cinema.
Brand X
(Country: USA; Year: 1970; Director: Wynn Chamberlain; Stars: Taylor Mead, Sally Kirkland, Tally Brown, Frank Cavistani, Abby Hoffman)
Praised by Jonas Mekas in 1970 as “propaganda for the politics of joy and disorder”, painter and writer Wynn Chamberlain’s film is back to provide contemporary audiences with a strangely refreshing dose of late Sixties countercultural humour and political satire.
Bye Bye
(Country: Egypt / Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: Paul Geday)
In revolutionary Cairo, the filmmaker tries to let go of objects accumulated over generations. He films inside the huge flat that used to belong to his parents, with an interior that dates back to the years preceding yet another revolution.
Beyond The Hill and Ornette: Made in America
Carlo's Vision
(Country: Italy; Year: 2011; Director: Rosalind Nashashibi)
The film is based on Pasolini's novel Petrolio, a book cloaked in mystery, which Pasolini was working on until his death. Nashashibi translated one scene from it into contemporary Rome, bringing in questions on class and sexuality in modern-day Italy.
Choked (Kashi)
(Country: Republic of Korea (South Korea); Year: 2011; Director: Kim Joong-hyun; Stars: Um Tae-goo, Park Se-jin, Kil Hae-Yeon, Yoon Chae-Young)
A few years ago, Youn-ho's mother disappeared with the family’s money. He’s now trying to forge a new life with his girlfriend but more and more of his mother’s creditors keep knocking at the door.
Condition (Die Lage)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Thomas Heise)
In September 2011, Pope Benedict XVI visited Germany. If the press was to be believed, the whole country was gripped by Pope mania. The images Thomas Heise shows us of this visit don’t resemble in the slightest those seen for days on end on every channel.
The condition of the working class in England - Little Ireland 1842 / 2011
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Rainer Ganahl)
This film is made in memory of Mary Burns, an illiterate worker who showed Engels the darker parts of Manchester. There, mostly Irish workers lived in dire conditions, which inspired Engels influential book The Condition of the Working Class in England.
Conference of the Birds
(Country: Iran / Germany / USA; Year: 2011; Director: Azin Feizabadi)
A hypnotist makes a film to illuminate the distance between himself and his beloved. Making the film takes as long as the lovers are separated. After the film’s completion, its maker is accused of intending to hypnotize the citizens and cause a rise up.
Salsipuedes and The Connection
The Connection
(Country: USA; Year: 1962; Director: Shirley Clarke; Writer: Jack Gelber; Stars: Warren Finnerty, Jerome Raphael, Garry Goodrow, Jim Anderson, Carl Lee, Barbara Winchester, Henry Proach, Roscoe Lee Browne, William Redfield, Freddie Redd, Jackie McLean)
A group of junkies improvise jazz as they wait for their heroin.
The Delay (La demora)
(Country: Uruguay, Mexico, France; Year: 2012; Director: Rodrigo Plá; Writer: Laura Santullo; Stars: Carlos Vallarino, Roxana Blanco)
An overworked and underpaid, a forty-something mother of three is driven to abandon her senile father so she can take better care of her children.
Dragonflies With Birds And Snake (Trollsländor med Fåglar och Orm)
(Country: Sweden / Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Wolfgang Lehmann)
Not a scientific film, but rather a meditation, a contemplation on being itself.
The End Of Puberty (Koi ni itaru yamai)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2011; Director: Kimura Shoko; Stars: Wagatsuma Miwako, Saito Yoichiro, Satsukawa Aimi, Sometani Shota)
Schoolgirl Tsubara is oddly obsessed with her awkward biology teacher Madoka but sparks fly after they have a sexual encounter.
Espoir voyage
(Country: France / Burkina; Year: 2011; Director: Michel K Zongo)
Years after his brother’s death, Burkinese filmmaker Michel Zongo sets out on a personal reconnaissance mission to the Ivory Coast.
Everybody In Our Family (Toata lumea din familia noastra)
(Country: Romania / Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: Radu Jude; Stars: Serban Pavlu, Sofia Nicolaescu, Mihaela Sîrbu)
A divorcee who insists on taking his sick daughter on holiday finds the situation spinning rapidly out of control.
Father, Mother, What Should I Film Today? (Vater, Mutter, was soll ich heute filmen?)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Isabell Spengler)
In six episodes, the daughter uses film to transpose the images that her parents requested.
For Ellen
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: So Yong Kim; Writer: So Yong Kim; Stars: Paul Dano, Jon Heder, Jena Malone, Margarita Levieva, Shay Mandigo), Official Site
A rock musician in the middle of an acrimonious divorce tries to gain access to his six-year-old daughter.
Formentera
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Ann-Kristin Reyels; Writer: Antonia Rothe, Katrin Milhahn, Ann-Kristin Reyels, Anke Stelling; Stars: Sabine Timoteo, Thure Lindhardt)
Tensions rise for a couple on holiday after a woman disappears.
Francine
(Country: USA / Canada; Year: 2012; Director: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky; Writer: Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky; Stars: Melissa Leo, Victoria Charkut, Keith Leonard)
After serving time in prison, Francine settles down in small-town North America, trying to regain a foothold in society.
Golden Slumbers (Le sommeil d'or)
(Country: France / Cambodia; Year: 2011; Director: Davy Chou)
Memorial to Cambodian cinema between 1960 to 75.
Harun Farocki presents: La Verifica Incerta
(Country: Germany / Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Harun Farocki)
La Verifica Incerta (1965), by Baruchello and Grifi, is a seminal work of the montage film. Following the presentation of this little-known early work of the genre, Farocki will give a lecture examining its special methods of compiling found materials.
Hemel
(Country: Netherlands / Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Sacha Polak; Writer: Helena van der Meulen; Stars: Hannah Hoekstra, Hans Dagelet, Rifka Lodeizen)
A father and daughter are more committed to one another than their string of on/off lovers... until the father falls for a young auctioneer.
Jaurès
(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Vincent Dieutre; Stars: Eva Truffaut, Vincent Dieutre)
Considerations of love as seen through the window of a flat.
Keep Me Upright (Tiens moi droite)
(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Zoé Chantre; Writer: Zoé Chantre)
A scrapbook-like audiovisual diary of the director's search to find words to fit her symptoms and visual expression for her scoliosis (curvature of the spine).
King Lost His Tooth
(Country: Lebanon; Year: 2011; Director: Gheith Al-Amine)
A subversive homage to the oeuvre of Brion Gysin, and his “cut-up” method consisting of the random assemblage of words cut out of a given paragraph.
Kid-Thing
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: David Zellner; Writer: David Zellner; Stars: Sydney Aguirre, Susan Tyrrell, Nathan Zellner, David Zellner)
A rebellious girl whose existence is devoid of parental guidance, hears a woman calling from a mysterious hole in the ground, asking for help.
The Last Days Of British Honduras
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Catherine Sullivan, Farhad Sharmini)
The film approaches on of the interlocking narrative threads of Ronald Tavel's 1971 play The Last Days of British Honduras, which is transposed from the jungles of Belize to the urban geography of wintertime Chicago.
The Last Friday (Al Juma Al Akheira)
(Country: Jordan / United Arab Emirates; Year: 2011; Director: Yahya Alabdallah; Stars: Ali Suliman, Fadi Arida, Yasmine Elmasri)
Since gambling away everything he used to own, Yousef has lived alone in humble conditions, working as a taxi driver. In order to scrape together the money for an operation, he is forced to reconnect with his family.
Lawinen der Erinnerung
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Dominik Graf)
Documentary film portrait.
Living/Building (Habiter/Construire)
(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Clémence Ancelin)
A French company is building a tarmac road in the desert of Chad. The film explores what this means for the local community.
Modest Reception (Paziraie Sadeh)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2012; Director: Mani Haghighi; Stars: Taraneh Alidoosti, Mani Haghighi)
A man and a woman are making their way through a war-torn mountainous region in an SUV. The boot of the car contains plastic bags filled with money to distribute to the needy people they encounter on their journey. But are the two of them really on a charitable mission?
My father Is Still A Communist, Intimate Secrets To Be pPublished
(Country: Lebanon; Year: 2011; Director: Ahmad Ghossein)
All that is left of my parents’ relationship is a large number of audio-cassettes, sent as love letters during the time of civil war in Lebanon. When I was a child I created imaginative stories about my father as war hero fighting with the communists.
Negotiating Love (Beziehungsweisen)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Calle Overweg; Writer: Calle Overweg)
Three couples in crisis each seek advice at therapy sessions and argue over infidelities, abortion and separate bedrooms.
A Night Too Young (Prílis mladá noc)
(Country: Czech Republic, Slovenia; Year: 2012; Director: Olmo Omerzu; Writer: Bruno Hájek, Jakub Felcman, Olmo Omerzu; Stars: Martin Pechlát, Jirí Cerny, Natálie Rehorová, Vojtech Machuta, Jan Vasi)
Two adolescent boys, on the first day of the New Year, meet their school teacher and her two male friends, with emotional consequences.
Normal School (Escuela normal)
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2012; Director: Celina Murga)
Documentary tracking student council elections at a school in Parana, Argentina.
Ornette: Made in America
(Country: USA; Year: 1985; Director: Shirley Clarke; Stars: William S. Burroughs, Ornette Coleman, Brion Gysin, Demon Marshall, Eugene Tatum)
Clarke's final feature is a portrait of jazz legend Ornette Coleman.
Our Homeland (Kazoku no kuni)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2012; Director: Yang Yonghi; Stars: Iura Arata, Ando Sakura, Yang Ik-June)
Story of a Japanese emigre to Korea, who returns to his homeland after a 25-year absence.
Parabeton - Pier Luigi Nervi and Roman Concrete (Parabeton - Pier Luigi Nervi und römischer Beton)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Heinz Emigholz; Writer: Heinz Emigholz)
Third in a series of architectural biographies, deals with modern concrete constructions.
Peov Chouk Sor
(Country: Cambodia; Year: 1967; Director: Tea Lim Koun; Stars: Chea Yuthorn, Dy Saveth, Rosanna, Mongdolin)
Four carefree daughters of heaven come down to earth. Although the eldest warns of the dangers of picking human fruit, Peov Chouk Sor, the youngest of their number, is swayed by the sight of an attractive young peasant and promptly falls into misfortune.
Peril Of The Antilles
(Country: USA / Haiti; Year: 2011; Director: Fern Silva)
Haiti in 2010: the cholera epidemic was on its way to Port-au-Prince, a Hurricane was on the horizon, elections grew closer … then I acquired a very curious copy of Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly’s (Haiti’s newest president) music video from his heyday.
The Red and the Black (La Rouge et la Noire)
(Country: France; Year: 2011; Director: Isabelle Prim)
A portrait of the famous inventor of movie cameras Jean-Pierre Beauviala and his firm Aaton.
Restricted Sensation (Draudziami Jausmai)
(Country: Lithuania; Year: 2011; Director: Deimantas Narkevicius)
The story of a young Lithuanian, who, in the 1970s, loses his job at a theater because of accusations of homosexuality. Narkevičius recounts the events in a straightforward narrative, using first-hand accounts of Lithuanian gay men who lived under the threat of §122 of the Soviet Penal Code as the basis for his script.
Revision
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Philip Scheffner; Writer: Merle Kröger, Philip Scheffner)
In 1992, two men were shot in a field near the German-Polish border. The circumstances which led to the death of Grigore Velcu and Eudache Calderar have not been clarified even today. Nearly 20 years later, Philip Scheffner carries out the painstaking investigation that never took place back then.
Salsipuedes
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2012; Director: Mariano Luque; Writer: Mariano Luque; Stars: Mara Santucho, Marcelo Arbach, Mariana Briski)
A troubled couple’s camping trip is about to be punctuated by a visit from the woman's mother and sister.
Secret (Sekret)
(Country: Poland; Year: 2012; Director: Przemyslaw Wojcieszek; Stars: Tomasz Tyndyk, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Marek Kepinski)
Ksawery and Karolina are visiting Jan in the country. Ksawery is a dancer who performs as a drag queen and Karolina is his agent. Jan is Ksawery’s grandfather. Ksawery is gay, Karolina Jewish. Jan is guarding a dark secret from the time of the Holocaust. At first glance, an almost quintessential grouping for a story about history, a story about perpetrators and victims. But it’s not that simple. Identity here is composed of different layers that do not always harmonise according to background and allegiance. As such, Jan’s love for his grandfather is in conflict with his urge to find out what happened back then. The film draws on a suitably heterogeneous range of visual and narrative devices to express the disparate nature of the relationships between the three protagonists, and the different mosaic tiles from which their identities are formed: tenderness alongside violence, almost casual normality alongside extreme artificiality. Ksawery says at one point “I’m a corpse, I’m dead on the inside”. SEKRET taps into the seam of our identity that is passed on by preceding generations, a process that can hurt but also heal.
Sleepless Knights
(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Stefan Butzmühlen, Cristina Diz; Stars: Raúl Godoy, Jaime Pedruelo)
Carlos is spending the summer in the country with his family and, during his stay, he strikes up a relationship with a young policeman.
The Snake Man (Puos Keng Kang)
(Country: Cambodia; Year: 1970; Director: Tea Lim Koun; Stars: Chea Yuthorn, Dy Saveth, Peov Vicheth, Saksi Sbong, Mongdolin)
After a woman mates with a snake, one of her offspring transforms into a man, who embarks on sexual intrigue of his own.
Soldier/Citizen (Bagrut Lochamim)
(Country: Israel; Year: 2012; Director: Silvina Landsmann)
Towards the end of their military service, young Israelis are given another chance to obtain a school-leaving certificate if they don’t have it already. For three consecutive weeks, civic education is the order of the day. In uniform and with their guns always within reach, the students discuss pluralism, discrimination, human rights, the complex definition of the Jewish State and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The camera soberly observes the heated debates, in which alarmingly intransigent views are expressed.
Spain (Spanien)
(Country: Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Anja Salomonowitz; Stars: Grégoire Colin, Tatjana Alexander, Cornelius Obonya, Lukas Miko)
A foreigner unintentionally stranded in Austria is trying everything to get to his original destination of Spain. A restorer who earns money on the side by painting religious icons has had enough of her ex-husband’s intrusions. He’s searching for the right words to get her back whilst sniffing around in the private lives of bi-national couples as part of his job as a police official. A gambling addict is hoping for assistance from a dubious finance institute. All of them are in search of happiness.
The Sun In The Last Days Of The Shogunate (Bakumatsu taiyoden)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1957; Director: Kawashima Yuzo; Stars: Sakai Frankie, Hidari Sachiko, Minamida Yoko, Ishihara Yujiro)
A brothel in the pleasure district of Shinagawa in 1862: young samurai Takasugi Shinasuku (Ishihara Yujiro) joins the fight to restore the imperial government and wants to drive foreigners out of the area. Meanwhile, the establishment’s two most beautiful geishas, Osome and Koharu, battle it out for the top spot, while the debt-plagued Osomo sees no alternative other than to stage a spectacular double suicide with a customer.
Suzaki Paradise: Red Light (Suzaki Paradaisu Akashingo)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1956; Director: Kawashima Yuzo; Stars: Aratama Michiyo, Mihashi Tatsuya, Todoroki Yukiko, Ashikawa Izumi)
A penniless young couple Yoshigi (Mihashi Tatsuya) und Tsutue (Aratama Michiyo), in search of work, find employment near Tokyo's red light district... and discover it puts a strain on their relationship.
Swoon
(Country: USA; Year: 1992; Director: Tom Kalin; Writer: Tom Kalin, Hilton Als; Stars: Daniel Schlachtet, Craig Chester jr., Crowe Ron Vawter)
Tom Kalin’s feature film debut tells the well-known story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two wealthy Jewish college students who kidnapped and brutally murdered a 14-year-old neighbourhood boy in Chicago in 1924.
The Tiny Ventriloquist
(Country: Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Steve Reinke; Stars: with contributions from James Richards)
A suite of short films.
Tomorrow (Zavtra)
(Country: Russian Federation; Year: 2012; Director: Andrey Gryazev; Writer: Andrei Gryazev; Stars: Natalia Sokol, Kasper Vorotnikov, Oleg Vorotnikov, Leonid Nikolaev )
Documentary about Russian artists' group Voina.
T.S.T.L.
(Country: Lebanon; Year: 2011; Director: Gheith Al-Amine)
This stop-motion video fools around with over- intellectualised conceptual art.
What Is Love
(Country: Austria; Year: 2012; Director: Ruth Mader)
Five documentary miniatures show different models for dealing with life, for shaping life and love.
Winter Nomads (Hiver Nomade)
(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2012; Director: Manuel von Stürler)
Man, woman, sheep, adventure - the life of modern European shepherds.
The Woman In The Septic Tank (Ang Babae sa Septic Tank)
(Country: Philippines; Year: 2011; Director: Marlon N Rivera; Stars: Eugene Domingo, JM De Guzman, Kean Cipriano)
As far as their film school final project is concerned, these three students have only one goal in mind – international fame, including Oscars and festival prizes. They know what foreign audiences expect from Philippine cinema – prostitution, abuse, rubbish tips and slums – and apply this magic formula to develop the ultimate in misery porn.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
Eye For Film continues to support festivals both locally and across the world. At the moment, we're covering:
DOC NYC
New York's celebration of factual film
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
One of the largest film gatherings in northern Europe
French Film Festival
The UK's longest running celebration of Francophone cinema
Cannes Film Festival
Archive of festival coverage.
Sundance Film Festival
Daily diary and reviews from 2005-2018.
Berlin Film Festival
Coverage of the lynchpin German festival.
Search Movie Database
Browse our full archive
Browse our short film archive
Browse our media archive
