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Berlin International Film Festival · 2012

Berlin International Film Festival 2012

Panorama Special

Programme

15 films · 4 reviews

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10+10

Review preview for 10+10

A diverse collection of short films inevitably means there will be a mixed bag in terms of enjoyment for any one viewer: some of the films are very obscure or outright bizarre, whereas some are so short and slight they leave little impact

Owen Van Spall · 2.5 out of 5
Short film collection themed around the "unique attributes of Taiwan".

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2011; Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and 19 additional directors)

Full review

Belief, Love, Death (Glaube, Liebe, Tod)

Belief, Love, Death is a tense film which uses an intimate mother-son relationship to explore the ‘clash of civilisations’ mentality and the inability to love.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2011; Director: Peter Kern; Stars: Traute Furthner, Peter Kern, Joao Moreira Pedrosa)

Calm At Sea (La mer à l'aube)

A story of two young men on opposing forces during World War II - one a French resistance fighter; the other a German soldier who must gain revenge for the death of a German army officer at the hand of resistance troops.

(Country: France / Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Volker Schlöndorff; Stars: Léo Paul Salmain, Ulrich Matthes, Martin Loizillon, Jacob Matschenz, André Jung)

Cherry

A drama centered on 18 year-old Angelina who becomes involved in pornography to try and earn enough money to escape her background.

(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Stephen Elliott; Stars: Ashley Hinshaw, James Franco, Heather Graham, Dev Patel, Lili Taylor)

Diaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood

Told from different perspectives, the camera describes the events of the violent G8 protests in Genoa, sticking close to the heels of both perpetrators and targets, until the whole bloody truth is told. The Berlinale’s Panorama section is also screening another documentary on this topic, entitled The Summit.

(Country: Italy / Romania / France; Year: 2012; Director: Daniele Vicari; Stars: Elio Germano, Jennifer Ulrich, Claudio Santamaria)

Elles

A researcher working with young sex workers comes to question the advantages she has enjoyed in life.

(Country: France/Poland/Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Malgorzata Szumowska; Writer: Tine Byrckel, Malgorzata Szumowska; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Joanna Kulig, Anaïs Demoustier)

Iron Sky

Review preview for Iron Sky

Sadly, there is not a funny enough script or any particularly amusing performance to provide a backbone to hang the visualisations on, leaving Iron Sky as a more of a showcase for what low-budget filmmaking can achieve in terms of effects.

Owen Van Spall · 2.5 out of 5
Nazis return from a 70-year sabbatical on the Moon back to Earth, where they plan to violently return to power.

(Country: Finland, Australia, Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Timo Vuorensola; Writer: Johanna Sinisalo, Jarmo Puskala, Michael Kalesniko; Stars: Christopher Kirby, Götz Otto, Julia Dietze, Udo Kier, Peta Sergeant, Kym Jackson, Stephanie Paul, Monika Gossmann, Jim Knobeloch, Yuki Iwamoto, Tero Kaukomaa, Tilo Prückner, Nick Dong-Sik, Jeffrey Coulas, Michael Cullen)

Full review

Indignados

Film which uses a mixture of dramatised scenes and real-life events to follow an illegal immigrant travelling across a Europe in transition.

(Country: France; Year: 2011; Director: Tony Gatlif; Writer: Stéphane Hessel; Stars: Isabel Vendrell Cortès)

Love

Filmed in the vibrant colours of contemporary pop culture and pervaded by the easy-going humour of a sitcom, this unbelievably charming episodic film comprises several loosely connected stories that describe the zeitgeist of young urbanites in today’s Taipeh.

(Country: People's Republic of China / Taiwan; Year: 2011; Director: Doze, Niu Chen-Zer; Stars: Shu Qi, Vicky Zhao, Ethan Juan, Mark Jau)

My Brother The Devil

Review preview for My Brother The Devil

El Hosaini is wise to inject visual majesty into her otherwise gritty tale.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 4 out of 5
A pair of British Arab brothers trying to get by in gangland London learn the extraordinary courage it takes to be yourself.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Sally El Hosaini; Writer: Sally El Hosaini, Aymen Hamdouchi; Stars: James Floyd, Fady Elsayed, Saïd Taghmaoui, Elarica Gallacher, Nasser Memarzia, Letitia Wright, Nicola Harrison, Ashley Bashy Thomas, Anthony Welsh, Frieda Thiel, Arnold Oceng, Aymen Hamdouchi, Malachi Kirby, Leemore Marrett Jr., Michael-Joel David Stuart)

Full review See: Saly El Hosaini interview about My Brother The Devil , Sundance Episode 5: Bestiaire, Moving Stories, Bachelorette, My Brother The Devil and Nobody Walks , Feature on the history of Sundance labs and interview with Sally El Hosaini on My Brother The Devil

My Way (Mai-wei)

An epic war drama which for the first time tells the story of the Second World War from a Korean point of view.

(Country: Republic of Korea (South Korea); Year: 2011; Director: Kang Je-kyu; Stars: Jang Dong-gun, Joe Odagiri, Fan Bingbing)

The Parade (Parada)

Srdjan Dragojević’s film takes a comedic look at survival strategies for gays in Serbia and at a society that even now, years after the Balkan war, is still fragmented and riven by two entrenched fronts.

(Country: Serbia / Croatia / Macedonia / Slovenia; Year: 2011; Director: Srdjan Dragojevic; Writer: Srdjan Dragojevic; Stars: Nikola Kojo, Milos Samolov, Hristina Popovic, Goran Jevtic, Toni Mihailovski)

The Wall (Die Wand)

Review preview for The Wall

The wall is an undeniable presence, both solidly tangible and, thanks to some stunning sound design, resonantly audible as it redefines and demarcates the Woman's newly cloistered life.

Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
A woman chronicles her time after becoming separated from the rest of humanity.

(Country: Austria / Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Julian Roman Pölsler; Stars: Martina Gedeck)

Full review

The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears

The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears begins in the hustle and bustle of Paris before following its protagonists deep into the forests of Macedonia in a story of tragedy and loss infused with magical powers and strange coincidences.

(Country: Macedonia / Germany / Slovenia / Belgium; Year: 2011; Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska; Writer: Teona Strugar Mitevska; Stars: Victoria Abril, Labina Mitevska, Jean Marie Galey, Arben Bajraktaraj)

Xingu

Three brothers stumble upon the Xingu tribe during an exploration of central Brazil and subsequently devote their lives to protecting and preserving the Xingu culture in the face of encroachment from the contemporary world.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2011; Director: Cao Hamburger; Writer: Cao Hamburger, Anna Muylaert, Helena Soarez; Stars: João Miguel, Felipe Camargo, Caio Blat, Maria Flor)