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Berlin International Film Festival · 2013

Berlin International Film Festival 2013

Competition

Films in competition for this year's Golden Bear.

Programme

24 films · 16 reviews

Jump to a film

An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker (Epizoda U Zivotu Beraca Zeljeza)

Review preview for An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker

Drawing from real life events, Tanic's docudrama gains its power from the emotionally stirring scenario and all-round naturalistic performances, which feel infused with greater honesty given that a version of this nightmare has been played out in real lif

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Life becomes desperate for a scrap merchant when his pregnant wife needs medical help they can't afford.

(Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Slovenia, Italy; Year: 2013; Director: Danis Tanovic; Writer: Danis Tanovic; Stars: Nazif Mujic, Senada Alimanovic, Semsa Mujic)

Full review

Before Midnight

Review preview for Before Midnight

A fairytale for old romantics everywhere, who believe that the weapons of friendship and commitment are as vital in the fight for a relationship, as love.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Jesse and Celine consider their lives together after nine years of living together.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater; Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Ariane Labed, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick)

Full review

Camille Claudel, 1915

Review preview for Camille Claudel, 1915

An inward, austere examination of ideas of madness, empathy and the creative impulse.

Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
Confined to an asylum, the former mistress of sculptor Auguste Rodin tries desperately to obtain a release.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Bruno Dumont; Writer: Bruno Dumont; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent, Emmanuel Kauffman, Marion Keller)

Full review See: Interview with Bruno Dumont

Child's Pose (Pozitia Copilului)

Review preview for Child's Pose

In some ways she may be a monster, but Netzer and co-writer Radulescu find a path for Cornelia that steers clear of outright condemnation. Her tragic devotion to her son is so absolute that she retains our pity.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
An upper class woman loses all sight of morality as she strives to save her son from a prison sentence for knocking down an killing a child.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2013; Director: Calin Peter Netzer; Writer: Razvan Radulescu, Calin Peter Netzer; Stars: Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Florin Zamfirescu)

Full review See: San Sebastian diary: Child's Pose, Le Week-End, Gravity and Hanif Kureishi

Closed Curtain (Pardé)

Review preview for Closed Curtain

The more problematic aspects of the film stem from a narrative that cannot sustain the inventiveness of the central conceit and which peters out before the end.

Rebecca Naughten · 3 out of 5
A writer and his dog retreat to a coastal villa only to have their peace disturbed by two siblings fleeing the police.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2013; Director: Jafar Panahi, Kambuzia Partovi; Writer: Jafar Panahi; Stars: Kambuzia Partovi, Maryam Moqadam, Jafar Panahi, Hadi Saeedi, Azadeh Torabi, Abolghasem Sobhani, Mahyar Jafaripour, Ramin Akhariani, Sina Mashyekhi, Siamak Abedinpour, Zeynab Kanoum)

Full review

The Croods

Review preview for The Croods

One for keeping the little ones happy on a damp afternoon.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A prehistoric family leaves the comfort of the cave.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders; Writer: Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco; Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener)

Full review

Dark Blood

Review preview for Dark Blood

Dark Blood is an offbeat film no one would call formally perfect, yet the depths it gutsily goes for and its strange vein of comedy make it one to think about and enjoy

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 4 out of 5
When a couple's car breaks down at an former nuclear test site they are rescued and imprisoned by a local hermit.

(Country: US, UK, Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: George Sluizer; Writer: Jim Barton; Stars: River Phoenix, Jonathan Pryce, Judy Davis)

Full review

Gold

German settlers in Canada underestimate the dangers of the wilderness through which they are travelling.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Thomas Arslan; Writer: Thomas Arslan; Stars: Nina Hoss, Marko Mandic, Peter Kurth)

The Grandmaster (Yi dai zong shi)

Review preview for The Grandmaster

Wong Kar Wai knows how to frame faces like no other, with embroidered collars, white straw fedoras, a rowdy monkey, cotton flowers and words escaping lips that are like song.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
The story of Ip Man, the martial arts master who trained Bruce Lee.

(Country: Hong Kong, China, US; Year: 2013; Director: Wong Kar Wai; Writer: Wong Kar Wai, Xu Haofeng, Zou Jingzhi; Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Zhang Ziyi, Zhang Jin, Song Hye-kyo, Chang Chen, Wang Qingxiang, Cung Le, Lo Hoi-pang, Liu Xun, Leung Siu Lung, Julian Cheung Chi-lam)

Full review See: Wong Kar Wai in conversation about The Grandmaster , Martin Scorsese supports The Grandmaster

Harmony Lessons (Uroki Garmonii)

A brutally bullied teenager struggles to avoid getting drawn into a cycle of violence.

(Country: Kazakhstan, Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Emir Baigazin; Writer: Emir Baigazin; Stars: Timur Aidarbekov)

In the Name of (W Imie)

A young priest struggles to repress his homosexual desires.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2013; Director: Malgorzata Szumowska; Writer: Michal Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska; Stars: Andrzej Chyra, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Maria Maj)

Layla Fourie

A young woman who accepts a job as a polygraphist soon becomes a suspect herself.

(Country: Germany, South Africa, France, Netherlands; Year: 2013; Director: Pia Marais; Writer: Horst Markgraf, Pia Marais; Stars: Rayna Campbell, August Diehl, Jeroen Kranenburg, Rapulana Seiphemo)

A Long And Happy Life (Dolgaya Schastlivaya Zhizn)

A farmer struggles to hold onto his land in a changing Russia.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2013; Director: Boris Khlebnikov; Writer: Aleksandr Rodionov, Boris Khlebnikov; Stars: Anna Kotova, Yevgeni Syty, Aleksandr Yatsenko)

Night Train To Lisbon (Nachtzug Nach Lissabon)

The lives of two very different men collide when they embark on journeys of self discovery across Lisbon.

(Country: Germany, Switzerland, Portugal; Year: 2013; Director: Bille August; Writer: Greg Latter, based on the book by Pascal Mercier.; Stars: Jeremy Irons, Mélanie Laurent, Jack Huston)

Nobody's Daughter Haewon (Nugu-ui Ttal-do Anin Haewon)

Review preview for Nobody's Daughter Haewon

This apparently meandering, unfocused story conceals an acutely observed portrait of a society in flux.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
With her mother about to emigrate and her affair gone stale, Haewon faces a challenging future.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2013; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Jeong Eun-Chae, Lee Sun-kyun, Ye Ji-won, Yoo Joon-sang)

Full review

The Nun (La Religieuse)

Review preview for The Nun

Pauline Etienne sweeps all before her as Suzanne Simonin, a nun who wants none of it.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A portrait of suffering focused on a young woman forced to become a nun because her parents cannot afford a dowry for her.

(Country: France, Germany, Belgium; Year: 2013; Director: Guillaume Nicloux; Writer: Guillaume Nicloux, based on the book by Denis Diderot; Stars: Pauline Etienne, Isabelle Huppert, Louise Bourgoin, Martina Gedeck, Françoise Lebrun, Agathe Bonitzer, Alice de Lencquesaing, Gilles Cohen, Marc Barbé, François Négret, Lou Castel, Nicolas Jouhet, Pascal Bongard, Pierre Nisse, Fabrizio Rongione)

Full review

On My Way (Elle S'En Va)

Popping out for cigarettes, a middle aged woman just keeps going, increasingly determined to leave her old life behind.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Emmanuelle Bercot; Writer: Emmanuelle Bercot, Jérôme Tonnerre; Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Camille, Mylène Demongeot)

Paradise: Hope (Paradies: Hoffnung)

Review preview for Paradise: Hope

Seidl manages to make this ordeal excruciating to watch without ever being graphic, visually or even narratively.

Michael Pattison · 3 out of 5
A teenager from a troubled middle class background spends the summer at fat camp and determines to seduce its director.

(Country: Austria, France, Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Ulrich Seidl; Writer: Ulrich Seidl, Veronika Franz; Stars: Melanie Lenz, Verena Lehbauer, Joseph Lorenz)

Full review

Prince Avalanche

Review preview for Prince Avalanche

The end result is a kind of funny/kind of sad character study that asks questions about our relationships with others and our environment.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Odd couple comedy about two road workers in the backwaters of Texas.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: David Gordon Green; Writer: David Gordon Green; Stars: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, Lance LeGault, Joyce Payne)

Full review See: David Gordon Green interview about Prince Avalanche

Promised Land

Review preview for Promised Land

At its core, this is a character study, with the contradictory American character summed up in one man.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A salesman arrives in a small agricultural town to try and persuade the impoverished locals to sell their land to a natural gas extraction company.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Gus Van Sant; Writer: John Krasinski, Matt Damon; Stars: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook, Lucas Black)

Full review

Side Effects

Review preview for Side Effects

Soderbergh, just as he did with his 2011 film Contagion shows that the disaster you expected safely elsewhere, is right in front of you.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A successful couple's lives spiral out of control after one of them is prescribed a drug to treat anxiety.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Steven Soderbergh; Writer: Scott Z Burns; Stars: Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Polly Draper )

Full review

The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman

Traveling abroad, Charlie Countryman falls for Gabi, a Romanian beauty whose unreachable heart has its origins in Nigel, her violent, charismatic ex. As the darkness of Gabi’s past increasingly envelops him, Charlie resolves to win her heart, or die trying.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Fredrik Bond; Writer: Matt Drake; Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Rupert Grint, James Buckley, Til Schweiger)

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear

Review preview for Vic + Flo Saw a Bear

Côté has always had a skill for subverting expectations and here he manages to slide his film from black comedy to outright horror with the smoothness of a snake.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A couple, one of whom is just out of prison, hide away in a house in the woods until the past comes calling for them.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2013; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté; Stars: Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marie Brassard, Marc-André Grondin, Georges Molnar)

Full review See: Denis Côté interview about Vic + Flo Saw A Bear