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Berlin International Film Festival · 2013

Berlin International Film Festival 2013

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50 films · 7 reviews

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The 727 Days Without Karamo (Die 727 Tage Ohne Karamo)

A documentary about the difficulties faced by bi-national couples.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2013; Director: Anja Salomonowitz)

The Battle of Tabatô

An old man returns to his homeland for his daughter's wedding.

(Country: Guinea-Bissau, Portugal; Year: 2013; Director: João Viana; Stars: Imutar Djebaté, Fatu Djebaté, Mamadu Baio )

Boundary (Fahtum Pandinsoong)

A documentary exploring the divisions in Thai society and the country's troubled relationship with its neighbour, Cambodia.

(Country: Thailand, Cambodia, France; Year: 2013; Director: Nontawat Numbenchapol; Stars: Sitthipong Junthasuk)

Computer Chess

Review preview for Computer Chess

It's the boxy Apple Mac precursors that are the real stars in many ways. It's hard not to feel a warm glow of affection for them, assuming you are a viewer of a certain age.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Early nerds congregate at a convention with a surreal twist.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Andrew Bujalski; Writer: Andrew Bujalski; Stars: Patrick Riester, Myles Paige, James Curry, Robin Schwartz, Gerald Peary, Wiley Wiggins)

Full review

Char... the No Man's Island (...Moddhikhane Char)

A visit to the island of Char, on the border between India and Bangladesh and a haven for smugglers.

(Country: India, Japan, Italy, Denmark, Norway; Year: 2012; Director: Sourav Sarangi)

Circles

Five people are affected by a tragic heroic act. Twenty years later, all of them will confront the past through their own crises. Will they overcome guilt, frustration and their urge for revenge? Will they do the right thing, at all costs?

(Country: Serbia, Germany, France, Croatia, Slovenia; Year: 2013; Director: Srdan Golubovic; Writer: Srdjan Koljevic, Melina Pota Koljevic; Stars: Aleksandar Bercek, Leon Lucev, Nebojsa Glogovac, Hristina Popovic, Nikola Rakocevic, Vuk Kostic)

Cold Bloom (Sakura Namiki No Mankai No Shita Ni)

A man and a woman who work in the same factory find themselves drawn into an impossible relationship.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2012; Director: Atsushi Funahashi; Stars: Asami Usuda, Takahiro Miura, Yo Takahashi, Yurei Yanagi, Taro Suwa)

Coming Forth By Day (Al-khoroug Lel-nahar)

A young woman resigned to life as a carer glimpses a different way of living during a rare evening out.

(Country: Egypt, United Arab Emirates; Year: 2012; Director: Hala Lotfy; Stars: Donia Maher, Salma Al-Najjar, Ahmed Loutfi)

Cousin Jules

m A rediscovered masterpiece of world cinema, focused on the everyday life of a farmer (the filmmaker’s cousin) and his wife in the remote French countryside.

(Country: France; Year: 1972; Director: Dominique Benicheti)

Crossroads Of Youth (Cheongchun's Sipjaro)

The oldest surviving Korean film tells the story of a brother and sister and their first taste of city life.

(Country: Korea; Year: 1934; Director: Jong-hwa An)

Dark Matter (Materia Oscura)

Review preview for Dark Matter

The emphasis here is on the immediate and indirect ecological effects, which the film renders in aesthetic terms without ever becoming a compelling interrogation in itself.

Michael Pattison · 3 out of 5
A visit to the ruined environment of a military testing site.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2013; Director: Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti)

Full review

The Daughter (I Kóri)

As Greek society threatens to collapse following sweeping cuts, a daughte desperately searches for her father.

(Country: Greece, Italy; Year: 2012; Director: Thanos Anastopoulos; Stars: Savina Alimani, Aggelos Papadimas, Yorgos Simeonidis, Ieronymos Kaletsanos )

Echolot

A group of friends assembles following a suicide.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Athanasios Karanikolas; Stars: Aenne Schwarz, Lena Vogt, Nina Horvath, Julian Keck)

Elelwani

A student arrives home to discover she has been betrothed to her tribal chief.

(Country: South Africa; Year: 2012; Director: Ntshavheni Wa Luruli; Stars: Florence Masebe, Ashifashabba Muleya, Vusi Kunene)

Engagement Ring (Konyaku Yubiwa)

A young woman is torn between love and duty when she falls for her ailing husband's doctor.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1950; Director: Keisuke Kinoshita; Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune, Jukichi Uno)

The Eternal Return Of Antonis Paraskevas (I Aionia Epistrofi Tou Antoni Paraskeua)

A faded TV celebrity desperate for attention fakes his own kidnapping and hides out in an abandoned luxury hotel.

(Country: Greece; Year: 2013; Director: Elina Psykou; Stars: Christos Stergioglou, Syllas Tzoumerkas, Theodora Tzimou)

Everyday Objects (Halbschatten)

Waiting for her lover at his luxury villa, a woman interacts awkwardly with his uncertain children.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2013; Director: Nicolas Wackerbarth; Stars: Anne Ratte-Polle, Leonard Proxauf, Emma Bading, Nathalie Richard, Maren Kroymann)

Farewell To Dream (Yuyake Gumo)

A youth from a poor background faces the loss of his dreams and of everything he loves.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1956; Director: Keisuke Kinoshita; Stars: Shinji Tanaka, Yuko Mochizuki, Yoshiko Kuga, Eijiro Touno, Takahiro Tamura, Isuzu Yamada)

Father's Garden - The Love Of My Parents (Vaters Garten - Die Liebe Meiner Eltern)

The director examines his parents' relationship and changing gender roles.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2013; Director: Peter Liechti)

Forgetting to Know You (Mo Sheng)

A marriage comes apart under the strain of financial difficulties.

(Country: China; Year: 2013; Director: Quan Ling; Stars: Hong Tao, Xiaodong Guo)

For Marx... (Za Marksa...)

A new trade union in a metal factory faces brutal repression.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2012; Director: Svetlana Baskova; Stars: Sergey Pakhomov, Vladimir Epifantsev, Victor Sergachev, Lavrenty Svetlichny, Aleksandr Kovalev)

Fynbos

Speculation follows the disappearance of a real estate agent's wife.

(Country: South Africa, Greece; Year: 2012; Director: Harry Patramanis; Stars: Jessica Haines, Warrick Grier, Standiwe Kgoroge, Susan Danford)

Hélio Oiticica

A collection of visual and auditory material assembled in remembrance of the artst by his nephew.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2012; Director: Cesar Oiticica Filho)

I'm Not Dead (Je Ne Suis Pas Mort)

An esteemed professor dies and finds his spirit trapped within the body of an ethnically Algerian student.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Mehdi Ben Attia; Stars: Mehdi Dehbi, Maria de Medeiros, Emmanuel Salinger, Driss Ramdi, Judith Davis)

In Bloom

Two young women come of age in the troubled time following Georgian independence.

(Country: Georgia, Germany, France; Year: 2013; Director: Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß; Stars: Lika Babluani, Mariam Bokeria)

I Used To Be Darker

A runaway seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore, only to find their marriage ending and her cousin in crisis. In the days that follow, the family struggles to let go while searching for things to sustain them.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Matthew Porterfield; Writer: Amy Belk, Matthew Porterfield; Stars: Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Kim Taylor, Ned Oldham, Geoff Grace, Nick Petr)

Jubilation Street (Kanko No Machi)

A wartime propaganda film designed to encourage sympathy for domestic evacuees.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1944; Director: Keisuke Kinoshita; Stars: Ken Uehara, Mitsuko, Mitsuko Mito, Eijirou Touno, Chiyo Nobu, Makoto Nobori, Mitsuko Lida)

Killing Strangers (Matar Extraños)

Actors prepare to renenact part of the Mexican Revolution.

(Country: Mexico, Denmark; Year: 2013; Director: Jacob Secher Schulsinger, Nicolás Pereda; Stars: Gabino Rodríguez, Esthel Vogrig, Tenoch Huerta, Harold Torres)

A Legend Or Was It? (Shito No Densetsu)

A brutal western illuminates the effecs of war on civilians.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1963; Director: Keisuke Kinoshita; Stars: Shima Iwashita, Mariko Kaga, Go Kato, Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshi Kato, Bunta Sugawara)

The Meteor

Forty-something Pierre, his mother and his wife are linked by crime, guilt and loneliness. Like casualties of love and desire, they are dying to stick their heads above water and breathe the air of life.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2013; Director: François Delisle; Writer: François Delisle; Stars: Noémie Godin Vigneau, François Delisle, Laurent Lucas, Brigitte Pogonat, François Papineau, Andrée Lachapelle)

No Man's Land (Terra De Ninguém)

Review preview for No Man's Land

Lamas highlights the power of the much-maligned 'talking head' format of documentary while simultaneously striking out into less clearly defined territory aided by the shadowy life story of that same man.

Rebecca Naughten · 3.5 out of 5
A former mercenary confesses to the brutal acts for which he is responsible.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2012; Director: Salomé Lamas; Writer: Salomé Lamas)

Full review See: Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival preview

La Paz

A young man attempts to readjust to life after being released from a psychiatric hospital.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2013; Director: Santiago Loza; Stars: Lisandro Rodriguez, Andrea Strenitz, Fidelia Batallanos Michel, Ricardo Felix)

Powerless

The battle against electricity theft in Konpur is complicated by local resentment of perceived profiteering.

(Country: India; Year: 2013; Director: Fahad Mustafa, Deepti Kakkar)

The Plague (La Plaga)

Review preview for The Plague

The characters may be variously plagued by debt, illness and emotional strain but they also prove there is conoslation in friendship and that a single shared chocolate can be more important and touching than a thousand words.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Five people struggle to get by in the tough economic conditions around Barcelona.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2013; Director: Neus Ballús; Stars: Raül Molist, Maria Ros, Rosemarie Abella, Iurie Timbur, Maribel Martí)

Full review

Roots (Senzo Ni Naru)

An elderly woodcutter works to rebuild his house in the afermathof the 2011 tsunami.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2013; Director: Kaoru Ikeya)

Shirley - Visions of Reality

13 Edward Hopper paintings come to life.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2013; Director: Gustav Deutsch; Stars: Stephanie Cumming, Christoph Bach)

Sieniawka

A men's shelter in former coal mining country faces hard times.

(Country: Germany, Poland; Year: 2013; Director: Marcin Malaszczak; Stars: Stefan Szyzszka, Stanislaw Cheminski, Jerzy Szlosar, Franciszek Zajdel)

A Single Shot

A hunter who accidentally shoots a woman decides to cover up the accident after finding a bag of money.

(Country: US, UK, Canada; Year: 2013; Director: David M. Rosenthal; Stars: Sam Rockwell, William H. Macy, Kelly Reilly, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Wright)

Stemple Pass

An experimental exploration of the psyche of the Unabomber.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: James Benning)

A Stranger (Obrana I Zastita)

A funeral prompts a man to struggle with his internalised fears about intercultural conflict.

(Country: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Year: 2013; Director: Bobo Jelcic; Stars: Bogdan Diklic, Nada Gjurevska, Ivana Roscic, Izudin Bajrovic )

The Strange Little Cat (Das Merkwürdige Kätzchen)

Review preview for The Strange Little Cat

Zürcher's film may not follow traditional storytelling lines but it is bold in form and, for all its lack of story, memorable in content.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
An intimate look at a family preparing to eat dinner togather in a Berlin apartment.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Ramon Zürcher; Writer: Ramon Zürcher; Stars: Jenny Schily, Anjorka Strechel, Mia Kasalo, Luk Pfaff, Matthias Dittmer)

Full review See: Ramon Zürcher in conversation on The Strange Little Cat , Jytte Jensen talks about New Directors/New Films

Together (Tian Mi Mi)

A teenager observes the broken relationships around him.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2012; Director: Hsu Chao-jen; Stars: Shao-yang Huang, Lieh Lee, Sonia Sui, Kenny Bee)

The Town of Whales (Kujira No Machi)

Three schoolgirls travel to Tokyo in search of the missing brother of one of them.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2012; Director: Keiko Tsuruoka; Stars: Momoko Tobita, Sui Katano, Sakiko Yamaguchi, Kentaro Sato, Masaru Nakashima)

To The Wolf (Sto Lyko)

Old shepherds struggle to get by in the Greek mountains.

(Country: Greece, France; Year: 2013; Director: Christina Koutsospyrou, Aran Hughes; Stars: Giorgos Katsaros, Ilias Katsaros, Spiridoula Katsarou, Adam Paxnis, Kiki Paxni)

Viola

Review preview for Viola

Being disorientated is part of the game of art - from William Shakespeare to the present.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
The lines between fiction and reality blur for an all-female Shakespeare troupe.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2012; Director: Matías Piñeiro; Stars: María Villar, Romina Paula, Agustina Muñoz, Elisa Carricajo, Esteban Bigliardi)

Full review See: New Directors/New Films preview

The Weight Of Elephants (Das Gewicht Der Elefanten)

The arrival of two new girls in the neighbourhood prompts a lonely boy to step out of his imaginary world and try real life fun and adventure.

(Country: New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2013; Director: Daniel Joseph Borgman; Stars: Demos Murphy, Angelina Cottrell, Matthew Sunderland, Catherine Wilkin)

What Happened To This City? (Kya Hua Is Shahar Ko?)

A documentary looking at fundamentalism and the escalating tension between Hindus and Muslims in Hyderabad.

(Country: India; Year: 1986; Director: Deepa Dhanraj)

When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak)

A boy from a refugee camp goes in search of his father and makes friends with PLO fighters.

(Country: Palestinian Territories, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Greece; Year: 2012; Director: Annemarie Jacir; Stars: Mahmoud Asfa, Saleh Bakri, Ruba Blal, Firas Taybeh, Ali Elayan)

Woman (Onna)

A dancer struggles to escape the clutches of her aggressive lover.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1948; Director: Keisuke Kinoshita; Stars: Mitsuko Mito, Eitaro Ozawa)