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Berlin International Film Festival · 2014

Berlin International Film Festival 2014

Forum

An overview of independent, artistic filmmaking with a disregard for convention, screening 28 world and eight international premieres from every single continent.

Programme

47 films · 8 reviews

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10 Minutes (Ship bun)

A man is shouldered with the debut of his family.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2013; Director: Lee Yong-seung; Stars: Baek Jong-hwan, Kim Jong-gu, Jung Hi-te)

International premiere

The Airstrip (Airstrip - Aufbruch der Moderne, Teil III)

The 21st part of Eighholz's Photography and beyond series.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Heinz Emigholz; Writer: Heinz Emigholz; Stars: Natja Brunckhorst, Ueli Etter)

World premiere. Documentary

And Here We Are, In The Middle (Und in der Mitte, da sind wir)

Study of three 15-year-olds who live in Ebensee, a village in Austria where in 2009 the annual memorial ceremony at the former concentration camp was disrupted by a group of youths with air rifles.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2014; Director: Sebastian Brameshuber; Writer: Sebastian Brameshuber)

World premiere. Documentary

Asta Upset (Ich will mich nicht künstlich aufregen)

The film is set in a modern day ‘Berlin Republic’ liberated from all irrelevancies. It’s about artistic production, the creative industries and above all film and cinema.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Max Linz; Writer: Max Linz; Stars: Sarah Ralfs, Hannelore Hoger, Barbara Heynen, René Schappach, Daniel Hoevels, Franz Beil)

World premiere

At Home (Sto Spiti)

A housekeeper who is diagnosed with a serious illness loses her job in the economic crisis.

(Country: Germany, Greece; Year: 2014; Director: Athanasios Karanikolas; Writer: Athanasios Karanikolas; Stars: Zoi Asimaki, Nikos Georgakis, Ieronymos Kaletsanos, Maria Kallimani, Alexia Kaltsiki, Nefeli Kouri, Romanna Lobats, Alexandros Logothetis, Marisha Triantafyllidou, Yannis Tsortekis)

World premiere

Le Beau Danger

Documentary portrait of Norman Manea.

(Country: Germany, Italy; Year: 2014; Director: René Frölke; Writer: René Frölke, Norman Manea; Stars: Norman Manea)

World premiere. Documentary

Blind Dates (Shemtkhveviti paemnebi)

Melancholic comedy about a middle-aged teacher who falls for a hairdresser.

(Country: Georgia; Year: 2013; Director: Levan Koguashvili; Writer: Boris Frumin, Levan Koguashvili; Stars: Kakhi Kavsadze, Archil Kikodze, Andro Sakhvarelidze, Ia Sukhitashvili)

25413. Restored version

Butter On The Latch

Review preview for Butter On The Latch

Both of Decker's feature films are characterised by intensity, for good and ill.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Primal instincts come to the fore when a woman and her friend visit a music retreat.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Josephine Decker; Writer: Josephine Decker; Stars: Isolde Chae-Lawrence, Stephan Goldbach, Charlie Hewson, Sarah Small)

Full review

World premiere

Castanha

Story of a world weary actor.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2014; Director: Davi Pretto; Writer: Davi Pretto, Davi Pretto; Stars: João Carlos Castanha, Celina Castanha)

World premiere

The Darkside

Film exploring Australian ghost stories.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2013; Director: Warwick Thornton; Stars: Deborah Mailman)

International premiere

Daughters (Töchter)

A woman travels to Berlin after a body is found, when it turns out not to be her daughter, she continues looking...

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Maria Speth; Writer: Maria Speth; Stars: Corinna Kirchhoff, Kathleen Morgeneyer, Hiroki Mano, Fabian Hinrichs, Matthias Matschke, Lars Mikkelsen, Irina Potapenko, Dzamilja Anastasia Sjöström, Hermann Beyer, Philippe Graber, Pit Bukowski, Judith Engel, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Maria Matschke, Michael Sideris)

World premiere

DMD KIU LIDT (DMD KIU LIDT: Die Manifestation des Kapitalismus in unserem Leben ist die Traurigkeit)

An anti-music film which follows the Austrian pop-rock band Ja.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Georg Tiller, Georg Tiller; Writer: Georg Tiller, Ja Panik, Ja Panik, Georg Tiller; Stars: Andreas Spechtl, Sebastian Janata, Christian Treppo, Stefan Pabst, Thomas Schleicher, Christiane Rösinger, Hans Unstern, Chris Imler, Maurice Summen)

World premiere

A Dream Of Iron (Cheol-ae-kum)

A love story comes to an end when a woman sets out in search of a shamanic god.

(Country: South Korea, US; Year: 2014; Director: Kelvin Kyung Kun Park)

World premiere. Documentary

The Forest is Like the Mountains (Padurea e ca muntele, vezi?)

Story of the struggles of a Roma village.

(Country: Germany, Romania; Year: 2014; Director: Didier Guillain, Christiane Schmidt; Stars: Beniamin Boros, Iosif Boros, Simon Boros, Aronela Coscodar, Lavinia Coscodar, Anamaria Lingurar, Aron Lingurar, Aronas Lingurar, Camelia Lingurar, Elena Lingurar)

World premiere. Documentary

Form (Forma)

Animosities surface when two women who were friends as teenagers start to work together.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2012; Director: Ayumi Sakamoto; Writer: Ayumi Sakamoto, Ryô Nishihara; Stars: Emiko Matsuoka, Ken Mitsuishi, Ryô Nishihara, Seiji Nozoe, Nagisa Umeno)

International premiere

Free Range (Free Range - Ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest, Free Range/Ballad On Approving Of The World)

Travails of a young writer.

(Country: Estonia; Year: 2013; Director: Veiko Õunpuu; Writer: Robert Kurvitz, Veiko Õunpuu; Stars: Lauri Lagle, Jaanika Arum, Laura Peterson, Peeter Volkonski, Roman Baskin, Rita Raave, Meelis Rämmeld, Jan Uuspõld, Anne Türnpu, Loore Martma, Marion Undusk, Mari Abel, Laine Mägi, Lauri Kaldoja, Jim Ashilevi)

International premiere

German Concentration Camps Factual Survey

This milestone in documentary film has been reconstructed and extended and can now finally be viewed in its intended form.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: tbc)

Documentary

Ghashiram Kotwal

The development and fall of the Peshwa regime in western India before the backdrop of political intrigue and corruption that ravaged the country as the threat of colonialism continued to grow.

(Country: India; Year: 1977; Director: K. Hariharan, Mani Kaul, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Kamal Swaroop; Writer: Vijay Tendulkar; Stars: Mohan Agashe, Rajani Chavan, Vandana Pandit, Om Puri, Shriram Ranade, Ravindra Sathe)

New digital print

The Great Museum (Das große Museum)

A look behind the scenes of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2014; Director: Johannes Holzhausen; Writer: Johannes Holzhausen, Constantin Wulff)

World premiere. Documentary

The Guests

Silent film, avant-garde, and digital 3D: one hundred and twenty years of film history merging into one single cinematic event.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Ken Jacobs)

World premiere

Guidelines (La marche à suivre)

Documentary about youngsters on the cusp of adolescence.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2014; Director: Jean-François Caissy)

World premiere. Documentary

Home Sweet Home (Waga ya wa tanoshi)

Exploration of family life.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1951; Director: Noboru Nakamura; Writer: Sumie Tanaka; Stars: Chishû Ryû, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine, Keiji Sada, Mutsuko Sakura, Kokuten Kôdô, Sugisaku Aoyama, Junji Masuda, Reiko Minakami, Shin'yô Nara, Keiko Kishi, Kazuko Fukui, Kaoru Kusuda, Shinichirô Minami, Katsumasa Okamoto)

New 35mm print

The Honour Keeper (Lajwanti)

(Country: India; Year: 2014; Director: Pushpendra Singh; Stars: Sanghamitra Hitaishi, Pushpendra Singh, Sugna Devi)

World premiere

Iranian (Iranien)

Supporters of the Iranian regime take part in a discussion about secular society.

(Country: France, Switzerland; Year: 2014; Director: Mehran Tamadon)

World premiere. Documentary

Journey With Prabhat (Prabhat pheri)

The film explores the history of the compound in Pune where the legendary studios of the Prabhat Film Company once stood – and the ways in which this place, now home to the National Film Archive and film school, was defended against forces hostile to film.

(Country: India; Year: 2014; Director: Jessica Sadana, Samarth Dixit)

World premiere. Documentary

Joy Of Man's Desiring (Que ta joie demeure )

Review preview for Joy Of Man's Desiring

Côté deliberately refuses to manufacture a conclusion, leaving it to us to make of it what we will.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Humans' relationship with machinery.

(Year: 2014; Director: Denis Côté; Stars: Guillaume Tremblay, Emilie Sigouin, Hamidou Savadogo, Ted Pluviose, Cassandre Emmanuel)

Full review

World premiere

The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq (L'enlèvement de Michel Houellebecq)

Review preview for The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq

The rules of the funny games of fiction and documentary do not apply here - as long as the addictions are taken care of, anything goes.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 3.5 out of 5
The story of what might have happened when author Michel Houellebecq disappeared during a promotional tour.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Guillaume Nicloux; Writer: Guillaume Nicloux; Stars: Michel Houellebecq, Mathieu Nicourt, Maxime Lefrançois, Françoise Lebrun)

Full review

World premiere

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Kumiko The Treasure Hunter)

Review preview for Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

As Kumiko’s journey takes her deeper into Minnesota, the breathtaking ‘Americana’ landscapes and intriguingly surreal score work together to suggest a heightened state, or a fable.

Owen Van Spall · 4 out of 5
A young Japanese woman obsessed with Fargo heads to Minnesota in search of lost treasure.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: David Zellner; Writer: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner; Stars: Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Shirley Venard, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Kanako Higashi, Ichi Kyokaku, Ayaka Ohnishi, Mayuko Kawakita, Takao Kinoshita, Yumiko Hioki, Natsuki Kanno, Brad Prather, Earl Milton, Madde Gibba)

Full review

International premiere

Los Ángeles

A boy joins a gang in a bid to make the illegal move from Mexico to Los Angeles.

(Country: Mexico, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Damian John Harper; Writer: Damian John Harper, Sarah Bräuer; Stars: Mateo Bautista Matías, Marcos Rodríguez Ruíz, Lidia García, Daniel Bautista, Donaciano Bautista Matías, Prisciliano Martínez Ruíz, Ambrosio Sánchez, Nieves Gutiérrez, Valentina Ojeda, Chivis Gutiérrez, Adolfo López Cruz, Andrea García García, Eugenia Bautista de López, Quirino Mateo Antonio, Manuel Ojeda)

World premiere

Non-Fiction Diary

What do savage serial killings have to do with the collapse of both a department store and a busy road bridge in Seoul?

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2013; Director: Jung Yoon-suk ; Writer: Jung Yoon-suk ; Stars: Ko Byung-chun, Kim Hyung-tae, Park Sang-gu, Jo Sung-ae, Oh Hu-geun, Oh Young-rok, Jung Hyung-bok, Han Wan-sang )

International premiere. Documentary

N - The Madness Of Reason (N: The Madness Of Reason)

Review preview for N - The Madness Of Reason

A truly remarkable film.

Robert Munro · 4.5 out of 5
Drawing connections between European adventurer Raymond Borremans and present-day Africa.

(Country: Belgium, Germany, Netherlands; Year: 2014; Director: Peter Krüger; Stars: Michael Lonsdale, Wendyam Sawadogo)

Full review

World premiere

Parasite (Huba)

An old man who bears the scars of a life of factory work. A woman, alone apart from her small baby, who moves in with him. The film sketches out the day-to-day lives of the three of them, taking in their cramped quarters and mutual dependency, thrown back on bare existence.

(Year: 2014; Director: Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal; Stars: Joanna Drozda, Jerzy Gajlikowski, Wojtek Slowik)

World premiere

Scent Of Revolution (Arij)

Four people recount their experiences in Egypt: The owner of the largest collection of photo negatives in the country, a Coptic political activist, an elderly socialist writer, and a younger cyberspace designer.

(Country: Egypt, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Viola Shafik)

World premiere. Special screening.

Scrap Yard

Documentary about men bonding at a scrap yard.

(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Nadège Trébal)

International premiere. Documentary

Seaburners (Kumun Tadi)

Between Istanbul's sordid neighborhoods and a destitute border village, Hamit, drives back and forth...

(Country: Turkey; Year: 2014; Director: Melisa Önel; Writer: Feride Çiçekoglu, Feride Çiçekoglu, Melisa Önel, Melisa Önel; Stars: Mustafa Uzunyilmaz, Sanem Öge, Edanur Tekin, Hakan Karsak, Selen Uçer, Mira Furlan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Timuçin Esen)

World premiere

The Second Game (Al doilea joc)

The director and his father watch a 1988 football match which the father refereed, their commentary accompanying the original television images in real time.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2014; Director: Corneliu Porumboiu; Stars: Adrian Porumboiu, Corneliu Porumboiu)

World premiere. Documentary

Shadow Days (Gui ri zi)

Trouble brews for a man and his pregnant girlfriend when they return to his remote birthplace.

(Country: China; Year: 2014; Director: Zhao Dayong; Writer: Zhao Dayong; Stars: Li Ziqian)

World premiere

The Shape Of The Night (Yoru no henrin)

A factory worker finds herself pushed into prostitution.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1964; Director: Noboru Nakamura; Writer: Toshidi Gondo, Kyoko Ohta; Stars: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijirô Hira, Keisuke Sonoi, Masuyo Iwamoto, Misako Tominaga, Bunta Sugawara, Isao Kimura)

New 35mm print

She's Lost Control

A sex surrogate runs into problems.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Anja Marquardt; Writer: Anja Marquardt; Stars: Brooke Bloom, Marc Menchaca, Dennis Boutsikaris, Laila Robins, Tobias Segal, Robert Longstreet, Roxanne Day, Ryan Homchick, Gregory Korostishevsky, Henry Stram, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Michael Medeiros, Pierre Epstein, Danny Boushebel, Vin Scialla)

World premiere

Souvenir

Alfred D. is fond of travelling, a veritable collector of countries. While on his travels, he films the world and himself.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: André Siegers)

World premiere. Documentary

The Square (Al Midan)

Review preview for The Square

As a reflection of the mood and struggles of those seeking democratic change it is immersive and visceral even if its up close and personal approach means that the political sphere is rendered in broad brushstroke terms.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Examination of the revolution in Egypt, from the perspective of a group of activists.

(Country: Egypt, US; Year: 2013; Director: Jehane Noujaim)

Full review

Documentary. Special screening

Snowpiercer (Snow Piercer)

Review preview for Snowpiercer

The mix of action and satire also turns it into an absorbing hell of a ride.

Sophie Charlotte Rieger · 4.5 out of 5
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.

(Country: South Korea, US, France; Year: 2013; Director: Bong Joon Ho; Writer: Bong Joon Ho, Kelly Masterson, based on the story by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, Jean-Marc Rochette; Stars: Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Luke Pasqualino, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Alison Pill, Ed Harris, Ewen Bremner, Song Kang-ho, Kenny Doughty, Steve Park, Adnan Haskovic, Clark Middleton, Tómas Lemarquis)

Full review See: Interview with Bong Joon-ho about Snowpiercer , Interview with John Hurt about Snowpiercer

World premiere

Tender Are The Feet (Ché phawa daw nu nu)

Restoration of this Burmese romance between a drummer and a dancer.

(Country: Burma; Year: 1972; Director: Maung Wunna; Writer: Aung Lin, Min Shin; Stars: San San Aye, Zaw Win)

Thou Wast Mild And Lovely

Review preview for Thou Wast Mild And Lovely

The plot may be clear and the tonal shifts from comedy to erotica and horror impressively handled but the character motivations are frustratingly fuzzy.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
Romance - and trouble - brew on a farm in Kentucky.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Josephine Decker; Writer: David Barker, Josephine Decker, Josephine Decker; Stars: Joe Swanberg, Sophie Traub, Robert Longstreet, Kristin Slaysman, Matt Orme)

Full review

World premiere

Top Girl oder la déformation professionnelle (Top Girl or la déformation professionnelle)

Drama about a mother who makes ends meet by working as a sex escort.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Tatjana Turanskyj; Writer: Tatjana Turanskyj; Stars: Julia Hummer, Rolf Peter Kahl, Susanne Bredehöft, Stefan Mehren, Karim Cherif, Susanne Strach, Samia Dauenhauer, Katharina Bellena, Anna Schmidt, Sabine Weithöner, Mario Pokatzky)

World premiere

To Singapore, with Love

Singaporean political exiles forced out 35 or 50 years ago – and who are to this day not permitted to return unless they die and their relatives bring back their ashes - discuss their native city-state.

(Country: Singapore; Year: 2013; Director: Pin Pin Tan; Writer: Pin Pin Tan)

World premiere. Documentary

Velvet Terrorists (Zamatoví teroristi)

Three men who planned or commited acts of terror against the Czechoslovakian regime of the 80s re-enact their former deeds and talk about their lives today.

(Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia; Year: 2013; Director: Péter Kerekes, Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarcik; Writer: Péter Kerekes, Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarcik)

World premiere