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Berlin International Film Festival · 2015

Berlin International Film Festival 2015

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13 films · 6 reviews

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Androids Dream (Sueñan los androides)

Review preview for Androids Dream

There is little within the film that is obviously futuristic, but you do not need special effects to represent the future - a depressing dystopia is already being lived.

Rebecca Naughten · 4 out of 5
Benidorm, 2052.

(Country: Germany, Spain; Year: 2014; Director: Ion De Sosa; Writer: Ion de Sosa, Jorge Gil Munarriz, Chema García Ibarra; Stars: Manolo Marín, Moisés Richart, Marta Bassols, Coque Sánchez, Margot Sánchez, Óscar de la Huerga, César Velasco, Begoña Alarcón, Eva Swoboda, Begoña Jiménez Velasco, Pilar López Cepeda, Harold Delgado, Ahmed Rizwan, Hermina Ruiz, Antonia del Río)

Full review See: Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival preview , Interview with Ion de Sosa and Chema García Ibarra about Androids Dream (Sueñan los androides) , D'A Festival preview

Counting

Review preview for Counting

We are in Calvino territory, seeking out the invisible all around us.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Fifteen distinct but interconnected chapters, shot in locations from Russia to New York City to Istanbul. Together, these build to a reckoning at the intersection of city symphony, diary, and essay film.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Jem Cohen)

Full review

Exotica, Erotica, Etc. (Exotica, Erotica Inc)

“Sailors are like terrorists. They arrive in ports with a bomb called love and throw it,” says former prostitute Sandy, protagonist of this documentary.

(Country: France; Year: 2015; Director: Evangelia Kranioti; Writer: Evangelia Kranioti)

Fish Tail (Rabo De Peixe)

a portrait of a fishing community on the Azorean island of Rabo de Peixe.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2015; Director: Joaquim Pinto, Nuno Leonel)

The Forbidden Room

Review preview for The Forbidden Room

What is quite wonderful in all this flowing and "fade, fade, fade," fading is that the characters and their stories belong to no one specifically. They belong to a cinematic spirit world and maybe nobody even wanted them.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a battalion of child soldiers all get more than they bargained for as they wend their way toward progressive ideas on life and love.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2015; Director: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson; Writer: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk, John Ashbery, Kim Morgan; Stars: Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Udo Kier, Gregory Hlady, Mathieu Amalric, Noel Burton, Geraldine Chaplin, Paul Ahmarani, Caroline Dhavernas, Jacques Nolot, Slimane Dazi, Maria de Medeiros, Charlotte Rampling, Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon)

Full review

The Gulls (Chaiki)

A woman struggles with life in a loveless marriage.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2015; Director: Ella Manzheeva; Stars: Evgeniy Sangadzhiev)

H.

Two women, each named Helen, find their lives spinning out of control after a meteor allegedly explodes over their city of Troy, New York.

(Country: US, Argentina; Year: 2014; Director: Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia; Writer: Rania Attieh, Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia, Daniel Garcia; Stars: Robin Bartlett, Rebecca Dayan, Will Janowitz, Julian Gamble, Roger Robinson, Roseann Cane, Kristopher Kling, Don Rittner, Jacob Devik, Nicole Emmons, Paul Hickert, Terrance Kimball, Jay Potter, Nicholas Turner, Dannielle Rose)

K

A land surveyor finds himself trapped in administrative chaos in a remote frontier village in a modern-day adaptation of Kafka's The Castle.

(Country: China; Year: 2015; Director: Erdenibulag Darhad, Emyr ap Richard; Writer: Emyr ap Richard, based on The Castle by Franz Kafka; Stars: Bayin, Jula, Yirgui, Zandaraa, Altanochir, Urinshaa, Borgil, Baatar Sregüleng, Oyunsang, Jüdengowa, Jinba, Ayur, Erdenibulag Darhad, As, Habura)

Koza (Goat)

Review preview for Koza

Its refusal to treat fights as spectacle, together with its austere editing and static camera, provides a melancholic grounding.

Luke Shaw · 4 out of 5
A boxer comes out of retirement to help his girlfriend pay for an abortion.

(Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic; Year: 2015; Director: Ivan Ostrochovsky; Stars: Peter Balaz, Zvonko Lakcevic, Jan Franek,Stanislava Bongilajova, Nikola Bongilajova, Tatiana Piussi)

Full review

The Money Complex (El complejo de dinero, Der Geldcomplex)

A man and his friends arrive at his family's villa to announce his wedding plans.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Juan Rodrigáñez; Writer: Eloy Enciso, Eduard Mont de Palol, Juan Rodrigáñez; Stars: Lola Rubio, Gianfranco Poddighe, Rafael Lamata, Eduard Mont de Palol, Jorge Dutor, Katrin Memmer, Pablo Herranz, Juan Rodrigáñez, Cecilia Molano, Julia de Castro, Miguel Rodrigáñez)

Portrait Of The Artist

Review preview for Portrait Of The Artist

[A] thorny, intangible and episodic cinematic dream.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 3.5 out of 5
A filmmaker becomes obsessed with the film of his next movie.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Antoine Barraud; Writer: Antoine Barraud; Stars: Bertrand Bonello, Jeanne Balibar, Géraldine Pailhas, Joana Preiss, Pascal Greggory, Valérie Dréville, Nicolas Maury, Barbet Schroeder, Sigrid Bouaziz, Nathalie Boutefeu, Marta Hoskins, Nâzim Boudjenah, Catherine Libert, Charlotte Rampling, Isild Le Besco)

Full review

Queen Of Earth

Review preview for Queen Of Earth

A psychologically astute and darkly funny look at the deep bonds of female friendship and the damage that can be wrought by those closest to you.

Rebecca Naughten · 4.5 out of 5
Following her father's suicide and breaking up with her boyfriend, Catherine seeks refuge with her friend Virginia, but the young woman's shaky grasp on reality strains their relationship to breaking point.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Alex Ross Perry; Writer: Alex Ross Perry; Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Katherine Waterston, Patrick Fugit, Kate Lyn Sheil, Kentucker Audley, Keith Poulson)

Full review See: Alex Ross Perry and Elisabeth Moss in conversation on Queen of Earth

The Valley (Al-Wadi)

An unknown man survives a car accident in the middle of the Bekaa Valley with just a few scratches and the loss of his memory.

(Country: Lebanon, Germany, France, Qatar; Year: 2014; Director: Ghassan Salhab; Writer: Ghassan Salhab; Stars: Carol Abboud, Fadi Abi Samra, Mounzer Baalbaki, Carlos Chahine, Ahmad Ghossein, Aouni Kawas, Yumna Marwan, Rodrigue Sleiman)