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Berlin International Film Festival · 2017

Berlin International Film Festival 2017

Berlinale Special

Programme

21 films · 2 reviews

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4 Blocks

A man trying to escape a life of crime is sucked back into it after his brother-in-law is arrested.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Marvin Kren; Writer: Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad, Marvin Kren, Richard Kropf; Stars: Kida Khodr Ramadan, Frederick Lau, Veysel, Maryam Zaree, Oliver Masucci, Ludwig Trepte, Sami Nasser, Wasiem Taha, Almila Bagriacik, Raymond Tarabay)

An Englishman In New York

John Hurt reprises his role as Quentin Crisp in a dramatisation of the second part of his memoirs.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Richard Laxton; Writer: Brian Fillis; Stars: John Hurt, Denis O'Hare, Jonathan Tucker, Swoozie Kurtz, Cynthia Nixon)

Shown in tribute to John Hurt

Below The Surface (Gidseltagningen)

Fifteen people are taken hostage on an underground train but the government refuses to pay the ransom.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2017; Director: Christian E Christiansen, Roni Ezra, Kasper Barfoed; Writer: Kasper Barfoed, Per Daumiller, Michael W Horsten, Astrid Øye; Stars: Johannes Lassen, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Paprika Steen, Sus Wilkins, Tommy Kenter, Alba August, Anders Nyborg, Michael Asmussen, Alexandre Willaume, Peder Thomas Pedersen, Adnan Haskovic, Muhamed Hadzovic, Kenneth M. Christensen, Esben Dalgaard Andersen, Flemming Enevold)

Black Spot

Residents of a small village begin to disappear.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2016; Director: Mathieu Missoffe)

The Bomb

An associative history of the atom bomb, told via a mixture of historical and contemporary footage edited together, deliberately eschewing a strict chronology.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari, Eric Schlosser)

Bye Bye Germany (Es war einmal in Deutschland... )

Drama about the post-war period from a Jewish perspective.

(Country: Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium; Year: 2017; Director: Sam Garbarski; Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Antje Traue, Mark Ivanir, Tim Seyfi, Hans Löw, Anatol Taubman, Pál Mácsai, Vaclav Jakoubek)

World premiere. Berlinale Special Gala at the Friedrichstadt-Palast

Close-Up

Story of a printer who posed as a director. Restored.

(Country: Iran; Year: 1990; Director: Abbas Kiarostami; Writer: Abbas Kiarostami; Stars: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah, Monoochehr Ahankhah, Mahrokh Ahankhah, Nayer Mohseni Zonoozi, Ahmad Reza Moayed Mohseni, Hossain Farazmand, Hooshang Shamaei, Mohammad Ali Barrati, Davood Goodarzi, Haj Ali Reza Ahmadi, Hassan Komaili, Davood Mohabbat)

Devil's Freedom (La libertad del diablo)

Stories behind the news headlines about those who have lost their lives in Mexico's drug wars.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2017; Director: Everardo González)

Eight Hours Don't Make A Day (Acht Stunden sind kein Tag)

TV series of five episodes.

(Country: West Germany; Year: 1972; Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Writer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Stars: Gottfried John, Hanna Schygulla, Luise Ullrich, Werner Finck, Wolfgang Schenck, Wolfgang Zerlett, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Grigorios Karipidis, Wolfried Lier, Hans Hirschmüller, Renate Roland, Anita Bucher, Karl Scheydt, Rainer Hauer, Andrea Schober)

World premiere of the restored version

In Times Of Fading Light (In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts)

Portrait of a disintegrating family.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Matti Geschonneck; Writer: Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Eugen Ruge; Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexander Fehling, Sylvester Groth, Pit Bukowski, Evgenia Dodina, Stephan Grossmann, Jean Denis Römer, Hildegard Schmahl, Sophie Pfennigstorf, Sarina Radomski)

World premiere. Berlinale Special Gala at the Zoo Palast

Last Days In Havana (Últimos días en La Habana)

Drama about the inhabitants of a tenement building, one of whom is waiting for a US visa.

(Country: Spain, Cuba; Year: 2016; Director: Fernando Pérez; Writer: Fernando Pérez, Abel Rodríguez; Stars: Jorge Martínez, Yailene Sierra, Patricio Wood)

European premiere

The Lost City Of Z

Review preview for The Lost City Of Z

Hunnam gives a compelling performance as a man railing against the bigotry of his time, and yet simultaneously embodying it as a white explorer in a place already well-known to its inhabitants.

Seph Shewell Brockway · 3.5 out of 5
The story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, whose search for a lost city in the Amazon grew into an obsession.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: James Gray; Writer: David Grann, James Gray; Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Angus Macfadyen, Daniel Huttlestone, Michael Ford-FitzGerald, Raquel Arraes, Edward Ashley, Bobby Smalldridge, Johann Myers, Nicholas Agnew, Frank Clem, Aleksandar Jovanovic, Michael Jenn)

Full review

Maudie

Review preview for Maudie

The performances under Walsh's direction capture the fine splinters of motivation and the mystery that we all are to each other.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Story of folk artist Maud Lewis.

(Country: Ireland, Canada; Year: 2016; Director: Aisling Walsh; Writer: Sherry White; Stars: Ethan Hawke, Sally Hawkins, Kari Matchett, Gabrielle Rose, Zachary Bennett, Billy MacLellan, Marthe Bernard, Lawrence Barry, Mike Daly, Nik Sexton, David Feehan, Greg Malone, Brian Marler, Judy Hancock, Denise Sinnott)

Full review See: Aisling Walsh in conversation on Maudie

Patriot

An undercover agent tries to stop Iran going nuclear.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Steve Conrad, Jim Whitaker; Writer: Steve Conrad, Bruce Terris, Gil Bellows; Stars: Marcus Toji, Michael Dorman, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Chernus, Kathleen Munroe, Kurtwood Smith, Aliette Opheim, Chris Conrad, Hana Mae Lee, Sylvie Sadarnac, Zoe Schwartz, Charlotte Arnold, Kane Mahon, Lizzy Leigh, Ralph Abbas)

A Prominent Patient

Story of a Czech diplomat who fled the country in 1939.

(Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia; Year: 2017; Director: Julius Sevcík; Writer: Petr Kolecko, Alex Königsmark, Julius Sevcík; Stars: Arly Jover, Karel Roden, Gina Bramhill, Dermot Crowley, Paul Nicholas, Hanns Zischler, Stewart Moss, Eva Herzigova, Joan Blackham, Milton Welsh, Tim Preece, Emília Vásáryová, Martin Hofmann, Oldrich Kaiser, Zuzana Krónerová)

World premiere. Berlinale Special at Kino International

The Queen Of Spain (La reina de España)

The misadventures of a Spanish crew during the filming of an American movie in 1950s Spain.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2016; Director: Fernando Trueba; Writer: Rafael Azcona, Manuel Ángel Egea, Carlos López, David Trueba, Fernando Trueba; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Cary Elwes, J.A. Bayona, Mandy Patinkin, Clive Revill, Javier Cámara, Santiago Segura, Jorge Sanz, Carlos Areces, Antonio Resines, Chino Darín, Loles León, Ana Belén, Neus Asensi, Gemma Cuervo)

International premiere

The Same Sky

A ‘Romeo’ agent is smuggled into 1970s West Berlin to capture the heart of a woman working for the NSA.

(Year: 2016; Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel; Writer: Paula Milne)

SS-GB

A British homicide detective investigates a murder in a German-occupied England in a parallel universe where the Nazis won World War II.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Philipp Kadelbach; Writer: Len Deighton, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade; Stars: Aneurin Barnard, Rainer Bock, Kate Bosworth, Jonathan Cass, James Cosmo, Maeve Dermody, Lars Eidinger, Jason Flemyng, Sam Riley, Bags Simmons, George Wakely, Lee Asquith-Coe, James M.L. Muller, Kit Connor, James Northcote)

The Trial: The State Of Russia Vs Oleg Sentsov

Documentary about the filmmaker and Maidan activist.

(Country: Estonia, Poland Czech Republic; Year: 2016; Director: Askold Kurov)

Werner Nekes - Das Leben Zwischen Den Bildern

Documentary about the experimental filmmaker.

(Director: Ulrike Pfeiffer)

The Young Karl Marx (Le jeune Karl Marx)

The early years of the philosopher.

(Country: France, Germany, Belgium; Year: 2016; Director: Raoul Peck; Writer: Pascal Bonitzer, Pascal Bonitzer, Pierre Hodgson, Raoul Peck, Raoul Peck; Stars: August Diehl, Stefan Konarske, Vicky Krieps, Olivier Gourmet, Hannah Steele, Eric Godon, Stephen Hogan, Rolf Kanies, Niels-Bruno Schmidt, Ulrich Brandhoff, Aran Bertetto, Denis Lyons, Damien Marchal, Annabelle Lewiston, Wiebke Adam)

World premiere