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Berlin International Film Festival · 2017

Berlin International Film Festival 2017

Competition

Programme

23 films · 10 reviews

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Ana, Mon Amour

A man's endurance is pushed to the limit by his romance with a woman who suffers mental health issues.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2017; Director: Cãlin Peter Netzer; Writer: Cãlin Peter Netzer, Cezar Paul Badescu, Iulia Lumânare; Stars: Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti, Carmen Tanase, Vasile Muraru, Adrian Titieni, Tania Popa, Igor Caras-Romanov, Ionut Caras, Ioana Flora, Vlad Ivanov, Razvan Vasilescu, Elena Voineag, Irina Noaptes, Meda Andreea Victor, Catalina Moga)

World premiere

The Bar

A group of strangers are trapped inside a bar.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Álex de la Iglesia; Writer: Álex de la Iglesia, Jorge Guerricaechevarría; Stars: Mario Casas, Blanca Suárez, José Sacristán, Carmen Machi, Terele Pávez, Jaime Ordóñez, Joaquín Climent, Secun de la Rosa, Alejandro Awada, Jordi Aguilar, Diego Braguinsky, Mamen García)

World premiere. Out of competition

Beuys

Portrait of the German artist.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Andres Veiel; Writer: Andres Veiel; Stars: Joseph Beuys)

World premiere

Bright Nights (Helle Nächte)

A man who hasn't seen his teenage son in years travels to a funeral with him.

(Country: Germany, Norway; Year: 2017; Director: Thomas Arslan; Stars: Georg Friedrich, Tristan Göbel, Marie Leuenberger, Hanna Karlberg)

World premiere

Colo

A family find their roles shifting in the wake of the economic crisis.

(Country: Portugal, France; Year: 2017; Director: Teresa Villaverde; Writer: Teresa Villaverde; Stars: João Pedro Vaz, Alice Albergaria Borges, Beatriz Batarda, Clara Jost, Rita Blanco, Simone de Oliveira, Marcello Urgeghe, Dinis Gomes, Ricardo Aibéo, Tomás Gomes, Angela Cerveira)

World premiere

The Dinner

How far will parents go to protect their children?

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Oren Moverman; Writer: Oren Moverman, based on the novel by Herman Koch; Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Taylor Rae Almonte, Joel Bissonnette, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Dominic Colón, Benjamin Snyder, Robert McKay, Onika Day)

See: Article about highlights of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

World premiere

A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica)

Review preview for A Fantastic Woman

Lelio makes no bones about how he wants us to feel, to the point where it sometimes feels as though he is stating the obvious is six-foot neon letters.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A transgender woman fights for the right to grieve after the death of her partner.

(Country: Chile, Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Sebastián Lelio; Writer: Sebastián Lelio, Gonzalo Maza; Stars: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Amparo Noguera)

Full review

World premiere

Final Portrait

Review preview for Final Portrait

Just because you signal to an audience that you're purposefully making them watch paint dry does not make the experience of it any less tedious.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
Swiss painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti tries to paint a portrait.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Stanley Tucci; Writer: Stanley Tucci; Stars: Armie Hammer, Geoffrey Rush, Sylvie Testud, Clémence Poésy, Tony Shalhoub, James Faulkner, Attila G. Kerekes, Martyn Mayger, Philippe Spall, Begona F. Martin, Dolly Jagdeo, Laura Bernardeschi, Takatsuna Mukai, Maria Teresa Capasso, Laetitia Cazaux)

Full review

Out of competition

Félicité

Review preview for Félicité

The film’s most gripping aspect is the delicacy with which it handles its extraordinary emotional depth

Evelin Toth · 3.5 out of 5
Story of a singer who finds herself in desperate circumstances after her son has an accident.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2016; Director: Alain Gomis; Writer: Alain Gomis, Olivier Loustau, Delphine Zingg; Stars: Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu, Gaetan Claudia, Papi Mpaka, Nadine Ndebo, Elbas Manuana, Diplome Amekindra, Célestin Mokono, François Kasonga, Prince Mbasi, Ferdinand Minga, Aziza Kengumbe, José Lusala, Plaisir Mumbula, Nathan Mulumba, Claudine Lumbu)

Full review

World premiere

Have A Nice Day (Hao ji le)

A bag containing a million yuan draws several people from diverse backgrounds with different personal motives into a bloody conflict.

(Country: China; Year: 2017; Director: Liu Jian)

Out of competition

Joaquim

Historical drama sees a man go on the hunt for gold in order to secure his lover's freedom.

(Country: Brazil, Portugal; Year: 2017; Director: Marcelo Gomes; Stars: Nuno Lopes, Welket Bungué, Diogo Dória, Rômulo Braga, Júlio Machado, Isabél Zuaa, Paulo André, Eduardo Moreira, Miguel Pinheiro, Antônio Edson, Chico Pelúcio)

World premiere

Logan

Review preview for Logan

The film overdoses on violence. There is no escape from it.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2.5 out of 5
In the near future, an ageing Wolverine and Professor X must protect a young female clone of Wolverine from an evil organisation.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: James Mangold; Writer: Scott Frank, James Mangold, Michael Green; Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Stephen Merchant, Richard E Grant, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Boyd Holbrook)

Full review

World premiere. Out of competition

The Midwife (Sage Femme)

Review preview for The Midwife

The acting here is of high quality, with Frot shading just enough warmth and melancholy into Claire to stop her becoming a total wet blanket... Deneuve, throwing caution to the wind

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A midwife's life is shaken up by the arrival of her father's old flame.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Martin Provost; Writer: Martin Provost; Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Frot, Olivier Gourmet, Quentin Dolmaire, Mylène Demongeot, Pauline Etienne, Pauline Parigot, Marie Gili-Pierre, Jeanne Rosa, Élise Oppong, Ingrid Heiderscheidt, Jacques Mechelany, Ana Rodriguez, Karidja Touré, Jisca Kalvanda)

Full review

Mr Long

A hitman finds himself forging an connection with a family after he goes into hiding.

(Country: Japan, Germany, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan; Year: 2016; Director: Sabu; Writer: Sabu; Stars: Chen Chang, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Junyin Bai)

World premiere

On The Beach At Night Alone (Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja)

After an affair, an actress decides to travel to a far-flung destination to consider her life.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2017; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Jung Jaeyoung, Moon Sungkeun, Kwon Haehyo, Song Seonmi, Ahn Jaehong, Park Yeaju)

World premiere

On Body And Soul (Teströl és lélekröl)

Review preview for On Body And Soul

There is a fragility and brittleness to this but also an underlying warm sweetness that might just melt your heart.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A slaughterhouse becomes an unlikely setting for romance.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2017; Director: Ildikó Enyedi; Writer: Ildikó Enyedi; Stars: Morcsányi Géza, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider, Ervin Nagy, Tamás Jordán, Zsuzsa Járó, Réka Tenki, Júlia Nyakó, Itala Békés, Pál Mácsai, Annamária Fodor, Márton Patkós, Gusztáv Molnár, István Dankó, Vivien Rujder)

Full review

World premiere

The Other Side Of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen)

Review preview for The Other Side Of Hope

The director has a flare for encapsulating a world of emotion in a single moment.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A middle-aged restaurateur befriends a young refugee.

(Country: Finland; Year: 2017; Director: Aki Kaurismäki; Writer: Aki Kaurismäki; Stars: Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Simon Al-Bazoon, Janne Hyytiäinen, Nuppu Koivu, Ilkka Koivula, Kaija Pakarinen, Kati Outinen, Tommi Korpela, Ville Virtanen, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Taneli Mäkelä, Sulevi Peltola, Maria Järvenhelmi, Antti Virmavirta)

Full review

International premiere

The Party

A celebration goes awry.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Sally Potter; Writer: Sally Potter; Stars: Cillian Murphy, Emily Mortimer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall, Patricia Clarkson, Cherry Jones, Bruno Ganz)

World premiere

Return To Montauk

An author comes to New York to promote his book and meets again, the woman who inspired the novel he is presenting.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Volker Schlöndorff; Writer: Volker Schlöndorff, Colm Tóibín; Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Nina Hoss, Susanne Wolff, Niels Arestrup, Isi Laborde-Edozien, Bronagh Gallagher, Mathias Sanders, Malcolm Adams, Rebecca Knox, Robert Seeliger, Paul Bonin, Daniel Brunet, Ray Wiederhold, Olga Lezhneva, Erik Hansen)

World premiere

Spoor (Pokot)

Review preview for Spoor

It has the ungainly but attractive ambience of an old fairy tale being passed down through the generations, becoming more and more embellished on each retelling.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
An elderly woman is convinced she knows what lies behind a spate of mysterious crimes... but nobody will believe her.

(Country: Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia; Year: 2017; Director: Agnieszka Holland, Kasia Adamik; Writer: Agnieszka Holland, Stepán Hulík, Olga Tokarczuk; Stars: Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka, Wiktor Zborowski, Jakub Gierszal, Patrycja Volny, Miroslav Krobot, Borys Szyc, Tomasz Kot, Andrzej Grabowski, Katarzyna Herman, Marcin Bosak, Andrzej Konopka, Sebastian Pawlak, Katarzyna Skarzanka, Monika Anna Wojtyllo, David Ali Hamade)

Full review

World premiere

T2 Trainspotting

Review preview for T2 Trainspotting

A unique piece of cinema, superbly performed and dangerously directed

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
Renton returns to Edinburgh after running off with the money to find the city changed and his mates in various degrees of rage and despair.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Danny Boyle; Writer: John Hodge, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh; Stars: Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner, Anjela Nedyalkova, Kelly Macdonald, Shirley Henderson, James Cosmo)

Full review

World premiere. Out of competition

Viceroy's House

Review preview for Viceroy's House

Such an important story cannot be squeezed into 106 minutes. The politics are complex and the religious conflict on a Syrian scale of horror

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3 out of 5
In 1947, Lord Mountbatten assumes the post of last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people, living upstairs at the house which was the home of British rulers, whilst 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants lived downstairs.

(Country: UK, India; Year: 2017; Director: Gurinder Chadha; Writer: Paul Mayeda Berges, Moira Buffini, Gurinder Chadha; Stars: Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Michael Gambon, Simon Callow, Manish Dayal, Huma Qureshi, Om Puri, Lily Travers, Tanveer Ghani, Dezil Smith, Neeraj Kabi)

Full review

World premiere. Out of competition

Wild Mouse (Wilde Maus)

After a critic is made redundant, he embarks on a terror campaign.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Josef Hader; Stars: Nora von Waldstätten, Josef Hader, Georg Friedrich, Denis Moschitto, Jörg Hartmann, Crina Semciuc, Pia Hierzegger)

World premiere