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Festival coverage

Berlin International Film Festival

7 February – 17 February 2019

The 69th Berlinale will run from February 7 to 17. It will open with The Kindness of Strangers by Lone Scherfig. The titles are continuing to be announced.

Other years (15)

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Latest reviews

  • The Shadow Play
    Review preview for The Shadow Play

    The actors do their best but Lou is far more interested in how rain looks blazing in the light of car headlights or how a fight scene might benefit from some nice pirouettes than he is in developing character.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
    After a property boss falls to his death, a rookie cop investigates.
  • Buoyancy
    Review preview for Buoyancy

    Rathjen captures the monotony of this existence and the casual violence of it with mounting tension as Chakra himself becomes brutalised - we view key violent acts, not by watching them, but by observing the effect they have

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Story of a 14-year-old who is enslaved on a fishing trawler.
  • Piranhas
    Review preview for Piranhas

    The thing that makes Piranhas watchable is the performance of its star, Francesco Di Napoli.

    Donald Munro · 2 out of 5
    Criminal children seize power in a world without a future.
  • We Are Little Zombies
    Review preview for We Are Little Zombies

    Nagahisa...understands and embraces the complexity of early adolescence, when kids are finding their own way,

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Their parents are dead. They should be sad, but they can't cry. So they form a kick-ass band. This is the story of four 13-year-olds in search of their emotions.
  • House Of Hummingbird
    Review preview for House Of Hummingbird

    House Of Hummingbird centres on a quiet yet never passive performance from Park, who draws us into Eun-hee's world as we watch her absorbing and processing the events going on around her.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    She roams the neighbourhood with her best friend, attempts to fall in love, is sent to the hospital with an unclear diagnosis. Untethered from the wider world, 14-year-old Eun-hee floats through Seoul.
  • Ghost Town Anthology
    Review preview for Ghost Town Anthology

    The bleak chill of the Quebecois winter seeps into the very bones of Denis Côté's latest film, giving a sense of aching longing to the action.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    After a man dies in a car accident, time seems to lose all meaning for the residents of a small town... and then strangers begin to appear.
  • System Crasher
    Review preview for System Crasher

    This isn't an easy watch but it's a compelling one.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Nine-year-old Benni radically defies every rule. But this feared ‘system crasher’s’ only desire is to stop living in a residential home and go back to her mother.
  • Driveways
    Review preview for Driveways

    Beautifully acted all round, Driveways is a small film with a big heart.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Eight-year-old Cody is spending the summer in an unfamiliar setting with his mom Kathy. Though he can’t relate to the neighbourhood kids, things take an unexpected turn when he develops an unusual friendship with grouchy old Del from next door.
  • Out Stealing Horses
    Review preview for Out Stealing Horses

    With Petterson’s novel heavily focused on Trond’s inner life, it’s no easy task to bring it to the screen.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Trond Sander, 67, recalls the summer of 1948. When this blissful time came to an end, nothing was the same as before.
  • Jessica Forever
    Review preview for Jessica Forever

    The real star here is Marine Altan's cinematography, investing locations both lavish and drab with the kind of spiritual wonder seen only through the eyes of those who have always been outsiders.

    Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
    A group of orphan rebels are fortified in a villa with heavy arms to brace for a drone war with a faceless enemy in a dystopian future.

A–Z of Berlin International Film Festival 2019 reviews

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