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Berlin International Film Festival · 2020

Berlin International Film Festival 2020

Encounters

Programme

15 films · 4 reviews

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Funny Face

In a Brooklyn threatened by disfigurement from greedy urban developers, two young people meet in a late-night bodega. Their unexpected bond takes on a romantic tone and brings solace to these two superheroes who are powerless in the face of oppression.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Tim Sutton; Writer: Tim Sutton; Stars: Cosmo Jarvis, Dela Meskienyar, Jonny Lee Miller, Jeremy Bobb, Dan Hedaya, Victor Garber, Rhea Perlman)

Gunda

Review preview for Gunda

The language captured here speaks volumes. The animals’ faces, their reactions and movements, remind doubters of their sentient nature in every shot.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Pigs, cows and chickens. Intimate portraits of living beings who wind up dead on a plate every day.

(Country: Norway, US; Year: 2020; Director: Victor Kossakovsky)

Full review

Isabella

A woman trying to win a Shakespearean role keeps another woman who reminds her of her failures and makes her doubt herself.

(Country: Argentina, France; Year: 2020; Director: Matías Piñeiro; Writer: Matías Piñeiro; Stars: María Villar, Agustina Muñoz, Pablo Sigal, Gabriela Saidon, María Villar, Agustina Muñoz, Pablo Sigal, Gabriela Saidon)

Kill It And Leave This Town (Zabij to i wyjedz z tego miasta)

Autobiographical animation.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2020; Director: Mariusz Wilczynski; Writer: Mariusz Wilczynski; Stars: Andrzej Wajda, Daniel Olbrychski, Krystyna Janda, Maja Ostaszewska, Magdalena Cielecka, Anna Dymna, Malgorzata Kozuchowska, Andrzej Chyra, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Barbara Krafftówna, Marek Kondrat, Mariusz Wilczynski, Anja Rubik, Krzysztof Kowalewski, Irena Kwiatkowska)

The Last City (Die Letzte Stadt)

In Be’er Sheva, Berlin, Athens, Hong Kong and São Paolo, Heinz Emigholz stages a series of provocative and unforgettable encounters that deal with social taboos that have become obsolete, generational conflicts, war guilt and cosmologies.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Heinz Emigholz; Writer: Heinz Emigholz; Stars: John Erdman, Dorothy Ko, Jonathan Perel, Susanne Sachße, Young Sun Han, Laurean Wagner, John Erdman, Dorothy Ko, Jonathan Perel, Susanne Sachße, Young Sun Han, Laurean Wagner)

Los Conductos

Pinky is on the run. Ghosts are chasing him through an empty, apocalyptic city.

(Country: France, Colombia, Brazil; Year: 2020; Director: Camilo Restrepo; Writer: Camilo Restrepo; Stars: Fernando Úsaga Higuíta, Luis Felipe Lozano, Fernando Úsaga Higuíta, Luis Felipe Lozano)

Malmkrog

Review preview for Malmkrog

There is more substance of thought in one minute of this film than most movies are able to produce in an hour.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Guests at the mansion of man of the world Nikolai discuss death, the Antichrist, history and rule, progress and morality.

(Country: Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia; Year: 2020; Director: Cristi Puiu; Writer: Cristi Puiu, based on the book by Vladimir Solovyov; Stars: Agathe Bosch, Ugo Broussot, Marina Palii, Diana Sakalauskaité, Frédéric Schulz-Richard, István Teglas)

Full review

The Metamorphosis Of Birds (A metamorfose dos pássaros)

Review preview for The Metamorphosis Of Birds

For a short time, this cinematic jewel lets us travel back to when the migration of birds was a mystery to man.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Beatriz and Henrique fall in love and get married. He goes to sea while she raises their inquisitive children. The director brings her family's story to the screen.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2020; Director: Catarina Vasconcelos; Writer: Catarina Vasconcelos; Stars: Manuel Rosa, João Móra, Ana Vasconcelos, Henrique Vasconcelos, Inês Campos, Catarina Vasconcelos, José Manuel Mendes, João Pedro Mamede, Cláudia Varejão, Luísa Ministro, José Maria Rosa, João Vasconcelos, Nuno Vasconcelos)

Full review

Naked Animals

Coming-of-age drama focused on five young people in provincial Germany.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Melanie Waelde; Writer: Melanie Waelde; Stars: Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Luna Baptiste Schaller, Markus von Lingen, Luna Arwen Krüger, Marie Tragousti, Sammy Scheuritzel, Ulrike Hübschmann, Paul Michael Stiehler, Florian Schmidtke, Xenia Tiling, Marie Meissner, Katrin Beckmann, Gustav Stolze, Marianna Linden)

Orphea

A switched gender version of Orpheus and Eurydice.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Khavn, Alexander Kluge; Writer: Douglas Candano, Khavn, Alexander Kluge; Stars: Lilith Stangenberg, Ian Madrigal, Lilith Stangenberg, Ian Madrigal)

Servants (Sluzobnici)

Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s. The Communist regime threatens to subjugate the Catholic Church. Will young seminarians Michal and Juraj remain true to their ideals?

(Country: Slovakia, Romania, Czech Republic, Ireland; Year: 2020; Director: Ivan Ostrochovský; Writer: Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Marek Lescák, Ivan Ostrochovský; Stars: Vlad Ivanov, Martin Sulík, Samuel Skyva, Milan Mikulcík, Zvonko Lakcevic, Vladimír Zboron, Tomas Turek, Vladimír Strnisko, Vladimír Obsil, Samuel Polakovic, Vlad Ivanov, Martin Sulík, Samuel Skyva, Milan Mikulcík, Zvonko Lakcevic)

The Shepherdess And The Seven Songs (Laila aur satt geet)

Story of love and temptation set against the backdrop of the Kashmir conflict.

(Country: India; Year: 2020; Director: Pushpendra Singh; Stars: Navjot Randhawa, Shahnawaz Bhat, Ranjit Khajuria, Sadakkit Bijran, Mohammed Yassen, Navjot Randhawa, Shahnawaz Bhat, Ranjit Khajuria, Sadakkit Bijran, Mohammed Yassen)

Shirley

Review preview for Shirley

Before, it often felt as though Decker was drifting off onto self-indulgent tangents but her latest feels much more under control, with those tangents are a fully fledged part of the portrait.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A young couple moves in with the famed author, Shirley Jackson, and her Bennington College professor husband, Stanley Hyman, in the hope of starting a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Shirley's next novel.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Josephine Decker; Writer: Sarah Gubbins, Susan Scarf Merrell; Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Logan Lerman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, Margarita Allen, Steve Vinovich, Ryan Spahn, Lexa Hayes, Adelind Horan, Molly Fahey, Allen McCullough, Thomas Racek, Edward O'Blenis, Emily Decker, Tony Manna)

Full review

The Trouble With Being Born

Ten-year-old Elli is an android. She loves the man she calls “Daddy” and is the vessel for his memories, which mean nothing to her, but everything to him.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Sandra Wollner; Writer: Sandra Wollner; Stars: Jana McKinnon, Ingrid Burkhard, Susanne Gschwendtner, Dominik Warta, Lena Watson, Jana McKinnon, Ingrid Burkhard, Susanne Gschwendtner, Dominik Warta, Lena Watson)

The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) (Werke und Tage (der Tayoko Shiojiri im Shiotanibecken))

Portrait of the work and non-work of a farmer in a village in the mountains of Kyoto Prefecture.

(Country: US, Sweden, Japan, UK; Year: 2020; Director: CW Winter, Anders Edström; Stars: Tayoko Shiojiri, Hiroharu Shikata, Ryo Kase, Mai Edström, Kaoru Iwahana)