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Festival coverage

Berlin International Film Festival

1 March – 5 March 2021

Due to the pandemic, the Berlin Film Festival will take place in two parts this year - an industry-geared online event from March 1 to 5 and a Summer Special event to run from June 9 to 20, which is intended to include physical screenings of the selection.

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Latest reviews

  • Beans
    Review preview for Beans

    If they sometimes have trouble moving seamlessly between the smaller dramas of childhood and the bigger picture of the protests, each element of the film carries resonance in its own right.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.
  • Moon, 66 Questions
    Review preview for Moon, 66 Questions

    This is impressionistic filmmaking and the young director handles it with extraordinary confidence.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    When a grave illness strikes down her father Paris, Artemis decides to return home to Greece after an absence of some years and the pair embark on a new beginning.
  • As I Want
    Review preview for As I Want

    The personal emotion of its director Samaher Alqadi punches through the centre of it hard - which gives her film a searing edge even if much of it feels scrappy and politically muddied.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    A consideration of violence against women in Egypt in the wake of Morsi's rise to power.
  • Memory Box
    Review preview for Memory Box

    The memories have the vibrant immediacy of teenage energy and are treated by Hadjithomas and her co-director Khalil Joreige in the same spirited fashion.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Three generations of women in Canada, deal with memories of their homeland of Lebanon.
  • A Cop Movie
    Review preview for A Cop Movie

    For all its intricacy and cleverness, this is a film that never loses its central focus.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    A docufiction dive into the Mexican police force.
  • Azor
    Review preview for Azor

    Many doors are not very open, they give us merely a little glimpse into a strange world.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
    Thriller set in the world of high finance.
  • Bliss
    Review preview for Bliss

    Bliss is one of those films whose craft may not immediately be apparent to the average viewer, but it’s a beautifully constructed piece of work.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    Two sex workers meet in a Berlin brothel. In a place where the female body is a commodity, they experience moments of happiness.
  • I'm Your Man
    Review preview for I'm Your Man

    Watching Alma grow closer to Tom is bittersweet – not least because she knows the danger.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    In the near future, a scientist finds herself agreeing to live with a humanoid "partnership robot" in order to fund her research.
  • Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn
    Review preview for Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn

    At times, the dialogue is well done, scores points. At other times, it felt like we had wandered into a Socratic symposium.

    Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
    Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet.
  • Petite Maman
    Review preview for Petite Maman

    The autumn setting fits it perfectly, because although this is the change of the year as things die back for winter, it is also blazing with colour and hopefulness.

    Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
    Something magical happens to a young girl after the death of her grandma.

A–Z of Berlin International Film Festival 2021 reviews

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