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Berlin International Film Festival · 2023

Berlin International Film Festival 2023

Encounters

Programme

16 films · 2 reviews

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Absence (Xue yun)

After ten years in prison, Han Jiangyu returns to Hainan Island. Housing construction is booming, his childhood friend is now rich. Searching for traces of the familiar, Jiangyu meets his old love who now has a daughter.

(Country: China; Year: 2023; Director: Wu Lang; Stars: Lee Kang-Sheng, Li Meng, Ren Ke, Liang Wanling)

World premiere

The Adults

The plan to make a trip back home as short as possible begins to unravel when Eric has to balance his addiction to poker with the challenging relationships with his two sisters Rachel and Maggie.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Dustin Guy Defa; Stars: Michael Cera, Hannah Gross, Sophia Lillis)

World premiere

Bad Living (Mal Viver)

Five women are running an old hotel. A long-standing, perhaps irreparable conflict weighs down on them. When the young Salomé arrives, old wounds are reopened.

(Country: Portugal, France; Year: 2023; Director: João Canijo)

World premiere

The Cage Is Looking For A Bird (Kletka ishet ptitsu)

Yakha, 17, lives in a village in Chechnya and loves roaming the fields with her friend Madina. She is open to life and knows what she wants, but there are limits to her ability to make her own choices.

(Country: France, Russia; Year: 2023; Director: Malika Musaeva; Stars: Khadizha Bataeva, Madina Akkieva, Fatima Elzhurkaeva, Rita Merzhoeva, Magomed Alhastov)

World premiere

Eastern Front (Shidniy front)

Documentary about a first-aid batallion in Ukraine.

(Country: Latvia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, US; Year: 2023; Director: Vitaly Mansky, Yevhen Titarenko)

World premiere

The Echo (El Eco)

In a remote and solitary valley, punished by winter and drought, the children learn to gaze upon death, illness and love.

(Country: Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Tatiana Huezo)

World premiere

Family Time (Mummola)

Comedy drama set during an annual family Christmas get-together.

(Country: Finland, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Tia Kouvo; Stars: Ria Kataja, Elina Knihtilä, Leena Uotila, Tom Wentzel, Jarkko Pajunen)

World premiere

Here

Stefan, a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels, is about to move back home. He cooks up a big pot of soup as a goodbye gift for friends and family. Just then, he meets a Belgian-Chinese doctoral student who specialises in mosses.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2023; Director: Bas Devos; Stars: Stefan Gota, Liyo Gong)

World premiere

In The Blind Spot (Im toten Winkel)

A political thriller set between sinister organisations and existential insecurity.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Ayşe Polat; Stars: Katja Bürkle, Ahmet Varlı, Çağla Yurga, Aybi Era, Maximilian Hemmersdorfer)

World premiere

In Water

A young actor decides to make a short film on Jeju Island. Searching for an idea, one day he notices a figure amid the rocks at the foot of a cliff. Finally, he has a story to tell.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Hong Sangsoo; Stars: Shin Seokho, Ha Seongguk, Kim Seungyun)

World premiere

The Klezmer Project (Adentro mío estoy bailando)

Argentinian cameraman Leandro makes a living from filming Jewish weddings. At one of his jobs, he falls in love with Paloma, the clarinetist of the wedding band. To seduce her he pretends to be shooting a documentary film about klezmer. What Leandro does not know is that his “fake” film project will take him on an unscripted journey throughout Eastern Europe.

(Country: Austria, Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann; Stars: Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann)

World premiere

My Worst Enemy (Mon pire ennemi)

Mehran Tamadon has lived in France for many years. As an experiment, he asks exiled Iranians to interrogate him as if they were an agent of the Islamic Republic. A renowned actor with first-hand knowledge of such mistreatment takes up the challenge. Documentary.

(Country: France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Mehran Tamadon; Stars: Zar Amir Ebrahimi)

World premiere

Orlando, My Political Biography (Orlando, ma biographie politique)

Review preview for Orlando, My Political Biography

Capturing the experience of living in a world where one’s gender doesn’t fit better than almost any other film to date, Preciado’s work is all about claiming space and present day narrative.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Docufiction interpretation of Virginia Woolf's novel.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Paul B Preciado; Writer: Paul B Preciado; Stars: Paul B Preciado)

Full review

World premiere

Samsara

Review preview for Samsara

While attempting to describe the crux of Samsara is, essentially, as impossible as catching lightning in a jar, join me on a journey of imagination and we’ll give it a go.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Samsara is the Buddhist cycle of death and reincarnation. From the temples of Laos, alongside with teenage monks, we will accompany a soul in its transit from one body to another through the bardo.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Lois Patiño; Writer: Lois Patiño; Stars: Amid Keomany, Toumor Xiong, Simone Milavanh, Mariam Vuaa Mtego, Juwairiya Idrisa Uwesu)

Full review

World premiere

The Walls Of Bergamo (Le mura di Bergamo)

Story of the pandemic as seen through the lives of the town.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2023; Director: Stefano Savona)

World premiere

White Plastic Sky (Műanyag égbolt)

Animation. In a not too distant future without animals and plants where the price of human survival is high, a young man breaks every rule to save his wife.

(Country: Hungary, Slovakia; Year: 2023; Director: Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó; Stars: Tamás Keresztes, Zsófia Szamosi, Géza Hegedűs D., Judit Schell, István Znamenák)

World premiere