Married Niri shares a forbidden passion with Sumon, who introduces her to a world of fresh, wild, meat-based delicacies. But as their unconsummated desire mounts, the two are pushed inexorably towards transgression and taboo.
Three teenage girls in search of physical perfection are drawn down a dark path of black-market plastic surgery, an impulsive adventure that ultimately becomes a journey of self-discovery.
(Country: Israel, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Tal Granit, Sharon Maymon; Writer: Tal Granit, Sharon Maymon; Stars: Stav Strashko, Netsanet Mekonen, Noam Lugasy, Assi Levy, Arad Triffon Reshef, Micha Celektar, Niv Sultan, Dekel Adin, Morin Amor, Yaron Ben-Harush, Or Cohen, Alex Muskal, Afek Siboni, Yarden Siboni, Olga Strashko)
Ochipinti's film benefits from a strong documentary underpinning - with the lead actress saying that 70 per cent of what occurs is based on her own story at the film's Berlin screening - showing how strong cultural expectations like this can be.
Verida is due to marry in three months. According to a Mauritanian tradition, she has to put on a lot of weight to appeal to her husband. The weight gain process gets harder as it progresses, and Verida begins to ask herself if this is what she really wants.
(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2019; Director: Michela Occhipinti; Writer: Simona Coppini, Michela Occhipinti; Stars: Verida Beitta Ahmed Deiche, Sidi Mohamed Chinghaly, Aminetou Souleimane, Amal Saad Bouh Oumar, Verida Beitta Ahmed Deiche, Sidi Mohamed Chinghaly, Aminetou Souleimane, Amal Saad Bouh Oumar)
Propelled by a need for cash to impress a crush, 14-year-old Mexican farmhand Lalo finds himself dangerously in over his head after entering into the country’s underworld of illegal gasoline extraction.
(Country: Mexico, US, UK, Spain; Year: 2019; Director: Edgar Nito; Writer: Alfredo Mendoza, Edgar Nito; Stars: Fernando Becerril, Pedro Joaquín, Pascacio López, Regina Reynoso, Leonardo Alonso, Eduardo Banda)
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.
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.
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2018; Director: Bora Kim; Writer: Bora Kim; Stars: Jeong In-gi, Kim Sae-byeok, ParkJi-hu, Lee Seung-Yeon)
A son strives to honour his terminally ill father’s last wish to be buried under a tree he planted as a child, but clashes with villagers who claim the tree is in fact a holy relic planted by Noah after the Great Flood.
(Country: Germany, Turkey, US; Year: 2019; Director: Cenk Ertürk; Writer: Cenk Ertürk; Stars: Haluk Bilginer, Ali Atay, Mehmet Özgür, Hande Dogandemir, Arin Kusaksizoglu, Haluk Bilginer, Ali Atay, Mehmet Özgür, Hande Dogandemir, Arin Kusaksizoglu)
World premiere
A Regular Woman
(Nur Eine Frau)
Based on real-life events, A Regular Woman gives a voice to Hatun "Aynur"; Sürücü, a Turkish-Kurdish woman living in Berlin with her young son, who was the victim of an honour killing by her brother at the age of 23.
An unlikely pair of teenage loners hit the road in an impromptu border-crossing adventure in this cross-cultural road movie.
(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2019; Director: Sebastian Schipper; Writer: Sebastian Schipper, Oliver Ziegenbalg; Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Stéphane Bak, Ben Chaplin, Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie Burchard, Paul Brannigan, Josep Maria Alejandre, Ricard Balada, Yann Ebonge, Kris Hunter, Hamza Kadri, Genís Lama Montosa, Christian Mupondo, Claudia Trujillo, Fionn Whitehead)
International premiere
Run
In Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, young men dream of escapism through late-night drag races. Finnie
used to be one such lad, but now he works at the fish factory and it’s his son’s turn to dream and race. Until one night when Finnie steals the boy’s car for one last joyride.
(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Scott Graham; Writer: Scott Graham; Stars: Mark Stanley, Marli Siu, Amy Manson, Anders Hayward.)
There’s a lot of clever twists here, and plenty of knowing references to Snow White.
Recasts the tale of Snow White as the story of a sheltered young woman’s sexual awakening in this racy feminist fable.
(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Anne Fontaine; Writer: Claire Barré, Anne Fontaine, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm; Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Poelvoorde, Lou de Laâge, Damien Bonnard, Charles Berling, Vincent Macaigne, Jonathan Cohen, Pablo Pauly, Richard Fréchette, John Sehil)
Is it possible to make an interesting film where only one man remembers The Beatles? Probably. Is this it? Probably not.
Musical comedy sees a singer-songwriter wake after a global blackout to discover a world where The Beatles never existed.
(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Danny Boyle; Writer: Jack Barth, Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis; Stars: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino, Ellise Chappell, Meera Syal, Harry Michell, Vincent Franklin, Joel Fry, Michael Kiwanuka, Karma Sood, Gus Brown, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Karl Theobald, Alexander Arnold, Dominic Coleman)
