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Latido slate popular as sales rack up BY ELISABET CABEZA
Latido Films has scored key territory deals on its in-demand slate. Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi’s well-received Berlin Panorama documentary Chavela, about iconic Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, has been snapped up by Bodega Films in France and The Film Collaborative in the US. Leopardo Filmes has taken Portuguese rights with other buyers circling, including for Spain. Spanish war movie Rescue Under Fire, set in Afghanistan and starring Ariadna Gil (Pan’s Labyrinth), has pre-sold to France (Wild Side) and Japan (Aya Pro), while thrillers May God Save Us and At The End Of The Tunnel have gone to China’s Jetsen Huashi. Japan’s Klockworx also bought May God Save Us. Documentary Bosch, The Garden Of Dreams by Jose Luis Lopez-Linares, has been sold to Neo Films in Greece. Brazil’s Cine Art Filmes has struck a deal for Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat’s Argentinian black comedy and recent Goya winner The Distinguished Citizen. Chinese company Bilibili has bought Bosch and Dancing Beethoven, another documentary. Latido Films recently picked up Andres Koppel’s Spanish thriller Mist And The Maiden and SpanishArgentinian road movie The Last Suit, starring Angela Molina.
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Industry defiant in face of mooted US travel ban BY JEREMY KAY
Industry executives are on high alert should US president Donald Trump get his way and impose a new travel ban. Even though a federal appeals court has upheld a block on the president’s original embargo on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, Trump has intimated a new executive order could be in the offing. The recent ban, although only in place for days, had a significant effect on the film world. Asghar Farhadi, Iranian director of Oscar nominee The Salesman
has already said he will boycott the awards. And Iranian-Italian filmmaker Fariborz Kamkari was unable to attend Santa Barbara International Film Festival with documentary Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, The Colours Of Life due to the original ban. Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, star of Syria-set Panorama war drama Insyriated, was damning in her assessment of any ban. “I have only one word, ‘Stupid,’” she told Screen. “All over the world people are trying to open doors. Societies with a mix of people are enriched. Trump, on the other
hand, will only make American society poorer.” US festival heads, who spoke to Screen while the ban was in effect, are watching closely. “We are looking for innovative ways for any affected filmmaker to be represented and present in the theatres and at their premieres,” said Tribeca Film Festival director of programming Cara Cusumano. Lorenzo Fiuzzi of Filmatique, a new streaming service based in New York, was lining up a series of ‘banned nation’ films. “I’m not political but I found this to be inhumane,” Fiuzzi said.
Hubert Boesl
The Party, page 8
NEWS Logical launches fund French outfit raises $21m. » Page 2
REVIEW Party political Sally Potter proves a consummate host for The Party. » Page 8
BREAKING NEWS Momentum gains 6 Below Momentum Pictures has nabbed US rights from Tooley Productions to thriller 6 Below starring Josh Hartnett. Good Universe reps international on the UTA package.
Final print daily This is Screen’s final print edition at Berlin 2017. Continue to follow all the latest news and reviews at ScreenDaily.com
Japan hungry for Mirovision’s Korean titles BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Timothy Spall, Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy, director Sally Potter, Bruno Ganz and Kristin Scott Thomas at the photocall for The Party. The ensemble drama had its world premiere here last night in Competition.
Florida Daphne gets Arrow drinks Le Pacte moves to Baker’s The film, now in post, is screenBureau deals Le Pacte has swooped on French ing on promo at the EFM. CAA and up Whisky BY TOM GRATER
Arrow Films has struck a deal with GFM Films for North American and UK rights to Gillies MacKinnon’s remake Whisky Galore, about Scottish islanders who plunder whisky from a stranded ship. Gregor Fisher, Eddie Izzard, Sean Biggerstaff, Naomi Battrick, Kevin Guthrie and Ellie Kendrick star. Andreas Wiseman
TODAY
rights to Sean Baker’s Tangerine follow-up The Florida Project from Protagonist Pictures. Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite, Caleb Landry Jones and child actress Brooklynn Prince star in the story of a precocious six-yearold and her friends. The deal was negotiated between Protagonist’s Jennifer Fattell and Le Pacte’s Jean Labadie and Thomas Pibarot.
ICM handle domestic sales on the title, which was shot in the neighbourhoods around Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Baker co-wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Chris Bergoch. Producers are Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri and ShihChing Tsou. Darren Dean executive produces.
The Bureau Sales has inked deals on Peter Mackie Burns’ Rotterdam debut Daphne for China (Bilibili) and France (Mag Distribution). Emily Beecham stars in the SXSWbound drama as a thirtysomething whose life spirals after she witnesses a violent attack. 45 Years outfit The Bureau produced. Tom Grater
Japan is shaping up to be a voracious buyer of Korean titles at this year’s EFM, with Mirovision scoring sales to Japan’s Hark & Company and Klockworx. Klockworx has snapped up How To Break Up With My Cat, a romantic drama directed by Cho Sungkyu (Santa Barbara) and starring Seo Jun-young and Park Gyuri. Hark & Company has acquired two titles from Mirovision: My New Sassy Girl and Sunshine. The former is a Korea-China co-production and sequel to the 2001 hit My Sassy Girl; while Park Jin-soon’s Sunshine is a story about a North Korean defector. Earlier in the market, Korea’s CJ E&M sold action title Master to Japan’s Twin and Saigon Bodyguards to Gaga. M-Line sold Missing to Klockworx and Derailed to Maxam, while Japanese buyer New Select swooped on United Pictures’ legal drama New Trial. Also at the EFM, Mirovision sold Canola, How To Break Up With My Cat and Malice to Taiwan’s Movie Cloud, while MATV took TV and new media rights to Canola and Sunshine for 10 Southeast Asian territories, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
NEWS
Screen ups TV and video content offer Screen International is launching editorial strands Screen TV and Screen Time. The former will see Screen ramp up its coverage of the US and international high-end drama market; the latter is a video platform primarily for interviews, industry and talent. Joining Screen to help drive coverage of high-end drama will be Los Angeles-based reporter Elbert Wyche, who will report to Americas editor Jeremy Kay. Wyche, who will also cover film, has written for Screen since 2014. Screen’s first Screen Time interviews, conducted at the Berlinale in collaboration with Mexican film institute IMCINE, feature Rogue One: A Star Wars Story actor Diego Luna and Miss Bala director Gerardo Naranjo.
Umedia sets up Egoli deal Production group Umedia has struck a development and firstlook deal with Jens Meurer and Judy Tossell’s German outfit Egoli Tossell Pictures, producers of Filth, Carlos and The Last Station. Umedia recently acquired Belgian TV outfit BE-FILMS and indie Nexus Factory. It also opened an office in Vancouver. Andreas Wiseman
Logical makes sense of funding BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW
French outfit Logical Pictures has closed a $21m (¤20m) finance round pulling together investment for some 30 feature productions over the next four years. “Our aim is to gap finance around 20 movies initiated by third-party producers and 10 in-house, putting in around 20% of a film’s budget,” explained Logical president Frédéric Fiore.
“We’re talking to European producers and sales companies but we’re keen to meet US agents working on independent films in the $1m-$2m budget range,” said vicepresident of development Alexis Perrin. The company’s focus is on elevated sci-fi, fantasy and thrillers involving up-and-coming talent. Projects developed in-house include psychological escape thriller Capture, about a war pho-
tographer who is kidnapped by bandits while on assignment in the Middle East. Due to shoot this summer, the film is the debut of French director Simon Saulnier, who was signed in January by agency UTA on the back of his post-apocalyptic sci-fi short The Edge (La Lisiere). Logical is also producing Eric Cherriere’s medieval actiondrama No Gods No Masters. Pales-
Innovation on agenda for execs
(From left) Johanna Koljonen, Matthijs Wouter Knol, moderator Wendy Mitchell and Damian Spandley
BY NICK GOUNDRY
A panel of executives debated distribution innovation during an EFM session hosted by Screen International. Johanna Koljonen, editor of Nordic Film Market’s Nostradamus Project, argued that a significant increase in film production has not been matched by similar advances in distribution
Atlas picks Tulips and eyes Spy BY MARTIN BLANEY & ANDREAS WISEMAN
Munich-based sales company Atlas International has picked up international rights to Dutch director Mike van Diem’s dramedy Tulips, Love, Honour And A Bike, which is in post-production. Set in southern Italy in the 1980s, the Netherlands-CanadaItaly co-production boasts an international cast including veteran Italian actor Giancarlo Gian-
2 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
tinian actor Saleh Bakri recently signed on to play the lead role of a mysterious stranger who comes to the rescue of an oppressed village in southwest France, challenging a cruel and powerful local lord. Previously announced projects include Ickerman and Winter’s End. Third-party projects on Logical’s slate include Coralie Fargeat’s thriller Revenge.
nini. A71 Entertainment has already acquired Canadian theatrical rights to the film, which follows a woman who uncovers a family connection to the Italian mafia. Atlas has also boarded sales on Margery Booth: The Spy In The Eagle’s Nest (working title), the biopic of an English opera singer who performed for Adolf Hitler. Stephen Fry is attached to play leading Nazi Hermann Göring and Udo Kier is set to play Hitler.
Producer Franz von Habsburg of UK outfit Imperial Film Productions has been developing the long-gestating project with screenwriter Ralph Harvey. Peter Davies, whose credits as editor include several Bond films, is due to make his directorial debut on the film, which is being lined up as a Germany-UK co-production and is aiming to shoot this year. Casting is underway for the lead role.
models: “There’s nobody in that marketplace [of big media companies] whose responsibility it is to carry the kinds of films we’re all passionate about. We need to come up with a solution ourselves.” EFM director Matthijs Wouter Knol urged the industry to adopt a trial-and-error approach in a bid for greater innovation.
Saints gives grace period US and India-based TVoD platform Movie Saints is launching with a novel concept. The site, which charges around $4.99 per movie, enables viewers to claim a full refund if they do not like a film within the first 10 minutes. Titles acquired include Sexy Durga, Nairobi Half Life and Sound Of Heimat. Liz Shackleton
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Irish Film at EFM
— Pilgrimage
— The Delinquent Season
— The Third Wave
— The Farthest
— Black ’47
— The Lodgers
— Halal Daddy
— Good Favour
— Elián
Visit us at the Irish Film Board stand, MGB G7 — www.irishfilmboard.ie
NEWS
Iron Sky franchise lifts off for China BY GEOFFREY MACNAB
Iron Sky producer Tero Kaukomaa has revealed details in Berlin about the first Chinese film in the franchise. Iron Sky: The Ark, in preproduction, is expected to get underway in Beijing this summer. The film, set to be directed by Timo Vuorensola, will be largely in Chinese. China Film Corporation, Jiabo Culture Development
Company and Iron Sky Universe are producing the film in association with Pan Pan Pictures and Longevity International Enterprises. Max Wang (Wolf Totem) and May He produce with Kaukomaa, and the cast is due to be announced soon. Dalan Musson’s screenplay, co-written with Wang, Vuorensola and Yu Hongyang, charts the story of two Chinese university
dropouts who try to decode a mysterious message sent from the moon. Iron Sky: The Coming Race, the sequel to the first Nazis-on-the-moon film, is nearing completion. Universal has rights to the sci-fi follow-up in Germany, France and the UK, among other territories. Twin will release in Japan. An Iron Sky TV show set during the Cold War era is also being hatched.
EFP SHOOTING STARS 2017 Biggest inspiration?
Biggest challenge?
Culture, and films in particular, are my biggest sources of inspiration.
Every part I play, every scene I shoot, every line I say is a challenge. Once you think you’ve got it, someone pulls the rug from under your feet.
Karin Franz Körlof Sweden
A Serious Game. It has opened up so many possibilities for me. I was nominated for a Guldbagge this year for the role.
Next up? I recently finished shooting on The Wife, with Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. I’m also writing my own first feature.
Jonas Jorneberg
Big break?
Trio pick up co-pro cash BY TOM GRATER
Three projects have won cash awards at the Berlinale’s Co-Production Market. The Eurimages co-production development award, worth $21,200 (¤20,000), went to German director
Anne Zohra Berrached’s feature The Wife Of The Pilot. The VFF talent highlight award, which comes with a prize of $10,600 (¤10,000), went to Turkish project The Bus To Amerika, from producer Nefes Polat and direc-
tor Derya Durmaz. The Arte International prize, worth $6,300 (¤6,000), went to Lost Country from Serbian director Vladimir Perisic. This year’s co-production market featured 36 projects from 29 countries.
EFP SHOOTING STARS 2017 It is always my goal to really get in touch with the person I am playing. Making them threedimensional is what drives me the most.
Marusa Majer Slovenia
4 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
Biggest challenge? Trying to get into another person’s emotions, goals,
wishes, dreams and background is not something that happens overnight and it doesn’t always come easily.
Next up? I have the Slovenian premiere of a play based on a work by the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Marko Brdar
Biggest inspiration?
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BERLINALE SPECIAL SCREENING
mAudie OffICIAL SELECtION At: BERLINALE INtERNAtIONAL fILm fEStIvAL DuBLIN INtERNAtIONAL fILm fEStIvAL tELLuRIDE fILm fEStIvAL tORONtO INtERNAtIONAL fILm fEStIvAL AtLANtIC fILm fEStIvAL (thE GORDON PARSONS AwARD fOR BESt AtLANtIC fEAtuRE) vANCOuvER INtERNAtIONAL fILm fEStIvAL (PEOPLE’S ChOICE AwARD)
Canada: Mongrel Media | US: Sony Pictures Classics | Germany: NFP marketing & distribution
Winner of PeoPle’s ChoiCe AWArd Starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke “A stellar, warmly persuasive starring turn by [Silver Berlin Bear winner] Sally Hawkins as crippled, self-taught painter Maud Lewis is the raison d’etre of Maudie,” a “Canadian, female variation on My Left Foot.” ~ Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
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Trudie Styler on the set of Freak Show, with actress Abigail Breslin
High 7°c (45°f)
In conversation with... KITTY GREEN & JAMES SCHAMUS (Casting JonBenet, Panorama Documentaries)
Casting JonBenet
GENERATION 14PLUS
Trudie Styler lets her freak flag fly
Talking to Screen ahead of last night’s world premiere of her first narrative feature as director, Freak Show in Generation 14plus, stage and screen veteran Trudie Styler was not feeling the pressure: “I hope I don’t get horrible reviews but it’s not like when I act on the stage — in the days before I’m a gibbering wreck.” Freak Show was adapted from James St James’ bestseller and shot for 22 days in New York in late 2015. Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Alex Lawther stars as Billy Bloom, a teenage cross-dresser at a conservative high school who defies the bullies and runs for homecoming queen. The subject matter resonated with Styler, who produced with her Maven Pictures partner Celine Rattray alongside Flower Films, and jumped into the hot seat when the previous director moved on.
“America is becoming more homophobic as we speak,” she says. “We don’t want our youngsters to feel bullying can be condoned in a school environment. “I had an accident when I was two after a truck ran over me and scarred my face. I had ADHD and dyslexia so I was dealing with a few challenges and I was the brunt of jokes.” Billy’s personal manifesto, she says, has never been more timely. “We’ve all got a freak flag flying on the inside. It’s a strong message for what’s happening in the US at the moment.” Styler surrounded herself with world-class talent including Oscar-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti and Sofia Coppola’s regular editor Sarah Flack, and while Styler wants to direct again, she says acting remains a passion, with roles in the pipeline. Jeremy Kay
CULINARY CINEMA
DOC MAKER SPREADS MAYONNAISE Mora reveals that he had been impressed by Playing in the Berlinale’s Culinary Strand from Graham’s 2012 documentary Make Hummus Thursday, Trevor Graham’s documentary feature Not War, a film that managed a lightMonsieur Mayonnaise is a lighter look at a dark chapter of history. The film hearted tone despite being set explores the little-known family against the backdrop of conflicts in background of filmmaker Philippe the Middle East. Mora, director of Dennis Hopper“We knew we wanted to do starring Mad Dog Morgan, in a tale something that was humorous. Philippe’s own work dabbles in that takes in an escape from Nazi satire and humour and unusual ways Germany and missions for the French Monsieur of seeing the world,” director Graham Resistance. Mora’s father was given the Mayonnaise tells Screen. “We had trepidation about the code name Monsieur Mayonnaise due to his passion for the condiment. more light-hearted approach, but both of us Graham initially became friends with Mora through thought there’s no point making it unless you can social media. Mora was already working on the story of make it funny. My feeling as a filmmaker is while you his family’s wartime experiences in a comic-book need to have gravitas, you also need humour. Because format. After meeting, Graham suggested they that’s what life is like, even in the direst of collaborate on a documentary charting both that circumstances,” he adds. project and Mora’s efforts to trace his family’s history. Nick Goundry
6 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
Kitty Green’s documentary Casting JonBenet continues to build buzz in Berlin following its world premiere at Sundance. Centring on local actors who audition for a docu-drama about the unsolved murder of six-yearold child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, Australian director Green brings an unusual perspective to one of the US’s most notorious unsolved crimes. Green and producer James Schamus spoke to Screen.
screening. Audience members told Kitty how moved they were. How did the casting and shooting process work? KG We shot and edited the film in 15 months. We saw around 200 people in open casting calls around Boulder, Colorado and did 100 callbacks over three different trips. We edited as we went.
What was the framework in getting the film financed? What inspired JS Scott you to look at [Macaulay] was the case of raving about the JonBenet Ramsey Kitty Green concept to me. I had 20 years later? just made my deal with Kitty Green The idea stems from Meridian Entertainment and I my short film The Face Of thought, “Let’s take a risk.” Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul, KG We had small grants in the which documented the conflict in beginning from Screen Australia, Ukraine through casting tapes. Film Victoria, RippedOff Films, After the film won a prize at Sundance Institute and Cinereach, Sundance [short form jury prize, and then James got involved. 2015], I started thinking about JonBenet. I grew up fascinated by Do the Ramsay family know the case, thinking all girls in America were in beauty pageants, about the film? KG I am sure they have heard and her story was similar to the about it. girls in Ukraine who dress up as JS The film takes no stand on the figure skaters. [family]. We wanted to focus on the real people who have lived How honest were you with the under the weight of this story for actors that their auditions 20 years and how that has would be in the film? completely transformed their James Schamus Kitty was very community. direct with them before they auditioned and they put their trust in her. We had a cast party Casting JonBenet will launch at Sundance, and many of the globally on Netflix on April 28. people involved drove to the Tiffany Pritchard
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REVIEWS
» The Party p8 » Bright Nights p8
» Mr Long p10 » The Queen Of Spain p10 » Inflame p11
» Headbang Lullaby p11 » Untitled p12 » Just Like Our Parents p12
Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com
Bright Nights Reviewed by Lee Marshall
The Party Reviewed by Jonathan Romney
COMPETITION
If Timothy Spall had not already appeared in a film called Secrets & Lies, that would have been a perfect title for The Party, a brisk comedy of neurotic manners from UK writer-director Sally Potter. While ostensibly decidedly mainstream — or at least, affecting a mainstream guise — The Party is a crisp, energetic, highly compact comedy, and the most enjoyable film yet from a director whose conceptual seriousness has often seemed daunting. Theatrical prospects may be niche but the film’s intelligence, entertainment factor, and fine performances from a prestige cast will win it ample hospitality on other platforms and at festivals. Shot in stark, grainy black and white, and set in a middle-class London home, the film begins as Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) has something to celebrate. As a successful British opposition politician (it is not mentioned by name but the ‘party’ involved here is Labour), she has just been appointed shadow minister for health. While she prepares food, her husband Bill (Spall) is increasingly lost in booze and music, with something dark on his mind. One by one, the couple’s guests arrive. They are April (Patricia Clarkson), a steely American cynic with a quiver of acidic one-liners, and her unlikely partner Gottfried (Bruno Ganz), a German aromatherapist with a touchyfeely attitude to life’s problems; lesbian couple Martha (Cherry Jones) and Jinny (Emily Mortimer); and Tom (Cillian Murphy, deliciously full-on), banker husband of the couple’s friend Marianne. She, yet to arrive, is the Godot, or the Abigail, at this particular party. What might seem cinematically unpromising material is given a de-theatricalising boost by the dense textures of Alexey Rodionov’s photography, which not only guides us nicely around the spaces of Janet’s house but also illuminates the characters by emphasising the grain of their skins. The tenor of the piece is something like Harold Pinter reworked as Feydeau farce but there is a definite state-of-the-nation analysis to this panorama of leftwingers, intellectuals and feminists, all re-appraising their ideals in a decidedly venal and pragmatic world.
SCREEN SCORE
UK. 2017. 71mins Director-screenplay Sally Potter Production companies Adventure Pictures, Great Point Media, Oxwich Media, Copenhagen Film Fund International sales Great Point Media, info@ greatpointmedia.com Producers Christopher Sheppard, Kurban Kassam Cinematography Alexey Rodionov Production design Carlos Conti Editors Anders Refn, Emilie Orsini Main cast Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall
COMPETITION
Father-son road-trip bonding sessions are difficult to get right, as proven by German director Thomas Arslan’s minor-key follow-up to his 2013 western Gold. They can be sensitively directed, shot with finesse, emotionally understated, scored by one of Europe’s most promising young film composers, boast solid acting — but still rattle with clichés when shaken by exposure to an audience. Granite-faced Austrian actor Georg Friedrich plays introspective Berlin-based construction engineer Michael. A lovely, wordless opening sequence that takes him glumly from work to the book-filled apartment he shares with his journalist partner plays with audience expectations: we assume he has been laid off, but the bad news is the death of his father — who he has not seen in five years. With his sister refusing to make the trip to rural Norway for the funeral, and his partner announcing that she is going to take up a posting in Washington, Michael is left, we assume, alone to deal with the past — except that in the car as he drives out of Tromso airport is a floppyhaired teenager, his 14-year-old son Luis (Tristan Göbel). By withholding information, this taciturn scene-setting suggests a lot about Michael, his rapport with his father, and the generational cycle of father-son conflict he is out to break. But it is one of the few times Bright Nights does anything so memorable. The rest of the film turns into a delicate but grindingly linear, uninflected journey from hatred to hug, which takes the two on an awkward trip into the lakes and mountains of northern Norway in summer, when the sun barely dips beneath the horizon. Luis uses headphones as emotional insulators. Michael, who is clearly unsure how this father-son thing even works, struggles to control his temper. Limpidly shot by cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider, and accompanied by Force Majeur composer Ola Flottum’s Brian Eno-ish electronic chords — hopeful, but with an undercurrent of tension — the film makes a good case for the beauty but also the challenging emptiness of this spruce-spiked wilderness.
SCREEN SCORE
Ger-Nor. 2017. 86mins Director/screenplay Thomas Arslan Production company Schramm Film Koerner & Weber Worldwide distribution The Match Factory, info@matchfactory.de Producers Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber Co-producers Maria Ekerhovd, Svein Andersen, Kjetil Jensberg Cinematography Reinhold Vorschneider Editor Reinaldo Pinto Almeida Production design Reinhild Blaschke Music Ola Flottum Main cast Georg Friedrich, Tristan Göbel, Marie Leuenberger, Hanna Karlberg
★★
★★★
8 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
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Qumra 2017 3–8 March
Doha Film Institute presents the third edition of Qumra, an international film training and development gathering for emerging talent, with a focus on first- and second-time filmmakers. Film projects in development or post-production are selected to benefit from the experience of five Qumra Masters, as well as bespoke mentorship labs and business meetings with international experts.
Paulo Branco
Alongside this meeting of minds, the Institute presents five evenings of film screenings followed by question-and-answer periods with the filmmakers and the Qumra Masters.
Bruno Dumont
For more information about Qumra, please visit www.dohafilminstitute.com Asghar Farhadi
Connect with us: DohaFilm @DohaFilm @DohaFilm #Qumra17
Lucrecia Martel
Rithy Panh
Qumra 2017_Screen Ad_245x335mm.indd 1
2/13/17 9:43 AM
REVIEWS
The Queen Of Spain Reviewed by Sarah Ward
Mr Long Reviewed by Jonathan Romney
COMPETITION
A Chinese hitman finds redemption and a culinary vocation in Mr Long, a pan-Asian comedy drama that hits so many different registers — causing blood to gush one minute, tears the next — that viewers may altogether abandon trying to keep up with its narrative caprices. With its dominant tone finally one of soft-hearted whimsy, the latest from Japan’s versatile Sabu certainly rings the changes. His work, such as 2011’s Bunny Drop, has tickled the Japanese box office, and this has wider appeal thanks to Taiwanese star Chang Chen (The Assassin). Further afield, however, Mr Long may feel just too goofily mawkish for connoisseurs of Japanese crime. The film begins promisingly in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where a pug-ugly gaggle of wiseguys are chewing the fat when cool-cat hitman Mr Long (Chen) walks in and displays his lethal prowess with a dagger. His next stop is Tokyo, where he has been sent to dispatch a Japanese gang member, but things go awry and after a daring — and very droll — escape from certain death, Long ends up on the run. He hides out in a provincial town and takes shelter in a burnt-out conglomeration of shanty dwellings occupied by Chinese single mother Lily (Yiti Yao), a heroin addict and former sex worker, and her adorably solemn young moppet of a son, Jun (Bai Runyin). Essentially a good soul, Long befriends the boy and shows tough love to his mum, helping her go cold turkey. A group of irrepressibly jovial citizens refurbish Lily’s house, and set up Long in business cooking noodle dishes, for which he has a distinct aptitude. Eventually, however, the snarling heavies re-enter the picture. Mr Long is a bizarre, often confusing mix of tones. It shifts so continually and unpredictably between bleakness and whimsy, between the sugared and the sordid, that it is hard for viewers to stay invested. There are, however, some juicy characterisations, especially among the mobsters, and Chen is typically charismatic. The camerawork is surprisingly varied in style and is especially sleek at the beginning. The most consistent ace is the inventive, sometimes genuinely surprising music by Junichi Matsumoto.
SCREEN SCORE
10 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
Jap-HK-Ch-Tai-Ger. 2017. 129mins Director/screenplay Sabu Production companies Live Max Film, LDH Pictures, BLK2 Pictures, Kaohsiung Film Fund, Rapid Eye Movies International sales Jet Tone Films, winnielau03@jettone.net Producers Koki Kageyama, Yoichi Shimizu, Jacky Pang, Stephan Holl, Shozo Ichiyama Cinematography Koichi Furuya Editor Georg Petzold Production design China Hayashi Music Junichi Matsumoto Main cast Chang Chen, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Bai Runyin
The Queen Of Spain, writer/director Fernando Trueba’s follow-up to his 1998 effort The Girl Of Your Dreams, revisits the film-within-a-film genre, reuniting an ensemble cast that, it is to be hoped, had more fun off-screen than is apparent on. Checking in on the same characters 16 years after he introduced actress Macarena Granada (Penelope Cruz) to the world fails to offer anything more than a broad farce that breezily flirts with the intersection of Hollywood and Spain in the tense political climate of the 1950s. Its Berlinale screening, as a gala presentation, follows the film’s November 2016 release in its homeland, where it scraped $1.2m in theatres. Audiences need not be familiar with its predecessor to know where this undemanding and unmemorable effort is headed; thinly sketched film industry characters collide on set, attempt to navigate the politics of both their countries and their profession — and squabble, scheme and have affairs on the side. Two homecomings spark the obvious events that follow: the return of Cruz’s local actress turned global sensation to make the titular movie about Queen Isabella of Castile; and the reappearance of the director, Blas Fontiveros (Antonio Resines), who helped bring her to fame. With the current project’s elderly helmer (Clive Revill) literally sleeping through the job, blacklisted US writer (Mandy Patinkin) stands in, theatrical leading man (Cary Elwes) sets his sights on a Spanish wannabe (Jorge Sanz), and Macarena lusts after a grip (Chino Darin). It is a chaotic scenario to begin with and it only gets more so. There is plenty of weighty subject matter in the difficulties of creating art under strict controls — their film is only made possible due to Franco’s approval — but The Queen Of Spain is happy to simply pay lip service to its historical realities, all in the name of amiable amusement. Alas, inciting forced smiles rather than hearty laughs. Given the lightness of the material, the on-screen talent does their best — some, like Cruz, try to add depth; others, such as Elwes, happily ham it up. In fact, in the attentiongrabbing stakes, they are dwarfed by Juan Pedro de Gaspar’s handsome production design. It might be fitting that a film about a film made under a censor-heavy regime is better to look at than engage with, but it also says much about the slight and stretched The Queen Of Spain.
BERLINALE SPECIAL Sp. 2016. 128mins Director/screenplay Fernando Trueba Production company Fernando Trueba PC International sales Myriad Pictures, info@ myriadpictures.com Producers Cristina Huete, Anne Deluz Executive producer Kirk D’Amico Cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine Editor Marta Velasco Production design Juan Pedro de Gaspar Music Zbigniew Preisner Main cast Penelope Cruz, Chino Darin, Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Clive Revill, Antonio Resines, Santiago Segura, Ana Belen, Loles Leon, Jorge Sanz
★★ www.screendaily.com
Headbang Lullaby Reviewed by Wendy Ide
Inflame Reviewed by Lee Marshall A courageous premise makes for an undercooked psychological thriller in former Turkish TV film-show presenter Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik’s debut feature. Casting its lot defiantly with the liberal, free-speech minority in Erdogan’s Turkey, the film turns a shocking true-life incident of the 1990s that was a test of the country’s humanrights record into a lukewarm genre piece. The uneven but promising first half hour is the best thing about Inflame. Young documentary editor Hasret (Algi Eke) works for a fictional Turkish TV channel with the Orwellian slogan: “What you see is the truth, what you hear is the truth”. Following a staff reshuffle, she is reassigned to news and witnesses how this slogan is manipulated through regime-friendly ticker news summaries and the splicing of interviews with government ministers and dissidents. Each evening, Hasret returns to the old-town Istanbul apartment where she lives alone since her parents died — in a car accident, she believes. The overdosed thriller sound design, in which creepy bass notes merge with traffic noises, screeches and an insistent pneumatic drill, flag up the fact that all is not right in Hasret’s flat, or head, or both. She confides to a rather anodyne male friend, Mehmet (Ozgur Cevik), that she is plagued by a recurring nightmare, and by an Anatolian folk tune that comes into her head while strolling in a nearby park — where she is also, briefly, caught up in a mob of demonstrators. Buried memories, connected in some way to the mystery of how her parents really died, are stirred by the photos and notebooks that Hasret unearths in the apartment after quitting her job. Ozcelik and her cinematographer Radek Ladczuk frame an Istanbul cityscape in which empty, rubblestrewn lots and the stark metal skeletons of tower blocks under construction stand in for Turkey’s memory gaps and Newspeak way of rewriting and rewiring the past. But in the film’s overlong final act we are confined, with Hasret, to that spacious apartment where, by now, she can smell burning without quite being able to identify the source — one of a series of tired thriller/horror tropes that are given a timid airing. And whether the fault is in the casting, the character or the performance, we never really empathise with Hasret, who feels more like a vehicle for a metaphor than a compelling thriller lynchpin.
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PANORAMA Tur. 2017. 94mins Director-screenplay Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik Production companies Istanbul Film Production, EHY Film Production, Filmada International sales m-appeal, sales@m-appeal.com Producers Adnan M Sapci, Sadik Ekinci, Emre Oskay, Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik, Armagan Lale Cinematography Radek Ladczuk Editor Ahmet Can Cakirca Production designers Kerem Ardahan, Sila Karaca Music Ekin Fil Main cast Algi Eke, Ozgur Cevik, Asiye Dincsoy, Selen Ucer
PANORAMA SPECIAL
Moroccan director Hicham Lasri looks at his country’s recent history through the eyes of an emotionally crippled government official sent on a Kafkaesque mission to patrol a bridge. The king may or may not drive under it at some point; all Daoud (Aziz Hattab) can do is stand and wait. A surreal farce about football, cranial trauma and interminable waiting ensues, which may be too culturally specific for its message to connect with audiences outside its immediate community. Headbang Lullaby is a visually striking piece — a palette of teal blue, tangerine and sulphurous yellow sears itself onto the retina — and there is a certain amount of deadpan, oddball humour to be found. But while it should make an offbeat addition to festival programmes, the opaque message and lack of focus might prove a challenge for wider audiences. Daoud has not been quite the same since he was hit on the head by a bottle during the bread riots of 1981. Five years later, he has a metal plate in his skull that causes televisions and radios to malfunction if he stands next to them. He is also unable to register emotions, which is just the first stumbling block when it comes to sympathising with this problematic central character. A somewhat garbled message from his boss sends Daoud to a farflung bridge that marks the boundary between two warring villages, his status as a representative of the state sending ripples through the community. They scurry around to appease Daoud and the corpulent policeman assigned to the job. While a freak accident lays out the cop with a fractured leg, Daoud bonds with a football crazy five-year-old boy and meets the child’s mother, a Berber woman whose husband was arrested during the bread riots and has not been seen since. There is something here of the hysterical upheaval to normal life that provided much of the comedy in Uruguayan picture The Pope’s Toilet. Without the likeable characters and a focus for the absurdity though, this film struggles to achieve the same poignancy and warmth. The deliberately unbalanced framing, and a camera that pirouettes and somersaults with abandon, give an impression of a world slightly off-kilter. Circuitous rapidfire conversations add to the sense that this is as much a riddle as it is a movie.
Mor-Fr-Qat-Leb. 2017. 111mins Director-screenplay Hicham Lasri Production companies Pan Production, Les Filmes de l’Heure Bleue International sales Paul Thiltges Distributions, info@ptd.lu Producers Thomas Guentch, Mickael Clouet, Rita El Quessar Cinematography Charles-Hubert Morin Editor Mona-Lise Lanfant Production design Rachid Joundoul Music Wissam Hojeij Main cast Aziz Hattab, Latefa Ahrrare, Zoubir Abou el Fadl, El Jirari Benaissa, Salma Eddlimi, Adil Abatorab, Zoubida Akif
February 14, 2017 Screen International at Berlin 11
REVIEWS
Just Like Our Parents Reviewed by Wendy Ide
Untitled Reviewed by Wendy Ide In December 2013, filmmaker Michael Glawogger set out on what was intended to be a year-long experimental documentary project. Glawogger’s voice at the start of this picture recounts the moment when he became inspired to embark on the movie. “The most beautiful film I could imagine is one which would never come to rest.” But four months and 19 days into the project, Glawogger died in Liberia, from a particularly aggressive form of malaria. This extraordinary, poetic film was crafted by Glawogger’s long-term collaborator, editor Monika Willi, from the footage shot to that date, and from excerpts from Glawogger’s diary. Even if it were not such a striking and affecting picture, interest would surely be strong on the festival circuit because of Glawogger’s reputation and the tragic circumstances of his death. Willi can never know how close this is to the film Glawogger intended, but she has crafted something that feels achingly personal and, at times, genuinely profound. Glawogger, his cameraman Attila Boa and sound operator Manuel Siebert had intended to travel the world for 12 months and film what they experienced, with no expectations, restrictions or pre-ordained themes. It was to be organic filmmaking at its most pure and free, a film shaped entirely by serendipity. Despite the lack of an overarching theme or specific subject, Willi builds the film around ideas that clearly preoccupied Glawogger in both his writing and the images to which his lens was drawn. Primary of these is an interrogation of the nature of personal freedom. In a narration read by Fiona Shaw and adapted from Glawogger’s notes, he “envies the wildness” of the childhood of a boy who earns a meagre living hauling water canisters up a traffic-clogged hill. Later he muses that “the death of freedom is to foresee every possible disaster and plan accordingly. Fear is a terrible companion.” The film, mercurial in its approach and nonlinear in its chronology, is tied together by remarkable compositions by Wolfgang Mitterer. The music is less a conventional score, more a soundscape incorporating a mosaic of recorded noise. It is a creative solution to shaping a picture that consciously avoids explanation or subtitles, and is every bit as intriguing and experimental as the film it accompanies.
12 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
PANORAMA DOCUMENTARIES Austria-Ger. 2017. 107mins Directors Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi Production companies Lotus Films, Razor Film International sales Autlook Filmsales, salma@autlookfilms.com Producers Tommy Pridnig, Peter Wirthensohn Screenplay Michael Glawogger, Attila Boa, Monika Willi Cinematography Attila Boa Editor Monika Willi Music Wolfgang Mitterer Sound design Matz Müller, Erik Mischijew Featuring Fiona Shaw
A scalding opening scene that unfolds during a highly charged family lunch sets the bar high for this Brazilian domestic drama. And while nothing that follows has quite the same venomous kick as this key sequence, Lais Bodanzky’s portrait of a woman forced to confront her stale marriage and professional disappointment approaches familiar territory with a light touch. The multitasking wife and mother whose identity is subsumed by her marriage is a theme that has been extensively explored already — Bodanzky’s own lively screenplay nods to this by referencing Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Just Like Our Parents might not add anything particularly new to the subject, but it also resists easy answers and glib, feelgood conclusions. The naturalism of Bodanzky’s approach here means that, although persuasive, much of the drama feels quite low-key. The arc is perhaps a little too familiar, but this is an intelligent, adult picture that could enjoy modest arthouse success. Rosa (Maria Ribeiro) is wife to Dado (Paulo Vilhena), mother to two pre-teen daughters and the browbeaten daughter of the formidable Clarice (Clarisse Abujamra). She is also the cook, cleaner and major breadwinner. She takes care of household admin and fights the daily battles over homework and television. And Dado, who spends his days flitting about with lithe female environmental activists and collecting tribal tattoos, wonders why they never have sex any more. The thorny relationship between mother and daughter is dramatically rich, more so perhaps than the sullen, simmering resentments of Rosa’s marriage. In a nonetoo-subtle piece of symbolism, a pan boils over on the stove while Dado snoozes and Rosa juggles the needs of her children. She finds herself drawn to Pedro, one of the other parents on the school run. And she walks out on the family, temporarily at least, to meet her newfound biological father, now a high-ranking government official. There is a sunny, light-filled quality to the picture that brings a levity, even when the subject matter is bleak. The use of jaunty samba on the soundtrack also brings a sense of optimism — although we do not know how things will pan out for Rosa, we are cued to hope for the best.
PANORAMA SPECIAL Bra. 2017. 102mins Director-screenplay Lais Bodanzky Production companies Gullane, Buriti Films International sales Wild Bunch, edevos@ wildbunch.eu Producers Fabiano Gullane, Caio Gullane, Lais Bodanzky, Luiz Bolognesi, Debora Ivanov Cinematography Pedro J Marquez Editor Rodrigo Menecucci Production design Rita Faustini Music Antonio Pinto Main cast Maria Ribeiro, Clarisse Abujamra, Paulo Vilhena, Felipe Rocha, Jorge Mautner, Herson Capri, Sophia Valverde, Annalara Prates
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CONNECT WITH THE GENRE FILM INDUSTRY
CALL FOR PROJECTS NOW OPEN:
FRONTIÈRES@FANTASIA
FRONTIÈRES PLATFORM IN
Submissions are now open for the 9th edition of the Frontières International Co-Production Market — July 20–23 at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Frontières is seeking genre projects in the development & financing stages from across North America and the European Union.
DEADLINE: MARCH 24, 2017 Frontières is an international co-production market and networking platform specifically focused on genre film financing and co-production between Europe and North America. It is organised by the Fantasia International Film Festival, in partnership with the Marché du Film — Festival de Cannes.
CANNES
MAY 20–21, 2017
A slate of programming and networking opportunities for the genre film industry in partnership with the Marché du Film — Festival de Cannes. Now accepting submissions: FRONTIÈRES GOES TO CANNES Frontières will present 4 work-in-progress genre films from Europe and North America.
DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2017
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT
frontieresmarket.com
2017 EVENTS: The Frontières Finance & Packaging Forum (February 16–18, Amsterdam), Frontières Platform in Cannes (May 20–21, Marché du Film), Frontières International Co-Production Market (July 20–23, Fantasia)
INTERN ATION A L FILM FE S TIVA L
JULY 13 TO AUGUST 2, 2017 MONTREAL fantasiafestival.com
SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell
paullindsell@gmail.com
BERLIN VENUES AKADEMIE DER KUNSTE (HANSEATENWEG) Hanseatenweg 10 10557 Berlin ARSENAL CINEMA Potsdamer Strasse 2 10785 Berlin AUDI BERLINALE LOUNGE Marlene-Dietrich-Platz 1 10785 Berlin BERLINALE PALAST Marlene-Dietrich-Platz 1 10785 Berlin EMBASSY OF CANADA Leipziger Platz 17 10117 Berlin BUNDESPLATZ-KINO Bundesplatz 14 10715 Berlin (Wilmersdorf) CINEMAXX POTSDAMER PLATZ Potsdamer Strasse 5, Entrance Voxstrasse 10785 Berlin CINESTAR IN THE SONY CENTRE Potsdamer Strasse 4 10785 Berlin CINESTAR IMAX Potsdamer Strasse 4 10785 Berlin CITY KINO WEDDING (in the Centre Francais de Berlin) Mullerstrasse 74 13349 Berlin COLOSSEUM Schonhauser Allee 123 10437 Berlin CUBIX Alexanderplatz, Rathausstrasse 1, 10178 Berlin DELPHI FILMPALAST Kantstrasse 12a 10623 Berlin DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK Filmhaus, Potsdamer Strasse 2 10785 Berlin EISZEIT KINO Zeughofstrasse 20 10997 Berlin (Kreuzberg) FILMTHEATER AM FRIEDRICHSHAIN Botzowstrasse 1-5 10407 Berlin
HAU HEBBEL AM UFER (HAU1, HAU2, HAU3) HAU1: Stresemannstrasse 29 HAU2: Hallesches Ufer 32 HAU3: Tempelhofer Ufer 10 10963 Berlin HAUS DER BERLINER FESTSPIELE Schaperstrasse 24 10719 Berlin HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 10557 Berlin KINO INTERNATIONAL Karl-Marx-Allee 33 10178 Berlin MARRIOTT HOTEL Inge-Beisheim-Platz 1 10785 Berlin MARTIN-GROPIUS-BAU (MGB) Niederkirchnerstrasse 7 10963 Berlin ODEON Hauptstrasse 116 10827 Berlin (Schoneberg) PREUSSISCHER LANDTAG (BERLIN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES) Niederkirchnerstrasse 5 10111 Berlin SILENT GREEN KULTURQUARTIER Gerichtstrasse 35 13347 Berlin SPUTNIK KINO Hasenheide 54 10967 Berlin (Kreuzberg) THALIA PROGRAMMKINO POTSDAM Rudolf-Breitscheid-Str. 50 14482 PotsdamBabelsberg TONI & TONINO Antonplatz 1 13086 Berlin VOLKSBUHNE AM ROSALUXEMBURG-PLATZ Linienstrasse 227 10178 Berlin WOLF Weserstrasse 59 12045 Berlin (Neukolln) ZEUGHAUSKINO Unter den Linden 2 10117 Berlin
FRIEDRICHSTADT-PALAST Friedrichstrasse 107 10117 Berlin
ZOO PALAST Hardenbergstrasse 29a 10623 Berlin
GROPIUS MIRROR RESTAURANT Niederkirchnerstrasse 10963 Berlin
» Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration.
14 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
FESTIVAL & PRESS
FESTIVAL
AND PRESS
09:00 THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
(Finland, Germany) 98mins. Dir: Aki Kaurismaki. Cast: Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Janne Hyytiainen, Ilkka Koivula, Nuppu Koivu. An encounter between two men in the Finnish capital: Syrian refugee Khaled and travelling salesman-turned restaurant owner Wikstrom. For a while these two men form a utopian community bound together by fate. Competition Press only Berlinale Palast
09:30 ANIMALS
(Switzerland, Austria, Poland) Classic. 95mins. Dir: Greg Zglinski. Cast: Birgit Minichmayr, Philipp Hochmair, Mona Petri, Mehdi Nebbou, Michael Ostrowski. A couple travel from Vienna to Switzerland leaving an acquaintance to look after their flat, while an aggrieved woman hurls herself from the upstairs window. Jealousy and mistrust take hold, reality splinters and strange animals begin to appear. Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
BRIGHT NIGHTS
(Germany, Norway) 86mins. Dir: Thomas Arslan. Cast: Georg Friedrich, Tristan Gobel, Marie Leuenberger, Hanna Karlberg. Following his father’s death, Michael travels to the funeral in a remote part of northern Norway, taking with him his 14-year-old son Luis, whom he barely knows. During the long days of the summer solstice, Michael tries to be the father he never was. Competition Friedrichstadt-Palast
JANUARY
(Argentina) Spectaculativ Pictures. 65mins. Dir: Dario Mascambroni. Cast: Valentino Rossi, Jorge Rossi, Eva Lopez. After his parents’ divorce, eight-year-old Valentino accompanies his father on a trip to the ‘Valle de Calamuchita’ to complete a traditional family ritual. A tentative journey, marked by farewells and new beginnings, awaits them both. Generation Kplus Zoo Palast 1
MR LONG
(Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Germany) 129mins. Dir: Sabu. Cast: Chen Chang, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Junyin Bai, Masashi Arifuku, Taro
11:00 LADY OF THE LAKE
(India) 71mins. Dir: Haobam Paban Kumar. Cast: Ningthoujam Sanatomba, Sagolsam Thambalsang. Loktak Lake in northeastern India is a place of unique natural beauty, Suwa, Ritsuko Okusa, Shiiko Utagawa, Yusuke Fukuchi, Tetsuya Chiba. A Taiwanese hitman finds his new calling running a successful mobile food stall in Japan. He also looks after a small boy. But then his past brutally catches up with him. Competition Haus der Berliner Festspiele
REQUIEM FOR MRS J
(Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russian Federation, France) American Zoetrope/ Osiris Films. 94mins. Dir: Bojan Vuletic. Cast: Mirjana Karanovic, Jovana Gavrilovic, Danica Nedeljkovic, Vucic Perovic, Mira Banjac. Jelena wants to end her life and she’s only got a week to sort things out. But this proves to be extremely difficult in a country caught between stagnation and change: a Kafkaesque tale full of black humour. Panorama Special CinemaxX 7
but now resettlement plans threaten its inhabitants’ everyday existence. A gun and a mysterious old woman bring ever greater uncertainty into the life of fisherman Tomba. Forum CineStar 8
UP IN THE SKY
(Sweden) 82mins. Dir: Petter Lennstrand. Cast: Mira Forsell, Adam Lundgren, Guffe Funck, Petter Lennstrand, Shebly Niavarani. Pottan, aged eight, is meant to be staying at a pony farm but her parents leave her at a recycling yard where strange characters are building a space rocket. The combination of puppets and real-life characters makes for an action-packed adventure. Generation Kplus Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
10:00 BERLIN REBEL HIGH SCHOOL
(Germany) 92mins. Dir: Alexander Kleider. Hidden in one of Berlin’s backyards you can find Germany’s most ambitious high school. No headmaster, no hierarchy and no pressure. The documentary follows Mimy, Alex, Lena and Hanil on their way to www.screendaily.com
JURY GRID, PAGE 32
the final exam. LOLA at Berlinale Accreditation only Zoo Palast 2
IF I THINK OF GERMANY AT NIGHT
(Germany) 108mins. Dir: Romuald Karmakar. Cast: Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata, Roman Flugel, David Moufang/Move D. Documentary about five pioneers of today’s electronic dance music and their work as DJs. In long, unedited takes the protagonists have their say. A film that provides us with a window on their daily working lives and the party scene. Panorama Documents CineStar 7
11:00 LADY OF THE LAKE See box, left
11:30 THE THEATRE OF DISAPPEARANCE
(Argentina) 120mins. Dir: Adrian Villar Rojas. The surreal daily life on the border between North and South Korea, a pottery in Morocco, art spaces, industrial facilities, farflung landscapes: a sensual, mysterious survey of the Earth and all it holds, which observes and invents in equal measure. Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
12:00 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
(Italy, France) Revolution Films. 131mins. Dir: Luca Guadagnino. Cast: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel. Northern Italy in 1983. Well-educated young Elio is idling away the summer at his parents’ country villa listening to music, reading books and swimming until one day his father’s new assistant, Oliver, appears. For Elio this causes an emotional upheaval. Panorama Special CinemaxX 7
CASTING JONBENET
(US, Australia) 81mins.
www.screendaily.com
Dir: Kitty Green. Twenty years have passed since the violent death of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey and the case remains unsolved. Continued speculation about the possible perpetrator and their motives is examined in this spectacular mix of facts and fiction. Panorama Documents CinemaxX 8
PATHS See box, right
THE PARTY
(UK) 71mins. Dir: Sally Potter. Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. An innocuous celebration among friends threatens to end with blood on the carpet. A stellar cast play members of a privileged clique at a party that spins out of control when dark chasms open in their ostensibly secure, intellectual middle-class lives. Competition Friedrichstadt-Palast
suspects that the animal kingdom is taking revenge. Deeply rooted in the reality of rural Poland, the film is as anarchic as its heroine. Competition Zoo Palast 1
12:30 GOG
(US) 85mins. Dir: Herbert L. Strock. Cast: Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, John Wengraf, Philip Van Zandt, Valerie Vernon, Steve Roberts. An underground research station in New Mexico is the target of fatal acts of sabotage. Even the robot Gog has been turned into a deadly weapon. This low-budget film provides an imaginative take on the consequences of the loss of control.
FESTIVAL & PRESS 12:00 PATHS
(Germany) 107mins. Dir: Chris Miera. Cast: Mike Hoffmann, Mathis Reinhardt, Tom Bottcher, Cai Cohrs, Peer Martiny, Anna Schimrigk, Eva Horacek, Yvone Doring, Sarah Loffler. How long is forever? A few years? Or just
the time it takes for a wave to crash onto the Baltic coast? Andreas and Martin share the ups and downs of their daily lives; their son Max is almost grown up. A sensitive portrait of a longstanding relationship. Perspektive Deutsches Kino Colosseum 1
Retrospective CineStar 7
THE PARTY
(UK) 71mins. Dir: Sally Potter. Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall.
SCREENING FOR BUYERS ONLY, NO PRESS ADMITTED
Competition Haus der Berliner Festspiele
WUNDERLICH’S WORLD
(Germany, Switzerland) 103mins. Dir: Dani Levy. Cast: Katharina Schuttler, Ewi Rodriguez, Christiane Paul, Peter Simonischek. Mimi, single mother of a hyperactive son, finally sees the chance of her dreams coming true when her son signs her up for a casting show. But she didn’t reckon with her lovely family. LOLA at Berlinale Accreditation only Zoo Palast 2
12:15
SOMNILOQUIES
(France, US) 73mins. Dir: Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Dion McGregor became famous in the mid1960s for talking in his sleep. Blurry images of sleeping bodies accompany recordings of his voice while asleep: a hypnotising exploration of the liminal state between wakefulness and dream. Forum Kino Arsenal 1
SPOOR
TESOROS
(Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovak Republic) 128mins. Dir: Agnieszka Holland. Cast: Agnieszka Mandat, Wiktor Zborowski, Miroslav Krobot, Jakub Gierszal, Patricia Volny, Borys Szyc. Several hunters are mysteriously killed in a village in the mountains. Retired engineer Duszejko
(Mexico) 95mins. Dir: Maria Novaro. Cast: Jacinta Chavez, Dylan Sutton Chavez, Andrea Sutton Chavez, Lucas Barroso Tillinger, Michelle Organiz. Dylan and Andrea have just moved to Barra de Potosi on Mexico’s Pacific coast. A treasure hunt takes the boy, his sister and some
SCREENING TODAY - 12:30 – CineStar 5 WORLD SALES MINERVA PICTURES – MGB 147 – sales@minervapictures.com »
February 14, 2017 Screen International at Berlin 15
SCREENINGS
local friends on a journey of discovery that turns up something far more precious than a lost pirate’s treasure trove.
OCCIDENTAL
(France) 73mins. Dir: Neil Beloufa. Cast: Idir Chender, Anna Ivacheff, Paul Hamy, Louise Orry-Diquero, Hamza Meziani, Brahim Tekfa. As protests rage on the Paris streets, two suspicious men rent the bridal suite at the Hotel Occidental, which feels stuck in the ’70s. When the maelstrom of events threatens to envelop staff and guests alike, hotel manager Diana tries to maintain order.
Generation Kplus Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
12:45 BEUYS
(Germany) 107mins. Dir: Andres Veiel. He boxes, chats, lectures and explains art to a dead hare. This documentary lets the artist speak for himself. An associative, porous montage of previously unpublished audio and video footage that opens a window on Joseph Beuys’ thoughts and ideas.
Forum CineStar 8
SO LONG ENTHUSIASM
Competition Press only Berlinale Palast
FESTIVAL & PRESS
13:00
13:00 MOUNTAIN MIRACLE — AN UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIP
ANGRY INUK
(Canada) Fonderia Artistica Battaglia. 85mins. Dir: Alethea Arnaquq-Baril. A vivid depiction of the quiet anger of a people whose very subsistence is being threatened from many angles. An outcry to reassess the preconceptions around commercial sealhunting, while illustrating the role of the global sealskin trade for the Inuit people. NATIVe — Indigenous Cinema Cubix 8
MOUNTAIN MIRACLE — AN UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIP See box, above
13:30
(Germany, Italy) 96mins. Dir: Tobias Wiemann. Cast: Mia Kasalo, Samuel Girardi, Susanne Bormann, Denis Moschitto, Jasmin Tabatabai.
Yance Ford comes to terms with the murder of his own brother 25 years ago by creating a documentary that is as personal as it is political. A freeform examination of racist terror, grief and simmering rage against inequality. Panorama Documents International
14:00
STRONG ISLAND
(US, Denmark) 107mins. Dir: Yance Ford.
24 WEEKS
(Germany) 102mins.
2017_UKF_Screenad_Strip_93x490_Art_7.indd 12
CITY OF THE SUN
Amelie hates her asthma and pretty much everything. Running away from a clinic in the Alps, she meets Bart, who tells her about the healing power of the midsummer fire on the mountain’s peak. Generation Kplus HKW
Dir: Anne Zohra Berrached. Cast: Julia Jentsch, Bjarne Madel. Cabaret performer Astrid is six months pregnant when she learns that her unborn child will be severely disabled. She and her husband have little time to take a decision of enormous significance. LOLA at Berlinale Accreditation only Zoo Palast 2
(Georgia, US, Qatar, Netherlands) 100mins. Dir: Rati Oneli. Chiatura was once a proud ore-mining centre but today its remaining inhabitants eke out their livelihoods among the ruins of Soviet ambition. Work in the mines, darkness, music and theatre: a post-utopian portrait of life in the city of the sun. Berlinale Talents HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1)
END OF THE SEASON
(Germany) 97mins. Dir: Lars Henning. Cast: Peter Kurth, Karl Markovics, Catrin Striebeck, Leonardo Nigro, Jonathan Neo Volk, Marko Dyrlich, Luca Maric, Piet Fuchs, Markus Haase, Therese Homer. After serving a lengthy prison sentence, Becker
wants to live a quiet life in self-imposed solitude. But the man whose wife and daughter he killed refuses to give him any peace. The violence which Becker banished from his life is now catching up with him. Perspektive Deutsches Kino Press and Accreditation CinemaxX 5
FROM A YEAR OF NONEVENTS
(Germany) 83mins. Dir: Ann Carolin Renninger, Rene Frelke. This documentary shows one year in the life of a north German farmer, a 90-year-old who lives alone on his farmstead near the Baltic Sea. Observations of the everyday and the natural surroundings merge into a portrait of an almost bygone way of life. Forum Akademie der Kunste
(Argentina, Colombia) 79mins. Dir: Vladimir Duran. Cast: Camilio Castiglione, Laila Maltz, Mariel Fernandez, Martina Juncadella, Rosario Blefari. Ten-year-old Axel lives with his mother and three sisters in a flat in Buenos Aires. If the mother weren’t imprisoned in one of the rooms, they’d be a perfectly normal family. Arguments are hardly unusual but what happens when there’s no way out? Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
TRACES
(Morocco) 100mins. Dir: Hamid Benani. Cast: Mohamed Kadan, Kadidja Moujabid, Majdouline Abdelkader Moutaa. Messaoud is adopted by a childless farmer, who disciplines the gentle child with extreme severity. As a
Mounira Kankole, Josephine Kabore. When his dad sends him off to relatives in Burkina Faso, 13-year-old Ady’s ready for some R&R abroad. But once there, the reception is chilly and it soon becomes clear that this isn’t going to be the nice break from life back home he expected.
young man, he ends on up the wrong side of the tracks. Forum Delphi Filmpalast
14:15 MR LONG
(Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Germany) 129mins. Dir: Sabu. Cast: Chen Chang, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Junyin Bai, Masashi Arifuku, Taro Suwa, Ritsuko Okusa, Shiiko Utagawa, Yusuke Fukuchi, Tetsuya Chiba.
Generation Kplus CinemaxX 1
15:30 THE MIDWIFE
Competition Friedrichstadt-Palast
TWO IRENES
(Brazil) Ayyam Gallery. 89mins. Dir: Fabio Meira. Cast: Priscila Bittencourt, Isabela Torres, Marco Ricca, Ines Peixoto, Susana Ribeiro. By chance, Irene discovers that there’s another 13-year-old Irene living in the same town. When they start talking about their fathers, they notice that they have more in common than they had thought. An exquisite mosaic of identity questions and friendship. Generation Kplus CinemaxX 3
14:30
FESTIVAL & PRESS 15:00 PATRIOT
(US, Czech Republic) Senator. 98mins. Dir: Cast: Michael Dorman, Kurtwood Smith, Michael Chernus, Kathleen Munroe, Aliette Opheim, Chris Conrad, Terry O’Quinn. John is a capable, by no means squeamish, love letters. Panorama Documents Colosseum 1
BELINDA
(France) 107mins. Dir: Marie Dumora. For years, Belinda’s life has been attentively captured by the camera. She’s a defiant bundle of energy who doesn’t make things easy for herself or others. But she loves life and her Thierry, currently behind bars, to whom she writes moving
undercover agent with an insidious disinclination for his job. His latest assignment takes him into the maze of international diplomacy. And yet he’d much rather pursue a career as a singer of morbid folk songs. Berlinale Special Series Haus der Berliner Festspiele
bloody internet, which simply refuses to work. Panorama Documents CineStar 7
FIVE STARS
(Germany) 79mins. Dir: Annekatrin Hendel. Two women in a hotel room by the sea. Four existential weeks with a camera. Their talk revolves around their onceglamorous lives in East Berlin, the present battle with a diagnosis and the
INFLAME
(Turkey) Rachel Mayeri. 94mins. Dir: Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik. Cast: Algi Eke, Ozgur Cevik, Kadir Cermik, Boncuk Yilmaz, Selen Ucer. A young TV editor for a news channel experiences how the truth is
increasingly manipulated. She also suspects that her parents did not die in a traffic accident but must have been killed in another way. A study in paranoia as a metaphor for political trauma. Panorama Special Cubix 9
LE TUNNEL
(France, Germany) 76mins. Dir: Kurt Bernhardt. Cast: Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud, Edmund van Daele, Gustaf Grundgens, Andre Nox. Worker unrest and sabotage disrupt construction of an undersea tunnel between America and Europe. Retrospective CinemaxX 8
15:00 PATRIOT See box, above
RIFLE
(Brazil, Germany) 88mins. Dir: Davi Pretto. Cast: Dione Avila de Oliveira, Evaristo Goularte, Andressa Goularte, Elizabete Nogueira, Livia Goularte, Francisco Fabricio Dutra dos Santos, Sofia Ferreira. A taciturn former soldier is employed to guard a small landholder’s estate. When an agricultural company seeks to buy up the land, he reacts in drastic fashion. A modern Western that plays out across the empty plains of southern Brazil. Forum Kino Arsenal 1
WALLAY
(France, Burkina Faso, Qatar) dollface. 84mins. Dir: Berni Goldblat. Cast: Makan Nathan Diarra, Ibrahim Koma, Hamadoun Kassogue,
(France, Belgium) Revolution Films. 120mins. Dir: Martin Provost. Cast: Catherine Frot, Catherine Deneuve, Olivier Gourmet, Quentin Dolmaire, Mylene Demongeot. Claire suddenly receives a call from her father’s former mistress. A dramatic comedy about the need for change and two headstrong women who have more to offer each other than they at first suspect. Competition (out of competition) Press only CinemaxX 7
SOLDIER
(Argentina) 72mins. Dir: Manuel Abramovich. A young recruit commences his military training. With clinical precision, the film reveals an everincreasing divide between the vulnerability of its protagonist and the rigid rules of the institution. Generation 14plus Cubix 8
WEIRDOS
(Canada) Zampa
06/02/2017 15:16
SCREENINGS
Audiovisual. 84mins. Dir: Bruce McDonald. Cast: Dylan Authors, Julia Sarah Stone, Molly Parker, Allan Hawco. In the summer of 1976, 15-year-old Kit runs away from home to live with his mother on the east coast of Canada. With his girlfriend and the spirit of Andy Warhol in tow, Kit’s hitchhiking trip ends somewhat differently from how he had envisioned.
these godforsaken Chinese highlands into a hypnotic space in which the protagonist finds himself entering a world of emotions he once sought to escape. Panorama CineStar 3
17:30 BRIGHT NIGHTS
(Germany, Norway) 86mins. Dir: Thomas Arslan. Cast: Georg Friedrich, Tristan Gobel, Marie Leuenberger, Hanna Karlberg.
Generation 14plus Zoo Palast 1
15:45
Competition Friedrichstadt-Palast
STRANGE BIRDS
(France) A Contracorriente Films. 70mins. Dir: Elise Girard. Cast: Lolita Chammah, Jean Sorel, Virginie Ledoyen, Pascal Cervo. Mavie moves to Paris from the provinces. After seeing an ad in a cafe, she lands both a flat and a job from Georges, a cynical old bookshop owner who’s never actually sold a book. Everything would be fine if dead seagulls weren’t falling from the sky. Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
GHOST HUNTING
FESTIVAL & PRESS 16:00 THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
(Finland, Germany) 98mins. Dir: Aki Kaurismcki. Cast: Sherwan Haji, Sakari Kuosmanen, Janne Hyyticinen, Ilkka Koivula, Nuppu Koivu, Simon Hussein Al-Bazoon, Niroz Haji, Kaija Pakarinen.
An encounter between two men in the Finnish capital: Syrian refugee Khaled and travelling salesman-turned restaurant owner Wikstrom. For a while these two men form a utopian community bound together by fate. Competition Berlinale Palast
Panorama Documents International
16:00 THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE See box, above
16:15 FOG IN AUGUST
(Germany, Austria) Kurt Krigar. 126mins. Dir: Kai Wessel. Cast: Ivo Pietzcker, Sebastian Koch, Fritzi Haberlandt, Henriette Confurius. Tells the true story of Thirteen-year-old Ernst Lossa who struggled against a cruel, inhumane system and fell victim to the national socialist euthanasia programme in 1944.
Forum Akademie der Kunste
creates his spot in pop culture heaven. His conservative milieu finds this anything but fabulous, which doesn’t deter Billy from running for homecoming queen.
EL MAR LA MAR
Generation 14plus CinemaxX 3
stifled this burgeoning social movement. A study of the possibilities for militant action in both cinema and society.
(US) 94mins. Dir: Joshua Bonnetta, JP Sniadecki. The Sonoran Desert between Mexico and the US: 16mm footage of vegetation, weather phenomena, animals, people and the traces they leave behind merge with a polyphonic soundtrack to create a panoramic study of a highly politicised landscape.
MENASHE
Forum Delphi Filmpalast
(US, Israel) Filmadora Producciones. 81mins. Dir: Joshua Z Weinstein. Cast: Menashe Lustig. Menashe hopes to retain custody of his son following the death of his wife. Yet Brooklyn’s Hasidic community demands he lead a more ordered life and find a new spouse, neither of which come easy to the kind, but awkward loner.
A FEELING GREATER THAN LOVE
FREAK SHOW
Forum CineStar 8
(Lebanon) 99mins. Dir: Mary Jirmanus Saba. The protests held at two Beirut factories in the early ’70s could have kicked off a revolution had the civil war and its divisions not
(US) 90mins. Dir: Trudie Styler. Cast: Alex Lawther, Abigail Breslin, AnnaSophia Robb, Ian Nelson, Celia Weston. In-between David Bowie and Lady Gaga, Billy
LOLA at Berlinale Accreditation only Zoo Palast 2
16:30
Franke, Johannes Schmoelling. Edgar Froese, founder of Tangerine Dream, one of Germany’s first electronic bands, spent almost 50 years exploring sound and its correlation with our emotions. Margarete Kreuzer’s documentary is a densely atmospheric portrait of an artistic pioneer.
20 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
REVOLUTION OF SOUND. TANGERINE DREAM
(Germany) 90mins. Dir: Margarete Kreuzer. Cast: Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, Christoph
UCHCJIN T0KY0 NI ARAWARU
(Japan) 87mins. Dir: Koji Shima. Cast: Keizc Kawasaki, Toyomi Karita, Bin Yagisawa. Extraterrestrials as giant starfish! By the time humans finally start listening to their warning, it may be too late to avoid collision with another planet. Retrospective CinemaxX 8
17:00 HEADBANG LULLABY
(Morocco, France, Qatar, Lebanon) 111mins. Dir: Hicham Lasri. Cast: Aziz Hattab, Latefa Ahrrare, Zoubir Abou el Fadl, El Jirari Benaissa, Salma Eddlimi. 1986: a government official secures a bridge between two hostile communities near Casablanca ahead of the king’s visit. A visually stunning fairytale in which euphoria and hope lift the spirits
of a mercilessly oppressed people. Panorama Special Cubix 9
SECONDS
(US) 107mins. Dir: John Frankenheimer. Cast: Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey. A middle-aged banker is reborn as a young painter. The nightmarish depiction of a brave new world, in which individual personality appears to be no more than an arbitrary construct of plastic surgery. Retrospective Zeughauskino
TANIA LIBRE
(US, Germany) Jeamin Cha. 74mins. Dir: Lynn Hershman Leeson. Cast: Tania Bruguera, Frank Ochberg, Tilda Swinton. After serving a prison sentence for a performance that was critical of the Cuban government, Tania Bruguera consults a New York trauma specialist to discuss the revolutionary potential of art. Panorama Documents CineStar 7
17:15 GHOST IN THE MOUNTAINS
(China) 136mins. Dir: Yang Heng. Cast: Tang Shenggang, Liang Yu, Shang Yutong, Zhang Shujun, Shi Kaixuan. A man returns home after many years. Masterfully composed images transform
(France, Switzerland, Palestine) Cicero Films. 92mins. Dir: Raed Andoni. Cast: Ramzi Maqdisi, Mohammed ‘Abu Atta’ Khattab, Raed Andoni, Atef Ai-Akhras, Wadee Hanani. A set-up for an experiment in an empty room: former inmates reconstruct an Israeli secret service interrogation centre. These Palestinian men use role play to come to terms with their memories and the humiliation they have experienced. Panorama Documents Cubix 7
NALU ON THE BORDER
(Brazil, Uruguay) 94mins. Dir: Cristiane Oliveira. Cast: Maria Galant, Marat Descartes, Veronica Perrotta, Amelia Bittencourt, Aurea Baptista. After her grandmother’s death, 16-year-old Nalu is left to care for her blind father, who also suffers from depression. Any hope of leaving her bleak village and one day leading an exciting, fulfilling life seems to have receded far off into the distance. Generation 14plus CinemaxX 1
POI E: THE STORY OF OUR SONG
(New Zealand) 94mins. Dir: Tearepa Kahi. Cast: Dalvanius Prime. 1984: a Maori pop song climbs to the top of the New Zealand charts. Back then, it was almost unheard to combine modern beats with traditional elements. Both
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the song and the video became cult, helping a generation of young Maori to rediscover their roots.
of the trial is interwoven with dramatised scenes, combining reality with fiction.
Generation 14plus HKW
Berlinale Special Cubix 8
Bukaee. Cast: Salim Dau, Suhel Haddad, Tuvia Gelber, Danny Segev, Dani Roth, Barry Langford, Michael Koresh, Yuval Cohen. Two Egyptian soldiers wander through the Sinai Desert at the end of the Six-Day War. A black tragicomedy about the absurdity of war and the first Israeli film in which Arabs were portrayed by Arab actors.
SS-GB RIFLE
(Brazil, Germany) 88mins. Dir: Davi Pretto. Cast: Dione Avila de Oliveira, Evaristo Goularte, Andressa Goularte, Elizabete Nogueira, Livia Goularte. Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
18:00 CLOSE UP
(Iran) Shellac Sud. 99mins. Dir: Abbas Kiarostami. Cast: Hossein Sabzian, Hassan Farazmand, Abolfazl Ahankhah. Unemployed cineaste Sabzian poses as director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. When his true identity is discovered he is put on trial. Documentary footage
(UK) Kaliber Film. 120mins. Dir: Philipp Kadelbach Cast: Sam Riley, Kate Bosworth, Lars Eidinger, James Cosmo, Rainer Bock, Maeve Dermody. A disturbing dystopia. Great Britain has been conquered and occupied by the Nazis. Detective Douglas Archer is investigating a murder in the black market milieu. He finds himself caught between the SS, Scotland Yard and Britain’s resistance movement.
Berlinale Classics CinemaxX 8
BERLIN SYNDROME
(Australia) Revolution Films. 116mins. Dir: Cate Shortland. Cast: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt, Matthias Habich, Emma Bading, Elmira Bahrami, Christoph Franken. An Australian backpacker finds herself a prisoner of her temporary lover in his Berlin apartment. A journey and an affair that turns into a nightmare, in
Berlinale Special Series Haus der Berliner Festspiele
19:00 AVANTI POPOLO
(Israel) 83mins. Dir: Rafi
a thriller that toys with the conventions of this genre.
SCHUMANN’S BAR TALKS
WHEN THE DAY HAD NO NAME
Panorama Special International
(Germany) 98mins. Dir: Marieke Schroeder. Cast: Charles Schumann.
BEUYS
Culinary Cinema CineStar IMAX
(Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia) 82mins. Dir: Teona Strugar Mitevska. Cast: Leon Ristov, Hanis Bagashov, Stefan Kitanovic, Dragan Mishevski, Ivan Vrtev Soptrajanov. Six Macedonian teenagers set out on a fishing expedition. They toy with each other’s emotions, put their sexual magnetism to the test and search for a way forward amid the shattered values of a multi-ethnic country with a faltering economy.
(Germany) 107mins. Dir: Andres Veiel. He boxes, chats, lectures and explains art to a dead hare. This documentary lets the artist speak for himself. An associative, porous montage of previously unpublished audio and video footage that opens a window on Joseph Beuys’ thoughts and ideas.
SIMULATION
(US) 105mins. Dir: Warren Beatty. Cast: Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, Charlie Korsmo, Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe, Glenne Headly, Paul Sovino.
(Iran) Wanda Vision. 84mins. Dir: Abed Abest. Cast: Abed Abest, Vahid Rad, Majid Yousefi, Danial Khojasteh, Shahrzad Seifi, Asghar Piran, Javad Pourheidari, Javad Pouladi, Hananeh Shahrokhi, Alireza Saveh Doroudi, Iman Basim. Three uninvited friends, an unwilling host, a gun: at the police station later, each will give their own version of what actually happened on that drunken evening. In highly artificial fashion, Abest stages a smart simulation about the need to keep face.
Homage Zeughauskino
Forum Delphi Filmpalast
Competition Berlinale Palast
DICK TRACY
Panorama Special Zoo Palast 1
19:15 TINSELWOOD
(Congo, France) IllingKlett. 82mins. Dir: Marie Voignier. The documentary discreetly accompanies the everyday lives of the inhabitants of a verdant corner of
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February 14, 2017 Screen International at Berlin 21
SCREENINGS
Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, Susan Sarandon. Half satirical, high school drama and half disaster film, a declaration of love to all the nerds of the world.
southeastern Cameroon: a cinematic exploration of a remote region where a brutal colonial past underpins a present where everything remains in stasis. Forum CineStar 8
Generation 14plus HKW
19:30
21:00
1945
(Hungary) Universal Pictures International. 93mins. Dir: Ferenc Torok. Cast: Peter Rudolf, Bence Tasnadi, Tamas Szabo Kimmel, Dora Sztarenki, Agi Szirtes. A Hungarian village in the summer of 1945. Two men, survivors of the Holocaust, arrive. Repressed memories and recent crimes come to the fore. A parable about guilt, atonement and the failure of an entire society. Panorama Zoo Palast 2
CHEF’S TABLE — JEONG KWAN
(US) 58mins. Dir: David Gelb. Cast: Jeong Kwan. This episode of ‘Chef ’s Table’ follows Jeong Kwan, a buddhist nun from South Korea who prepares temple food to help clarify the mind for meditation as she believes that the path to enlightenment is paved through connecting and communing with people via food. Culinary Cinema MGB-Kino
CHEF’S TABLE — TIM RAUE
(US) 48mins. Dir: Abigail Fuller. Cast: Tim Raue. Chef Tim Raue has put German cuisine back on the world food map by mixing Asian influences with German ingredients. ‘Chef ’s Table’ depicts his rise as an influential chef, with his food reflecting the multicultural backdrop of modern Berlin. Culinary Cinema MGB-Kino
END OF THE SEASON
(Germany) 97mins. Dir: Lars Henning. Cast: Peter Kurth, Karl Markovics, Catrin Striebeck, Leonardo Nigro, Jonathan Neo Volk, Marko Dyrlich, Luca Maric, Piet Fuchs, Markus Haase, Therese Homer.
PATHS
(Germany) 107mins. Dir: Chris Miera. Cast: Mike Hoffmann, Mathis Reinhardt, Tom Bottcher, Cai Cohrs, Peer Martiny, Anna Schimrigk, Eva Horacek, Yvone Doring, Sarah Loffler. Perspektive Deutsches Kino CinemaxX 1
21:30 THE BAR
FESTIVAL & PRESS 20:00 GOD’S OWN COUNTRY
(UK) International Dog Productions. 104mins. Dir: Francis Lee. Cast: Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Ian Hart, Gemma Jones. Johnny is running his
ailing father’s farm in Yorkshire. A young Romanian, Gheorghe, is hired for the spring season. Initial tensions between these two men soon give way to passion. Panorama CinemaxX 7
A young man and an older couple take a train from Seoul to the small town of Chuncheon. Across two separate threads, the film follows these protagonists to the temple of Cheongpyeong, a place full of memories for them. Forum Cubix 9
members of a privileged clique at a party that spins out of control when dark chasms open in their ostensibly secure, intellectual middle-class lives. Competition Friedrichstadt-Palast
20:15 FROM THE BALCONY
After serving a lengthy prison sentence, Becker wants to live a quiet life in self-imposed solitude. But the man whose wife and daughter he killed refuses to give him any peace. The violence which Becker banished from his life is now catching up with him. Perspektive Deutsches Kino CinemaxX 3
Colonelle and heads a Congolese police unit whose task is to protect women and children. Hamadi creates a portrait of this spirited woman’s work in a country still wracked by the effects of war and violence. Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
20:00 ADRIANA’S PACT
FOR AHKEEM
(US) 89mins. Dir: Jeremy S Levine, Landon Van Soest. Daje lives with her mother in St Louis. Like many black teenagers in the neighbourhood, she struggles in school, as her everyday life is shaken again and again by her friends being killed around her. A long-term documentary observation of huge empathy. Forum CinemaxX 4
(Chile) 96mins. Dir: Lissette Orozco. When beloved Aunt Adriana is suddenly charged with having worked for the Chilean secret police under Pinochet, her niece picks up her camera and searches for answers — in archives, in conversations with her aunt’s former colleagues and in her own family. Panorama Documents CineStar 7
AUTUMN, AUTUMN MAMA COLONEL
(Congo, France) 72mins. Dir: Dieudo Hamadi. Honorine is affectionately referred to as Maman
22 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
(South Korea) Cold Iron Pictures. 77mins. Dir: Jang Woo-jin. Cast: Yang Heung-ju, Lee Se-rang, Woo Ji-hyeon.
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY See box, above
LOW TIDE
(Israel, France) 74mins. Dir: Daniel Mann. Cast: Gal Hoyberger, Susanne Gschwendtner, Amnon Wolf, Eran Ivanir, Oleg Levin, Amit Berlowitz. After losing his job and an unhappy divorce, a history teacher signs up as a reserve soldier, yet keeps putting off his period of duty, while a foreign journalist is looking for a way to get to Gaza. The story of two drifters in a land at constant war. Forum Colosseum 1
THE PARTY
(UK) 71mins. Dir: Sally Potter. Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall. An innocuous celebration among friends threatens to end with blood on the carpet. A stellar cast play
(Norway) 85mins. Dir: Ole Giaever. Cast: Ole Giaever. Combining reflections, visions, documentary footage and video clips of everyday life in his family with his own sense of humour and curiosity, Ole Giaever creates an impressive cinematic cosmos which plumbs the depths of human existence. Panorama Cubix 7 and 8
THE MISANDRISTS
(Germany) Rachel Mayeri. 91mins. Dir: Bruce LaBruce. Cast: Susanne Sachsse, Viva Ruiz, Kembra Pfahler, Caprice Crawford, Grete Gehrke. A radical female ‘army of lovers’ is preparing itself to fight for a world without men. But can there be equality in a corrupt system? Panorama CineStar 3
20:30 MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA
(US) 77mins. Dir: Dash Shaw. Cast: Jason
(Spain) 102mins. Dir: Alex de la Iglesia. Cast: Blanca Suarez, Mario Casas, Carmen Machi, Secun de la Rosa, Jaime Ordonez. Two customers in a Madrid bar are killed in a mysterious attack. The people remaining find themselves caught in a struggle for survival. A black comedy-thriller in which the world is revealed to us in microcosm. Competition (out of competition) Press (T badge holders only) CinemaxX 9
CHARIOTS OF FIRE
(UK) 124mins. Dir: Hugh Hudson. Cast: Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers, Ian Charleson, Ben Cross, Daniel Gerroll, Ian Holm, John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson, Nigel Davenport. Homage CinemaxX 8
DARK CITY
(US, Australia) 100mins. Dir: Alex Proyas. Cast: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O’Brien. An alleged murderer of prostitutes joins forces with the investigating detective to uncover a plot by extraterrestrial invaders. Retrospective Zeughauskino
FOREIGN BODY
(Tunisia, France) Cicero
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SCREENINGS
Films. 92mins. Dir: Raja Amari. Cast: Hiam Abbass, Sarra Hannachi, Salim Kechiouche, Marc Brunet. Samia and Imed are living in France illegally. Widow Madame Berteau is also an immigrant but enjoys wealth and status. Making her acquaintance offers the chance of a residency permit and moving up in the world, resulting in a thorny menage-a-trois. Forum Press only CinemaxX 6
GREEN RIVER. THE TIME OF THE YAKURUNAS
(Peru) Ram Bergman Productions. 70mins. Dir: Alvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento. This documentary travels to the Peruvian Amazon to examine the lives of its indigenous inhabitants. In unhurried images suffused with the sounds of the rainforest, a portrait of everyday existence unfolds that seems governed by the water’s gentle flow. Forum Delphi Filmpalast
SAMI BLOOD
(Sweden, Denmark, Norway) Cinereach. 110mins. Dir: Amanda
Kernell. Cast: Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Maj Doris Rimpi, Julius Fleischanderl, Olle Sarri, Hanna Alstrom, Malin Cropin, Andreas Kundler, Ylva Gustafsson. A teenage girl from a traditional Sami family yearns to be accepted by the Swedish society of the 1930s, a society full of prejudice and discrimination against her people. A shrewd commentary on institutionalised abuse and its consequences.
THE QUEEN OF SPAIN
NATIVe — Indigenous Cinema CineStar IMAX
Berlinale Special Gala Haus der Berliner Festspiele
THE LOST CITY OF Z
140mins. Dir: James Gray. Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Edward Ashley, Angus Macfadyen. Inspired by his desire to explore, a 1920s British ethnologist sets off on repeated expeditions into the Amazon region. Based on a non-fiction book, this is a visually stunning adventure that also portrays a society in upheaval. Berlinale Special Gala Zoo Palast 1
(Spain) Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg. 128mins. Dir: Fernando Trueba. Cast: Penelope Cruz, Chino Darin, Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Clive Revill. A Spanish actress returns from Hollywood to a chaotic film set in Franco’s Spain. Doyen of Spanish cinema Fernando Trueba offers an entertaining but nonetheless highly political work that neatly references his own oeuvre.
22:00 ATLANTIC
(Ireland) 75mins. Dir: Risteard O Domhnaill. Cast: Brendan Gleeson. Follows the fortunes of three small fishing communities — in Ireland, Norway and Newfoundland — as they struggle to maintain their way of life in the face of mounting economic and ecological challenges. Culinary Cinema MGB-Kino
THE MIDWIFE See box, below
FESTIVAL & PRESS 22:00 THE MIDWIFE
(France, Belgium) Revolution Films. 120mins. Dir: Martin Provost. Cast: Catherine Frot, Catherine Deneuve, Olivier Gourmet, Quentin Dolmaire, Mylene Demongeot.
Claire suddenly receives a call from her father’s former mistress. A dramatic comedy about the need for change and two headstrong women who have more to offer each other than they at first suspect. Competition (out of competition) Berlinale Palast
»
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February 14, 2017 Screen International at Berlin 25
SCREENINGS
MARKET SCREENINGS
09:00 A GERMAN LIFE
(Austria) Cinephil, 113mins. Dir: Christian Krones, Florian Weigensamer, Roland Schrotthofer. Brunhilde Pomsel was closer to Hitler’s minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels than anyone alive today. Aged 105, she speaks for the first time. CinemaxX 12
THE DAY MY FATHER BECAME A BUSH
FESTIVAL & PRESS 22:30 LAST DAYS IN HAVANA
(Cuba, Spain) 93mins. Dir: Fernando Pcrez. Cast: Jorge Martinez, Patricio Wood, Gabriela Ramos, Cristian Jesus Perez, Coralia Veloz. Two men share a dilapidated apartment
MR LONG
(Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Germany) 129mins. Dir: Sabu. Cast: Chen Chang, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Junyin Bai, Masashi Arifuku, Taro Suwa, Ritsuko Okusa, Shiiko Utagawa, Yusuke Fukuchi, Tetsuya Chiba. Competition Friedrichstadt-Palast
RUSTLERS
(Argentina) 85mins. Dir: Albertina Carri. The life of Isidro Velazquez, a bandit and political dissident active in the 1960s, has previously formed the basis of a sociology book and a feature never shown. Carri now wants to make her own version of his story but which images are the right ones? Forum Zoo Palast 2
in Havana. Ailing Diego dreams of life while Miguel pins all his hopes on emigrating to the US. The story of a friendship that provides an insight into the challenges of daily life in Cuba. Berlinale Special International
inhabitants. The sand, sea and grass look just as they did when minerals were taken from the earth, when there was still talk of the mythical city of Tartessos. Forum CinemaxX 4
THREE LIGHTS
(Japan) 100mins. Dir: Kohki Yoshida. Cast: Ryo Ikeda, Hiroshi Suzuki, Kazuha Komiya, Emi Maki, Natsumi Ishibashi. Four people alienated from their everyday lives come together, generating hope that things might now be different. They decide to record a song in a studio on an industrial estate but one of them then threatens the harmony of this fragile community. Forum CineStar 8
22:15
THE SEA STARES AT US FROM AFAR
MOTHERLAND (BAYANG INA MO)
(Spain, Netherlands) 93mins. Dir: Manuel Mucoz Rivas. Past and present flow together in this documentary portrait of a coastal landscape and its
(US, Philippines) 94mins. Dir: Ramona S Diaz. This absorbing documentary shows the daily grind on one of the world’s biggest maternity wards in Manila. Pleasures
26 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
and hardships alike emerge across deliveries, first attempts at breast feeding, family planning workshops and fixed visiting times. Forum Cubix 9
22:30 DISCREET
(US) Rachel Mayeri. 81mins. Dir: Travis Mathews. Cast: Jonny Mars, Joy Cunningham, Bob Swaffar, Atsuko Okatsuka, Joao Federici. Filmmaker Alex lives in a van and appears to be stranded in Texas — caught between his work beneath highway overpasses and anonymous sex with male strangers. But then he learns a terrible secret from his mother that brings back the past. Panorama Colosseum 1
LAST DAYS IN HAVANA See box, above
UNTITLED
(Austria, Germany) Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion. 107mins. Dir: Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi. Cast: Fiona Shaw. Michael Glawogger died of malaria in 2014 while he was filming in Europe and Africa. Monika Willi has edited his material into a fascinating chronicle of an aimless journey, creating a visually stunning film about the poetry of the arbitrary. Panorama Documents CineStar 7
VAYA
(South Africa) 110mins. Dir: Akin Omotoso. Cast: Mncedisi Shabangu, Sibusiso Msimang, Sihle Xaba, Warren Masemola. A journey to Johannesburg has an unexpected ending for the four protagonists. Their paths cross as one attempts to find work in the corrupt metropolis, another tries to collect his father’s corpse and a third seeks to deliver a little girl to her mother. Panorama Special Cubix 7 and 8
22:45 FLUIDO
(Germany) Rachel Mayeri. 78mins. Dir: Shu Lea Cheang. Cast: Candy Flip, Bishop Black, Kristina Marlen, William E. Morris, Alexander Geist. It is 2060: the world is free of AIDS but a novel drug can be made from certain mutations of the virus. A dystopian science fiction, told as a parapornographic drama, about the economic value of bodily fluids. Panorama CinemaxX 7
THE TASTE OF BETEL NUT
(China) 85mins. Dir: Hu Jia. Cast: Zhao Bing Rui, Yue Ye, Shen Shi Yu. Two gay men are living on a Chinese island that is a surfer’s paradise. Their intimacy is disrupted by a young woman. A tale of love, sex and trust — but also of violence. Panorama CineStar 3
(Netherlands, Croatia, Belgium) Beta Cinema, 91mins. Dir: Nicole van Kilsdonk. Cast: Celeste Holsheimer, Matsen Montsma, Teun Kuilboer, Noortje Herlaar. When war breaks out in the South, Toda’s father has to defend his country. For Toda he looks like a bush in his camouflage uniform. CineStar 1
DELTA BOYS
(South Korea) Mirovision, 125mins. Dir: Ko Bongsoo. Cast: Baek Seunghwan, Lee Woong-bin, Shin Min-jae, Ki Choonggil. Four miserable and hopeless men at the bottom of the social ladder try to comfort themselves while preparing to enter a quartet contest. CinemaxX 18
JUST LIKE OUR PARENTS
(Brazil) Wild Bunch, 105mins. Dir: Lais Bodanzky. Cast: Maria Ribeiro, Paulo Vilhena, Clarisse Abujamra, Sophia Valverde. Rosa longs only to be perfect: in her job, as a mother, daughter, wife. The harder she tries, the more she feels she’s getting it all wrong. Until one day her mother drops a bombshell, and Rosa begins to rediscover her true self. CinemaxX 13
MANSFIELD 66/67
(US) Stray Dogs, 96mins. Dir: P. David Ebersole, Todd Hughes. The last two years of
movie goddess Jayne Mansfield’s life and the rumours swirling around her untimely death being caused by a curse, after her alleged romantic affair with the head of the Church of Satan. CinemaxX 15
RUSSIAN RED
(Brazil, Serbia) FiGa Films, 90mins. Dir: Charly Braun. Cast: Martha Nowill, Maria Manoella, Soraia Chaves, Michel Melame. Inspired by the diary of actress Martha Nowill: recounts the soul-searching trip of two young Brazilian actresses to Moscow. CinemaxX 17
09:15 WAKE ME UP
(Russia) Indie Vision, 96mins. Dir: Guillaume Protsenko. Cast: Irina Verbitskaya, Konstantin Lavronenko, Kirill Pirogov. After her boyfriend’s disappearance, Zhenia develops an uncanny power for prophetic dreams. Using this gift she decides to escape fate and save her true love from Moscow’s criminal underworld. CinemaxX 3
09:20 CHOUF
(France) Doc & Film International, 106mins. Dir: Karim Dridi. Cast: Sofian Khammes, Foued Nabba, Oussama Abdul Aal, Zine Darar. Chouf means “look” in Arabic but it is also the name and role of the watchmen in the drug cartels of Marseille. Sofiane, a brilliant student, comes back to spend his holiday in the Marseille ghetto where he was born. CinemaxX 14
09:30 DEVIL’S FREEDOM
(Mexico) Films Boutique, 74mins. Dir: Everardo Gonzalez. A psychological documentary that penetrates into the mind of the protagonists of violence, victims as well as victimisers, through interviews that go under the skin. CinemaxX 4
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KILLING GROUND
(Australia) Films Distribution, 89mins. Dir: Damien Power. Cast: Aaron Pedersen, Ian Meadows, Harriet Dyer, Aaron Glenane. Ian and Sam head to a national park, hoping the bush will give them space for some time together. The discovery of a child wandering in the woods unleashes a terrifying chain of events that test the couple to breaking point. CineStar 2
SWEET, SWEET LONELY GIRL
(US) MPM Film, 76mins. Dir: AD Calvo. Cast: Erin Wilhelmi, Quinn Shephard, Susan Kellermann. After moving in to take care of her ageing aunt, Adele meets Beth, a seductive and mysterious girl, who will test her moral limits and send her spiraling down a psychologically unstable and phantasmagoric path. CinemaxX 16
09:45 THE SWEET LIFE
(US) WestEnd Films, 92mins. Dir: Rob Spera. Cast: Chris Messina, Abigail Spencer. The love story of Kenny and Lolita, who first meet by chance in Chicago and form
a pact to travel across the country to the Golden Gate Bridge to commit suicide together. CineStar 6
10:00 4 BLOCKS
(Germany) Turner Broadcasting, 107mins. Dir: Marvin Kren. Cast: Kida Khodr Ramadan, Frederic Lau, Veysel Gelin, Almila Bagriacik. A story about friendship and family, betrayal and trust. The tightly knit Hamaday family controls one of Berlin’s most notorious crime districts. When a drug deal goes wrong and a cop gets shot, everything changes. Zoo Palast 4
BERLIN REBEL HIGH SCHOOL
(Germany) DOK-Werk filmkooperative, 92mins. Dir: Alexander Kleider. Hidden in one of Berlin’s backyards you can find Germany’s most ambitious high school. No headmaster, no hierarchy and no pressure. The documentary follows Mimy, Alex, Lena and Hanil on their way to the final exam. Zoo Palast 2
THE LAST PAINTING
(Taiwan) Wide, 106mins. Dir: Chen Hong I. Cast: Chang Ning, JC Lin,
Kiwibaby, Lin Wei Yi. A student and political activist becomes the new housemate of a solitary painter. He is brusque and disillusioned, she is filled with hope. A visually impressive, layered thriller about politics, art and murder. CinemaxX 9
THE LEGACY III
(Denmark) DR Sales, 58mins. Dir: Heidi Maria Faisst, May el-Toukhy, Trine Dyrholm, Pernilla August. Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Carsten Bjornlund, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Marie Bach Hansen. A landmark event forces four siblings to consider what they want with their lives, and whether they want to do good for the world and for their community. Zoo Palast 3
10:30 BRUSSELS
(Netherlands, Belgium) Endemol Shine Group, 90mins. Dir: Arno Dierickx. Cast: Johanna ter Steege, Alexander Lazarev, Daniïl Boissevain, Carolien Spoor. A multi-thread story set behind the scenes of European politics. A place of power and impotence, of love and betrayal, of dreams and bitterness. All characters are
on their way to Brussel, driven by revenge or love — or both. Zoo Palast 5
10:40 KATIE SAYS GOODBYE
(US) Cercamon, 88mins. Dir: Wayne Roberts. Cast: Olivia Cooke, Christopher Abbott, Mireille Enos, Mary Steenburgen. A young waitress in the American Southwest dreams of a new life in San Francisco. After she falls in love with an ex-convict, the fragile harmony of her world is thrown into jeopardy. MGB-Kino
OWLS & MICE
(Netherlands) Attraction Distribution, 80mins. Dir: Simone van Dusseldorp. Cast: Hiba Ghafry, Jashayra Oehlers, Felix van de Weerdt, Mathieu HInzen. A seven-year-old girl takes her pet mouse to a school camp. When the mouse is snatched by an owl, the girl and her friends experience what nature has to offer and what true friendship represents. CinemaxX 15
THE PLOY
(Italy, France) Rai Com, 112mins. Dir: David Grieco. Cast: Massimo Ranieri, Libero de Rienzo, Matteo Taranto, Francois-Xavier Demaison. In the summer of ’75, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film ‘Salo’ is stolen from the lab where he is editing it. This is just the first step of an intricate plan that will bring the great poet to his violent death. CineStar 1
WALDSTILLE See box, left
10:45 RESCUE UNDER FIRE
MARKET 10:40 WALDSTILLE
(Netherlands) Media Luna New Films, 88mins. Dir: Martijn Maria Smits. Cast: Thomas Ryckewaert, Jelka van Houten, Maartje van de Wetering, Johan Leysen.
Ben is sent to jail after causing a car accident that kills his girlfriend. When he returns to Waldstille, his hometown, his in-laws have gained custody of his daughter, but Ben is determined to make up for the lost time. CinemaxX 17
(Spain) Latido Films, 94mins. Dir: Adolfo Martinez Perez. Cast: Ariadna Gil, Ingrid Garcia Jonsson. The crew of a medical helicopter suffer an accident when helping a Spanish/ American division in Afghanistan. The Spanish army has one night to organise the rescue while a huge concentration of Taliban troops start surrounding them. CineStar 5
10:50 THE OTHER END
(Brazil) Pluto Film, 92mins.
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February 14, 2017 Screen International at Berlin 27
SCREENINGS
Dir: Felipe Sholl. Cast: Karine Teles, Tom Karabachian, Denise Fraga, Emilio de Mello, Anita Ferraz. Angela, 43, and Diogo, 17, want nothing else than to be together. Yet, social pressure almost destroys it all.
International Distribution, 52mins. Dir: Thierry Poiraud, Julien Despaux. Cast: Juliane Brahim, Hubert Delattre, Laurent Capelluto, Samuel Jouy. Villefranche. A small bordertown lost in the heart of a large forest which makes any phone call hazardous. A place like no other, increasingly deserted by its inhabitants while the crime rate is six times higher than elsewhere.
CinemaxX 11
THE TRIAL: THE STATE OF RUSSIA VS OLEG SENTSOV
(Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic) Rise and Shine, 70mins. Dir: Askold Kurov. In 2015, despite case inconsistencies, the Russian court sentenced Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in prison. The film follows the progress of the trial and the attempts of Oleg’s family and lawyers to free him. CinemaxX 4
10:55 MAD ABOUT HER
(Brazil) Summerside International, 90mins. Dir: Marcus Ligocki Jr. Cast: Bruno Garcia, Mia Mello, Mariana Ximenes. Lucia is married to Gero, a politician who is dazzled by the possibility of becoming governor. Lucia is willing to support him but his indecision makes her flee to Rio de Janeiro. CinemaxX 16
11:00 BUTTERFLY KISSES
(UK) m-appeal — Raspberry & Cream, 89mins. Dir: Rafael Kapelinski. Cast: Rosie Day, Elliot Cowan, Theo Stevenson, Charlotte Beaumont. Follows Jake and his two best friends: a teenage world revolving around sex and porn. Each friend has their own demons but Jake has a dark secret — one he can’t confess to anyone. CinemaxX 19
REQUIEM FOR MRS J
(Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia) Soul Food, 94mins. Dir: Bojan Vuletic. Cast: Mirjana Karanovic, Jovana Gavrilovic, Danica Nedeljkovic, Mira Banjac. Mrs J wants to settle all private and administrative work so she can commit suicide. In a country that is going through social
Zoo Palast 3
MIDDLEGROUND
MARKET 11:15 HOLLOW IN THE LAND
(Canada) WestEnd Films, 100mins. Dir: Scooter Corkle. Cast: Dianna Agron, Michael Rogers, Shawn Ashmore, Rachelle Lefevre.
transition, this will be highly complicated. Living in transition is complicated. Dying even more. CinemaxX 13
WESERLUST HOTEL
(Germany) Pinguin Studios, 75mins. Dir: Eike Besuden. Cast: Kevin Alamsyah, Ulrike Knospe, Hannelore Sporleder, Doris Kunstmann. CinemaxX 12
11:15 DEDE
(Georgia) Wide, 97mins. Dir: Mariam Khatchvani. Cast: George Babluani, Natia vibliani, Girshel Chelidze, Nukri Khachvani. 1992: Dina lives in a remote village in the Georgian mountains where old traditions rule day-today life. Her grandfather has arranged her marriage but her refusal to abide by tradition will cost her more than she could imagine. CinemaxX 2
FELICITE
(France, Senegal, Belgium) Jour 2 Fete, 123mins. Dir: Alain Gomis. Cast: Vero Tshanda Beya, Gaetan Claudia, Papi Mpaka.
28 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
flower, Rosemari. While the notorious Keith Miller remains locked behind bars for murder, his family is paying the price of a tainted name. High in these mountains, bad blood runs deep. CineStar 4 No press
Felicite, a strong and proud woman, sings in bars in Kinshasa. When her son has a terrible accident she has to find the money to pay for an operation. A breathless tour through the richly diverse city of Kinshasa and the world of music. CineStar 2
HOLLOW IN THE LAND See box, above
HOLY BIKER
(Brazil) Patra Spanou Film Marketing & Consulting, 85mins. Dir: Homero Olivetto. Cast: Caua Reymond, Sophie Charlotte, Humberto Martins, Julio Andrade. In a lawless land, a gang of armed motorcyclists who believe in an ancient legend risk their lives in search of justice and freedom. CinemaxX 18
11:20 ROSEMARI
(Norway, Germany) The Match Factory, 97mins. Dir: Sara Johnsen. Cast: Tuva Novotny, Ruby Dagnall, Laila Goody, Tommy Kenter. A touching and funny story about how sex, lies and biology created a beautiful
CinemaxX 14
11:30 BOONE
(US) Chemical Shed, 75mins. Dir: Christopher LaMarca. The story of three young goat farmers as they transition with the seasons and come to terms with the physical and emotional grit required to live in a deep relationship with the land. Parliament
IN LOVE WITH LOU — A PHILOSOPHER’S LIFE
(Germany, Austria) ARRI Media, 112mins. Dir: Cordula Kablitz-Post. Cast: Katharina Lorenz, Nicole Heesters, Liv Lisa Fries, Katharina Schuttler. When writer and psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Salome meets young German scholar Ernst Pfeiffer he helps her write the story of her life — and falls in love with her as many have before. CineStar 6
RAGE
(Japan) Versatile, 142mins. Dir: Lee SangIl. Cast: Ken Watanabe, Mirai Moriyama, Kenichi Matsuyama, Go Ayano. Since a ghastly Tokyo murder, a killer flees the scene leaving the word ‘Rage’ in blood. The unsolved murder preys on the nation’s fear. EFM Cinemobile
12:00 BLACK SPOT
(France, Belgium) AB
(Russia, US) Indie Vision, 74mins. Dir: Alisa Khazanova. Cast: Noah Huntley, Chris Beetem, Alisa Khazanova, Rob Campbell. Him and her. Their time is like a flat circle. He has his phone calls and business meetings. She is wrapped in her dreams and doubts. Reactions are predictable, all conversations are learnt by heart. But one day something goes wrong. CinemaxX 5
WUNDERLICH’S WORLD
(Germany, Switzerland) Beta Cinema, 103mins. Dir: Dani Levy. Cast: Katharina Schuttler, Ewi Rodriguez, Christiane Paul, Peter Simonischek. Mimi, single mother of a hyperactive son, finally sees the chance of her dreams coming true when her son signs her up for a casting show. But she didn’t reckon on her “lovely” family. Zoo Palast 2
12:10 BROTHER
(Turkey) ITV Inter Medya, 121mins. Dir: Mert Baykal. Cast: Murat Boz, Burak Ozcivit, Asli Enver. Famous artist Hakan, 30, is a calm and a mysterious man. He tries to avoid tabloid press but his resentment of brother Ozan draws attention from the media. CinemaxX 15
12:15 SIBERIAN LOVE
(Germany) Doppelplusultra Filmproduktion, 82mins. Dir: Olga Delane. What does a woman need to be happy and fulfilled? After 20 years of living in
Berlin, film director Olga goes back to her roots in a small Siberian village, where she is confronted with traditional views of relationships and love. CinemaxX 17
12:30 1917 — THE REAL OCTOBER
(Germany) New Docs, 90mins. Dir: Katrin Rothe. Cast: Caroline Hamann, Matthias Daentschel, Lydia Gunther, Thorsten Pengel. A cut-out animation on artists in times of revolution. St Petersburg, Russia in 1917: What did they do between the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and the seizure of power by the Bolshevists in October? CinemaxX 12
ALL THE BEAUTY
(Norway) Pluto Film, 91mins. Dir: Aasne Vaa Greibrokk. Cast: Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, Magnus Krepper, Andrea Braein Hovig, Kristoffer Joner. Four decades, one love. Even after all these years Sarah and David recognise that their relationship is still deeply grounded in humour, respect and affection. CinemaxX 11
GURGAON
(India) Stray Dogs, 107mins. Dir: Shanker Raman. Kehri Singh reigns over crime in Gurgaon. Frustrated at constantly being sidelined by his father Nikki Singh, he tries to score a major hit but instead finds himself in huge debt to a rival gang. CinemaxX 16
POISON — THE LAND OF FIRES
(Italy) Minerva Pictures, 105mins. Dir: Diego Olivares. Set in the land of fire, near the Naples area, where the Camorra hides toxic waste. It tells the trauma of the people who live around there and are victims of cancer. CineStar 5
12:35 LIGHT THEREAFTER
(Bulgaria, Belgium)
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Image: ‘’AYMARA’’ by Michele Benigna
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SCREENINGS
Latido Films, 107mins. Dir: Konstantin Bojanov. Cast: Barry Keoghan, Kim Bodnia, Lubna Azabal, Solene Rigot. An exploration of the complex mind of an emotionally volatile and socially alienated young man, Pavel, who sets across Europe in search of his idol, the painter Arnaud.
of the investigation team. Zoo Palast 3
REY
CinemaxX 19
12:40
(France, Netherlands, Germany) Momerade, 91mins. Dir: Niles Atallah. Cast: Rodrigo Lisboa, Claudio Vargas. In 1860, a French lawyer dreamed of becoming the King of Patagonia. And he did just that — 0r so it seemed.
CinemaxX 11
CinemaxX 13
CinemaxX 17
COLD HELL
(Austria, Germany) Beta Cinema, 92mins. Dir: Stefan Ruzowitzky. Vienna. A young woman witnesses a brutal murder. The offender seems to be a crazed serial killer, inspired by Islam. A life-and-death struggle ensues. CinemaxX 1
MAMA COLONEL
(Congo, France) Andana Films, 72mins. Dir: Dieudo Hamadi. Colonel Honorine works for the DRC Congolese police force, heading the unit for protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Transferred to Kisangani, she is faced with new challenges: war traumas and witchcraft. CinemaxX 13
13:00 BREAKING NEWS
(Romania) Romanian Film Center, 81mins. Dir: Iulia Rugina. Cast: Andi Vasluianu, Voica Oltean. After he indirectly causes the death of his cameraman, reporter Alex Mazilu shoots an in memoriam reportage covering his life. Three days before Christmas, in a town by the sea, Alex pieces together this man’s life. CinemaxX 18
THE FIXER
(Romania, France) MPM Film, 83mins. Dir: Adrian Sitaru. Cast: Tudor Aaron Istodor, Mehdi Nebbou, Nicolas Wanczycki. Radu, a trainee in journalism, investigates an international scandal involving an underage prostitute. While struggling with his moral consciousness, she seems to be the only chance for him to prove his value. Parliament
SO LONG ENTHUSIASM
MARKET 13:00 PANFILOV’S TWENTY EIGHT
(Russia) Russian World Vision, 120mins. Dir: Kim Druzhinin, Andrey Shalyopa. Cast: Alexander Ustyugov, Yakov Kucherevskiy, Azamat Nigmanov, Oleg Fyodorov.
FIORE
(Italy) Rai Com, 111mins. Dir: Claudio Giovannesi. Cast: Daphne Scoccia, Josciua Algeri, Laura Vasiliu, Valerio Mastandrea. Daphne is a young girl in prison for theft. Within the walls of her confinement she falls in love with Josh, another inmate. CinemaxX 2
PANFILOV’S TWENTY EIGHT See box, above
13:10 MSG THE WARRIOR: LION HEART
(India) Hakikat Entertainment, 121mins. Dir: Saint Dr Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, Honeypreet Insan. CinemaxX 14
13:25 HANDLE WITH CARE
(Norway) Films Distribution, 103mins. Dir: Arild Andresen. Cast: Kristoffer Joner, Kristoffer Bech, Marlon Moreno, Patricia Castaneda. Kjetil, offshore worker and recent widower, is left alone
30 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
USSR, November, 1941: this is the real story of 28 soldiers of the Red Army, under the command of General Ivan Panfilov, that stopped the advance on Moscow of a column of 54 Nazi tanks for several days. CineStar 4
to take care of his adopted son, Daniel. Unable to deal with his single parent role, Kjetil decides to take Daniel back to Colombia to look for his biological mother. CineStar 2
13:30 ISTANBUL RED
(Turkey, Italy) Cite Films, 117mins. Dir: Ferzan Ozpetek. Cast: Halit Ergenc, Nejat Itler, Tuba Buyukustun, Mehmet Gunsur. A Turkish novelist is coming back to Istanbul to help a local writer to put the finishing touches to his book. But the latter mysteriously disappears.
14:00 24 WEEKS
(Germany) Beta Cinema, 102mins. Dir: Anne Zohra Berrached. Cast: Julia Jentsch, Bjarne Madel. Cabaret performer Astrid is six months pregnant when she learns that her unborn child will be severely disabled. She and her husband have little time to take a decision of enormous significance. Zoo Palast 2
THE BODY COLLECTOR
(Netherlands) Dutch Features Global Entertainment, 91mins. Dir: Tim Oliehoek. Cast: Guy Clemens, Aus Greidanus Sr, Noortje Herlaar, Carine Crutzen. Intriguing miniseries about a successful journalist who attempts to find the truth behind the multimillionaire art collector, Nazi and war criminal Pieter Menten, who is responsible for the execution of Jewish families in Poland. Zoo Palast 5
CineStar 6
MISSING THE NILE HILTON INCIDENT
(Sweden, Germany, Denmark) The Match Factory, 111mins. Dir: Tarik Saleh. Cast: Fares Fares, Mari Malek, Mohamed Yousry, Yasser Ali Maher. Noredin, a police officer in Cairo’s corrupt system, investigates the murder of a club singer at the Nile Hilton. CinemaxX 10
(Sweden) SF Studios, 90mins. Dir: Colin Nutley. Cast: Helena Bergstrom, Johan Widerberg, Samuel Froler, Johan Kjellgren. In a small town in the religious belt of Sweden the body of a young woman is found. Soon after a young girl disappears. Maya Silver, back in town to deal with her own family problems, is put in charge
Westernstroer, Julia Becker. A humourous story about couples, bodies, food and love in your 30s.
(Argentina, Colombia) Forum Office, 80mins. Dir: Vladimir Duran. Cast: Mariel Fernandez, Laila Maltz, Martina Juncadella. Ten-year-old Axel lives with his mother and three older sisters in a flat in Buenos Aires: everyday life in a perfectly ordinary family, except for the fact the mother is actually imprisoned in one of the rooms. CinemaxX 6
14:05 MAWLANA (THE PREACHER)
(Egypt) Cedars Art Production (Sabbah Brothers), 123mins. Dir: Magdy Ahmed Ali. Cast: Amr Saad, Dorra Zarrouk, Ahmed Magdy. A seemingly traditional journey of a young sheikh in a governmental mosque, who moves from leading prayers to becoming a TV celebrity issuing ‘fatwas’ that are accepted by millions. CinemaxX 12
14:15 61 DAYS
(Turkey) Edge All in One, 111mins. Dir: Yuksel Aksu. Cast: Cem Yilmaz, Berat Efe Parlar, Yilmaz Bayraktar, Ummu Putgul. A fifth grader who’s reluctant to waste his summer break persuades his parents to let him work as an apprentice for soda seller Cibar Kemal. Set in an Aegean town during Ramadan, Adem will struggle to work while he’s fasting. CinemaxX 15
THE HANNAS
(Germany) Pluto Film, 102mins. Dir: Julia Kaiser. Cast: Anna Konig, Till Butterbach, Ines Marie
HERD
(Serbia) K-12, 100mins. Dir: Nikola Kojo. Cast: Nikola Kojo, Zoran Cvijanovic, Vesna Trivalic, Natasa Ninkovic. A satirical comedy about life behind the camera. 14:20 THE AMERICAN CONNECTION
(US) Fashion The Movie, 104mins. Dir: Jeff Espanol. Cast: Jeff Espanol, David Roy, Robert Miano. CineStar 5
UPSTREAM
(Belgium) Doc & Film International, 93mins. Dir: Marion Honsel. Cast: Olivier Gourmet, Sergi Lopez, John Lynch. Homer and Joo, both in their 50s, sail up a river to the waterfalls in Croatia. Until the recent death of their father, they did not know about each other’s existence. Yet, they are half brothers. CinemaxX 16
14:30 THE MANAKIA BROTHERS
(Romania) Romanian Film Center, 95mins. Dir: Eliza Zdru. CinemaxX 18
STRAY NIGHTINGALE
(Japan) Village, 134mins. Dir: Hidenori Inoue, Takuji Izumi. Cast: Arata Furuta, Izumi Inamori, Shunsuke Daitoh. Juzaburo, known as a chivalrous robber, is betrayed by his henchman and his entire gang is slaughtered. Gravely wounded, he escapes. CinemaxX 19
14:40 IF I WERE A BOY
(France) Elle Driver, 97mins. Dir: Audrey Dana. Cast: Audrey Dana, Christian Clavier, Eric Elmosnino, Alice Belaidi. Jeanne has had such a lousy time with men that she swears off them for good. But one day she wakes up with a penis! CineStar 1
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MOUNTAIN II
15:00
(Turkey) Match Point, 135mins. Dir: Alper Caglar. Cast: Caglar Ertugrul, Ufuk Bayraktar, Murat Serezli, Ahu Turkpence. Oguz and Bekir are going to a dance with death once again to rescue a controversial Turkish journalist, a prisoner of ISIS.
THIS IS OUR LAND
(France, Belgium) Le Pacte, 116mins. Dir: Lucas Belvaux. Cast: Emilie Dequenne, Andre Dussollier, Guillaume Gouix. Pauline, a devoted nurse in northern France, raises two children alone and struggles with an increasingly harsh social reality. A nationalist party is going to take advantage of her popularity by making her its candidate.
CinemaxX 13
16:50 THE ANNIVERSARY
son has been released from prison and is terrorising the area.
(Romania) Romanian Film Center, 92mins. Dir: Dan Chisu. Cast: Mircea Albulescu, Simona Bondoc, Razvan Vasilescu, Emilia Dobrin. Family members and former colleagues gathered at Radu Maligan’s 94th birthday party try to convince him to confess his sins to a priest.
CinemaxX 18
CinemaxX 14
CinemaxX 2
15:15 MOGADISHU SOLDIER
(Israel, US) Cinephil, 88mins. Dir: Torstien Grude. An exploration of life in the Somalian war zone as seen by two Burundian soldiers. An unsentimental and truly unique view into the fight against the jihadist militants in Al-Shabaab.
MARKET 16:00 SEXY DURGA
(India) Reel Suspects, 85mins. Dir: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan. Cast: Rajshri Deshpande, Kannan Nair.
A young couple are on the run. As they wait for a transport to go to the nearest railway station, an encounter with local gangsters takes place. CinemaxX 17
CinemaxX 14
16:00 FARANG
(Sweden) Red Arrow International, 89mins. Dir: Erik Leijonborg, Daniel Di Grado. Cast: Ola Rapace, Louise Nyvall, Yayaying Rhatha Phongamo. Zoo Palast 5
THE HALCYON
(UK) Sony Pictures Television, 94mins. Dir: Stephen Woolfenden, Rob Evans. Cast: Steven Mackintosh, Olivia Williams, Alex Jennings, Kara Tointon. Second World War: The Halcyon is the epicentre of a changing city — no moment is predictable. Zoo Palast 4
MY COOL DAD
(Russia) Mirsand, 40mins. Dir: Viktor Glukhushin, Olga Baulina. Cast: Daria Melnikova. Salazar was a happy man now hit by midlife crisis. The mutagen he invented actually works! Unfortunately, the professor ingests it and a bad day turns into a complete disaster. He has
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to learn to break the rules, to fight. EFM Cinemobile
RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD
(Canada) Films Transit International, 104mins. Dir: Catherine Bainbridge. Cast: Tim Johnson, Stevie Salas. The story of a profound, essential and, until now, missing chapter in the history of American music — the Indigenous influence. CinemaxX 16
SEXY DURGA See box, above
TRANSFER
(France) Lagardere Studios Distribution, 59mins. Dir: Olivier Guignard, Antoine Charreyron. Cast: Arieh Worthalter, Brune Renault, Steve Tientcheu, Pili Groine. Thanks to science, five years after Florian’s death his mind is transferred into another’s body. Now he has to hide his identity, living as an officer with BAIT, the anti-transfers unit. Zoo Palast 3
16:10 THE FAMILY
(Slovenia) Slovenian Film Centre, 100mins. Dir: Rok Bicek. Cast: Matej Rajk, Mitja Rajk, Nia Krese, Barbara Krese. At 14 Matej had to take care of his mentally challenged parents and older brother. Would it be possible to create his own family, aged 20? CinemaxX 11
16:15 FOG IN AUGUST
(Germany, Austria) StudioCanal, 126mins. Dir: Kai Wessel. Cast: Ivo Pietzcker, Sebastian Koch, Fritzi Haberlandt, Henriette Confurius. The true story of 13-yearold Ernst Lossa, who struggled against a cruel, inhumane system and fell victim to the national socialist euthanasia programme in 1944. Zoo Palast 2
LAW OF THE LAND
(Finland) LevelK, 90mins. Dir: Jussi Hiltunen. Cast: Ville Virtanen, Mikko Neuvonen, Antti Holma, Jorgen Langhelle. A retiring police officer learns that his illegitimate
16:20
17:00
ALI, THE GOAT & IBRAHIM
THE HERETICS
(Egypt, France) Loco Films, 98mins. Dir: Sherif El Bendary. Cast: Ali Sobhy, Ahmed Magdy, Nahed El Sebai, Salwa Mohamed Aly. Ali believes his late girlfriend’s soul has been reincarnated in a goat. Ali, his goat and his friend Ibrahim embark on a journey of friendship and self-discovery across Egypt.
(Canada) Breakthrough Entertainment, 87mins. Dir: Chad Archibald. After surviving a horrible abduction by a religious cult as a teen, a young woman is recaptured by the same group intent on unleashing a terror that began with her years before.
CineStar 5
LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE
(Israel) Pluto Film, 83mins. Dir: Yaniv Berman. Cast: Maor Schweitzer, Ofer Hayun, Lior Rochman, Mishel Pruzansky. Four kids from military officers’ families play at an abandoned army base. Their seemingly innocent games turn into a ruthless struggle when they find two deserted soldiers hiding in their camp. CinemaxX 15
16:30 INTELLIGENT TREES
(Germany) Dorcon Film, 45mins. Dir: Julia Dordel, Guido Tolke. Cast: Peter Wohlleben, Suzanne Simard. Trees talk, have families and care for their young. The life of trees is much like ours. CinemaxX 12
CinemaxX 19
17:10 THE SPACEWALKER
(Russia) Mirsand, 30mins. Dir: Dmitry Kiselyov. Cast: Evgeny Mironov, Konstantin Khabensky. March 1965: the US and the USSR are competing for supremacy in space. Two men in a tiny spaceship — they were supposed to do what no man had done before. EFM Cinemobile
17:20 CONSOLATION
(France) Pyramide International, 80mins. Dir: Cyril Mennegun. The decision is made. Daniel goes off on the journey towards this woman, into the forgotten realm of his childhood, in order to seek the truth and, who knows, consolation.
Ireland) Beta Cinema, 130mins. Dir: Erik Poppe. Cast: Jesper Christensen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen. The true events that turned a brave man into the people’s king. CinemaxX 17
SUPER DARK TIMES
(US) The Match Factory, 110mins. Dir: Kevin Phillips. Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino, Amy Hargreaves. CinemaxX 10
17:45 A PACT AMONG ANGELS
(Canada) Productions des Annoes lumiere, 95mins. Dir: Richard Angers. Cast: Marc Messier, Emile Schneider, Lenni-Kim Lalande. Adrien, a solitary man, is kidnapped by two young brothers who have gotten themselves in big trouble. Linked by a common destiny, these three fragile individuals must overcome their prejudices and work together to survive. CinemaxX 16
17:50 JUST MEET
(Mexico) Mantarraya Production, 38mins. Dir: Fernanda Romandia. Cast: Tadao Ando. How the 1995 Pritzker laureate, Japanese architect Tadao Ando, sees the world and conceives architecture. CinemaxX 15
18:30 MUSTAFA
(Ukraine) CrimeaSOS — Public Organization, 90mins. Dir: Ahmed Sarykhalil. Cast: Vakhtang Kipiani, Maxim Pasichnik, Masha Khomyakova, Anna Morozpva. Mustafa Dzhemilev’s history is a symbol of peaceful resistance against injustice and discrimination in the postSoviet region. CinemaxX 14
40 SATAN SAID DANCE
THE KING’S CHOICE
(Poland, Netherlands) Manana, 97mins. Dir: Kasia Roslaniec. Cast: Magdalena Berus, Lukasz Simlat, Tygo Gernandt.
(Norway, Denmark,
CinemaxX 19
CinemaxX 12
17:30
February 14, 2017 Screen International at Berlin 31
THE DINNER (US) Oren Moverman
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SEBASTIEN JEDOR Radio France Internationale, France
SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
AVERAGE
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Good
ISABELLE REGNIER Le Monde, France
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KATJA NICODEMUS Die Zeit, Germany
ON BODY AND SOUL (Hun) Ildiko Enyedi
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Excellent
VERENA LUEKEN Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany
DJANGO (Fr) Etienne Comar
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TIM ROBEY The Telegraph, UK
THE SCREEN JURY AT BERLIN
ANTON DOLIN Meduza, Russia
JURY GRID
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Screen International office Scandic Hotel, Arctic Fox Suite, Gabriele-Tergit-Promenade 19, 10963, Berlin E-mail: firstname.lastname@ screendaily.com (unless stated) Editorial +44 7713 086 674 Editor Matt Mueller US editor Jeremy Kay (jeremykay67@gmail. com) Deputy editor Andreas Wiseman News editor Wendy Mitchell
FELICITE (Fr-Sen-Bel-Ger-Leb) Alain Gomis
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2.7
WILD MOUSE (Austria) Josef Hader
Reviews editor and chief film critic Fionnuala Halligan (finn.halligan@ screendaily.com) Senior editor, online Orlando Parfitt Deputy editor, online and reporter Tom Grater
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Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray
SPOOR (Pol-Ger-Cze-Swe-Slov) Agnieszka Holland A FANTASTIC WOMAN (Chile-Ger-US-Sp) Sebastian Lelio
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BRIGHT NIGHTS (Ger-Nor) Thomas Arslan
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THE PARTY (UK) Sally Potter
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MR LONG (Jap-Ger-HK-China-Tai) Sabu
2 2 2.3
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (Fin) Aki Kaurismaki
Kaurismaki reunites with regular leading man Sakari Kuosmanen to tell the story of a travelling salesman who ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ encounters a Syrian refugee, played by Sherwan Haji, who is seeking asylum in Helsinki.
BEUYS (Ger) Andres Veiel
Veiel returns to the documentary genre for his latest project. Using previously unseen visual and audio recordings, ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ Beuys is an intimate portrait of German artist Joseph Beuys, focusing on the man, his work and his world of ideas.
COLO (Por-Fr) Teresa Villaverde
Portuguese filmmaker Villaverde makes her Berlin debut with her seventh feature, an intense drama that draws ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ attention to the lives of families in contemporary European cities.
RETURN TO MONTAUK (Ger-Fr-Ire) Volker Schlöndorff
Based on an original screenplay by Schlöndorff and Irish author Colm Toibin, Return To Montauk stars Swedish ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ actor Stellan Skarsgard and Germany’s Nina Hoss as former lovers who meet after a 20-year separation.
ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE (S Kor) Hong Sang-soo
Shot in Germany and South Korea, On The Beach At Night Alone is about an actress who has given up everything ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ for her relationship with a married man. It marks Hong’s third appearance in Berlin’s Competition.
JOAQUIM (Bra-Por) Marcelo Gomes
The latest film from Gomes is set during the 18th century and is about a trusted soldier for the Portuguese colonial ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ rulers who plunder Brazil’s gold reserves. Julio Machado and Isabel Zuaa star.
HAVE A NICE DAY (China) Liu Jian
The first Chinese animated feature to screen in Competition at Berlin is a road movie about a man who robs his boss ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ to pay for his fiancée’s plastic surgery. This black comedy holds up a magnifying glass to life and social conditions.
ANA, MON AMOUR (Rom-Ger-Fr) Calin Peter Netzer
Netzer is back in Competition with his fourth feature, about a couple struggling with the impact of psychological ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ illness. He was the first Romanian director to win the Golden Bear, for his third feature, Child’s Pose, in 2013.
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32 Screen International at Berlin February 14, 2017
Reporters Martin Blaney (screen.berlin@gmail. com), Melanie Goodfellow (melanie. goodfellow@btinternet.com), Geoffrey Macnab (geoffrey@macnab. demon.co.uk), Liz Shackleton (lizshackleton@gmail.com) Sub-editors Paul Lindsell, David Powning, Adam Richmond, Richard Young Advertising and publishing Publishing director Nadia Romdhani +44 7540 100 315 Senior sales manager Scott Benfold +44 7765 257 260 International account managers Ingrid Hammond +44 7880 584 182 (ingridhammond@mac.com) Pierre-Louis Manes +44 7768 237 487 Gunter Zerbich +44 7540 100 254 VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 213 447 5120 (nigeldalymail@gmail.com) Sales and business development executive, North America Nikki Tilmouth (nikki. screeninternational@gmail.com) Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 7584 335 148 (jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com) Production assistant Neil Sinclair +44 7826 942 693 (neil.sinclair@ mb-insight.com) Sales co-ordinator Rebecca Moran +44 20 8102 0829 Marketing executive Charlotte Peers +44 7817 995 756 (charlotte.peers@ mbi.london) Events co-ordinator Sophie Moar +44 7834 902 528 (sophie.moar@mb-insight.com) Managing director, publishing and events Alison Pitchford Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Medien, Herstellungs und Vertriebs gmbh DMP, c/o Motivoffset Prinzessinnenstr. 26, 10969 Berlin Screen International, London Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Subscription enquiries +44 330 333 9414 help@subscribe.screendaily.com
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