Berlin Film Festival 15-25 February 2024
www.berlinale.de
The programme is online now. Click here.
Outlook for Berlinale 2024: New Emphases in Commitment to German Newcomer Films and the Field of Partnerships – Deadline Hollywood
Cillian Murphy-Starrer Small Things Like These To Open Berlinale 2024
Martin Scorsese-Narrated Doc & Kristen Stewart Romantic Thriller Set For Berlinale Special Sidebar
Other buzzy titles set for a world premiere include André Téchiné’s My New Friends, starring Isabelle Huppert as a solitary police officer, and and Myriam El Hajj’s documentary Diaries From Lebanon, following three people as they navigate their country on the brink of revolution.
A number of Sundance titles will also be making a Panorama splash including Nathan Silver’s Between The Temples, Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow and Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun.
Section head Michael Stütz said the films in the line-up reflected the current era of global crises, wars and social divisions. “The films in this year’s programme express their attitudes in many voices, building bridges between lived experiences and cinematic possibilities that inspire us to look to the future”, he said.
Special Screening: The Strangers’ Case on Friday, 23 February
Opening gala and film
Small Things Like These review
Berlin Film Festival: Red Carpet Protests And Political Speeches Dominate Opening Ceremony
Deadline Hollywood Berlin reviews
Berlinale 2024 line-up
Competition
• Another End, dir. Piero Messina
• Architecton, dir. Victor Kossakovsky
• Black Tea, dir. Abderrahmane Sissako
• La Cocina, dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios
• Dahomey, dir. Mati Diop review
• A Different Man, dir. Aaron Schimberg
• The Empire, dir. Bruno Dumont
• Gloria!, dir. Margherita Vicario
• Suspended Time, dir. Olivier Assayas
• From Hilde, With Love, dir. Andreas Dresen
• My Favourite Cake, dir. Behtash Saneeha, Maryam Moghaddam Review Press conference
• Langue Etrangère, dir. Claire Berger
• Who Do I Belong To, dir. Meryam Joobeur
• Pepe, dir. Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias
• Shambhala, dir. Min Bahadur Bham
• Sterben, dir. Matthias Glasner
• The Devil’s Bath, dir. Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz
• Small Things Like These, dir. Tim Mielants (previously announced)
• A Traveler’s Needs, dir. Hong Sangsoo
Encounters
• Arcadia, dir. Yorgos Zois
• Cidade; Campo, dir. Juliana Rojas
• Demba, dir. Mamadou Dia
• Direct Action, dir. Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell
• Sleep With Your Eyes Open, dir. Nele Wohlatz
• The Fable, dir. Raam Reddy
• A Family, dir. Christine Angot
• Favoriten, dir. Ruth Beckermann
• Ivo, dir. Eva Trobisch
• The Great Yawn, dir. Aliyar Rasti
• Some Rain Must Fall, dir. Qui Yang
• Hands In The Fire, dir. Margarida Gil
• Matt And Mara, dir. Kazik Radwanski
• Through The Graves The Wind Is Blowing, dir. Travis Wilkerson
• Sons, dir. Gustav Möller
• You Burn Me, dir. Matias Pineiro
Panorama
Panorama 2023 Line-up
Afterwar
by Birgitte Stærmose | with Gëzim Kelmendi, Xhevahire Abdullahu, Shpresim Azemi, Besnik Hyseni, Luan Jaha
Denmark / Kosovo / Sweden / Finland 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
The children transform into adults before our eyes. Yet they remain in limbo, haunted by memories of the war in Kosovo. Combining raw realism and staged performance, Afterwar is a meditation on the long-term repercussions of war.
Alle die Du bist (Every You Every Me)
by Michael Fetter Nathansky | with Aenne Schwarz, Carlo Ljubek, Youness Aabbaz, Sara Fazilat, Naila Schuberth
Germany / Spain 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Factory worker Nadine falls in love with her colleague Paul. Years later, she questions her view of him. A romantic social drama about the magic of falling in love and the pain of falling out of it, set in the Rhineland lignite mining region.
All Shall Be Well
by Ray Yeung | with Patra Au Ga Man, Maggie Li Lin Lin, Tai Bo, Leung Chung Hang, Fish Liew Chi Yu
Hong Kong, China 2024
Panorama | World premiere
When her partner Pat unexpectedly dies, Angie is left to worry about the flat in which the couple lived together for over 30 years. Supported by her chosen family, Angie begins a later-life journey into emancipation.
Andrea lässt sich scheiden (Andrea Gets a Divorce)
by Josef Hader | with Birgit Minichmayr, Josef Hader, Thomas Schubert, Robert Stadlober, Thomas Stipsits
Austria 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Rural policewoman Andrea wants to end her marriage and become a detective inspector in the city. After a birthday party, her drunken soon-to-be ex-husband runs out in front of her car. In a state of shock, Andrea commits a hit-and-run.
À quand l’Afrique? (Which Way Africa?)
by David-Pierre Fila | with Samuel Fosso, Joseph Ki-zerbo, Simon Njami, Imam Souleymane
Republic of the Congo / Angola / Cameroon 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
The people of the forests pound their drums to keep their chants alive. Those of the city shriek of “Progress!” Still more rush in to seize the treasures of the land, only to be met by new voices shouting in defiance.
Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz (Baldiga – Unlocked Heart)
by Markus Stein | with Jürgen Baldiga, Timo Lewandovsky, Bernd Boßmann, Ulf Reimer, Birgit Baldiga
Germany 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera.
Betânia
by Marcelo Botta | with Diana Mattos, Tião Carvalho, Caçula Rodrigues, Nádia D’Cássia, Ulysses Azevedo
Brazil 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
After losing her husband, 65-year-old midwife Betânia is persuaded by her daughters to leave her remote village. She moves near the sand dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses in northern Brazil and ventures a new beginning.
Between the Temples
by Nathan Silver | with Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Dolly de Leon, Caroline Aaron, Robert Smigel
USA 2024
Panorama | International premiere
The world of a Jewish cantor in the midst of a crisis of faith is turned completely upside down when his primary school music teacher comes back into his life as his new, later-life Bat Mitzvah student.
A Bit of a Stranger
by Svitlana Lishchynska | with Svitlana, Valentina, Alexandra, Stefania
Ukraine 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Svitlana, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, examines the colonised part of her consciousness and tries to find answers to the question of how Soviet totalitarianism and Russification influenced the relationships within her family.
Crossing
by Levan Akin | with Mzia Arabuli, Lucas Kankava, Deniz Dumanl?
Sweden / Denmark / France / Turkey / Georgia 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Lia, a retired teacher, has promised to find her long-lost niece, Tekla. Her search takes her to Istanbul where she meets Evrim, a lawyer fighting for trans rights, and Tekla starts to feel closer than ever.
Cu Li Không Bao Gi? Khóc (Cu Li Never Cries)
by Lân Ph?m Ng?c | with Minh Châu Nguy?n, Hà Hoàng, Xuân An Ngô, Hà Ph??ng Lê Th?
Vietnam / Philippines / France / Singapore / Norway 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
After inheriting a pygmy slow loris from her long-estranged husband, a woman clings to dwindling ties to her past while her niece prepares for her wedding and worries about the future.
Diaries from Lebanon
by Myriam El Hajj | with Joumana Haddad, Perla Joe Maalouli, Georges Moufarrej
Lebanon / France / Qatar / Saudi Arabia 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Lebanon, 2018. War, politics or revolution: these are the choices faced by Georges, Joumana and Perla Joe. Three destinies and a shared desire to rebuild a troubled country. How is it possible to continue to dream when everything around is falling apart?
Faruk
by Asl? Özge | with Faruk Özge, Derya Erkenci, Gönül Gezer
Germany / Turkey / France 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Faruk, who is over 90 years old, increasingly becomes the protagonist in the film his daughter is making about the impending demolition of his block of flats in Istanbul. A story about gentrification and a complex father-daughter relationship.
Les gens d’à côté (My New Friends)
by André Téchiné | with Isabelle Huppert, Hafsia Herzi, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart
France 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Police officer Lucie’s solitary daily life is disturbed by the arrival of a young couple and their little girl who move in next door. As she grows fond of them, she discovers that the father is an anti-police activist…
I Saw the TV Glow
by Jane Schoenbrun | with Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Fred Durst, Danielle Deadwyler
USA 2024
Panorama | International premiere
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show – a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the TV, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
Janet Planet
by Annie Baker | with Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, Sophie Okonedo
USA 2023
Panorama | International premiere | Debut film
Rural Massachusetts, 1991. Eleven-year-old Lacy spends the long summer at home with her mother, Janet. As Lacy fully immerses herself in her own world, she slowly begins to fall out of love with her mother.
Ješt? nejsem, kým chci být (I’m Not Everything I Want to Be)
by Klára Tasovská | with Libuše Jarcovjáková
Czechia / Slovakia / Austria 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
After the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková strives to break free from the constraints of the repressive Czechoslovakian regime and embarks on a long journey towards freedom.
Jia ting jian shi (Brief History of a Family)
by Lin Jianjie | with Zu Feng, Guo Keyu, Sun Xilun, Lin Muran
People’s Republic of China / France / Denmark / Qatar 2024
Panorama | European premiere | Debut film
The fate of a well-off family becomes mysteriously intertwined with that of their son’s enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China. Suppressed emotions, unmet expectations and unspoken secrets come to light.
Memorias de un cuerpo que arde (Memories of a Burning Body)
by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss | with Sol Carballo, Paulina Bernini, Juliana Filloy
Costa Rica / Spain 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Repression and taboos have shaped the image of womanhood for Ana (68), Patricia (69) and Mayela (71). Their stories poetically combine to form a kaleidoscope of memories, secrets and longings that are incarnated by another woman’s body.
No Other Land
by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Palestine / Norway 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities and the unlikely friendship which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.
The Outrun
by Nora Fingscheidt | with Saoirse Ronan, Paapa Essiedu, Stephen Dillane
United Kingdom / Germany 2024
Panorama | European premiere
After living life on the edge in London, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands – where she grew up – hoping to heal.
Les Paradis de Diane (Paradises of Diane)
by Carmen Jaquier, Jan Gassmann | with Dorothée de Koon, Aurore Clément, Roland Bonjour, Omar Ayuso
Switzerland 2024
Panorama | International premiere
Immediately after the birth of her child, Diane abandons her boyfriend and baby in a Zurich hospital and disappears into a Spanish city she does not know on the Mediterranean. But the changes her body is going through remind her of what she is fleeing from.
Pendant ce temps sur Terre (Meanwhile on Earth)
by Jérémy Clapin | with Megan Northam, Catherine Salée, Sam Louwyck, Roman Williams, Sofia Lesaffre
France 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Siblings Elsa and Franck were very close. Since Franck disappeared during a space mission three years ago, Elsa has struggled to move on with her life. Until one day she is contacted by an unidentified life form. But there is a price to pay …
Sayyareye dozdide shodeye man (My Stolen Planet)
by Farahnaz Sharifi | with Farahnaz Sharifi
Germany / Iran 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
The Iranian Farah is forced to flee into her own world in order to be free. In the form of Super 8 films and sound recordings, she buys other people’s memories, archives her own and uses them to create an alternative history of Iran.
Sex
by Dag Johan Haugerud | with Jan Gunnar Røise, Thorbjørn Harr
Norway 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages both end up in situations that challenge their views on sexuality and gender roles.
Teaches of Peaches
by Philipp Fussenegger, Judy Landkammer | with Peaches, Leslie Feist, Chilly Gonzales, Shirley Manson, Charlie Le Mindu Germany 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Seamlessly weaving together exclusive archival gems with dynamic tour footage, this documentary captures the transformative journey of Canadian Merrill Nisker into the internationally acclaimed cultural powerhouse that is Peaches.
Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night)
by Nelson Makengo
Democratic Republic of the Congo / Belgium / Germany / Burkina Faso / Qatar 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
Tongo Saa is a sensitive portrait of the residents of Kinshasa with their hopes, faith and ways of dealing with life’s challenges, immersed in the beauty of the nights in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Verbrannte Erde (Scorched Earth)
by Thomas Arslan | with Mišel Mati?evi?, Marie Leuenberger, Alexander Fehling
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Twelve years after he fled, career criminal Trojan returns to Berlin. A valuable painting is set to be stolen in the city. But the meticulously planned heist soon runs out of control.
The Visitor
by Bruce LaBruce | with Bishop Black, Macklin Kowal, Amy Kingsmill, Kurtis Lincoln, Ray Filar
United Kingdom 2024
Panorama | World premiere
A black refugee washes up in a small suitcase on the banks of the River Thames in London. Arriving at the house of an upper-class family, he seduces each and every family member, depicted in explicit sex scenes. A reinterpretation of Pasolini’s Teorema.
Yo vi tres luces negras (I Saw Three Black Lights)
by Santiago Lozano Álvarez | with Jesús María Mina, Julián Ramirez, Carol Hurtado, John Alex Castillo
Colombia / Mexico / France / Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
A wise old man embarks on his final journey, entering the Colombian jungle to find a place to die. But the illegal army groups who control the area endanger his peaceful transition to the realm of the dead.
Zeit Verbrechen 1: Dezember
by Mariko Minoguchi | with Samuel Benito, Lisa Hagmeister, Kailas Mahadevan, Sebastian Zimmler, Aljoscha Stadelmann
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
After a wild night out clubbing with friends, Tim is unable to find his way home. He rings on strangers’ doorbells until the police come and pick him up. The following morning, the 18-year-old is found dead on a country road.
Zeit Verbrechen 2: Der Panther
by Jan Bonny | with Lars Eidinger, Anna Bederke, Marc Poersken, Sahin Eryilmaz, Magdalena Laubisch
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
Johnny is a gambler and gangster who fills his pockets as a confidential informant. But then he is threatened with being exposed.
Zeit Verbrechen 3: Deine Brüder
by Helene Hegemann | with Zethphan Smith-Gneist, Lavinia Wilson, Luna Wedler, Eren M. Güvercin, Adrian Vasile But
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
Cem and his five friends have formed a close-knit group since childhood. But Cem is changing: he is becoming tougher and threatening those closest to him. At some point, the others’ fear of him grows so great that it erupts into an act of brutal vigilantism.
Zeit Verbrechen 4: Love by Proxy
by Faraz Shariat | with Maja Simonsen, Fiifi Jefferson Pratt, Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Sandra Hüller, Briggitte Akosua Appiah Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
When Earlie Thomas travels to Ghana to inherit her murdered father’s legacy, her life is suddenly in danger. Ralf, her lover from Germany, tries every means possible to bring her to safety.
FORUM
Under the direction of Barbara Wurm, the 54th edition of the more avant-garde Forum section will present 30 films from 30 territories.
The selection features US indie title The Wrong Movie by Keren Cytter, in which chilling gives way to tragedy; South Korean horror thriller Pa-myo (Exhuma), starring Oldboy lead Choi Min-sik as a feng shui expert working with a shaman, and German-Iranian cinematographer Faraz Fesharaki’s directorial feature debut What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov, capturing his own family’s diaspora experiences.
The line-up also features provocative Canadian filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s London-shot The Visitor, inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorama, in which a stranger lands with a bourgeois family, and has sex with each member of the household, changing their lives forever.
“It was fascinating to see how many films attempted to approach the big themes of the present – like poverty or gender inequality, war or post-war trauma, neo-liberalism or neo-authoritarianism – by simultaneously focusing on edification and enlightenment, reflection and empathy,” observed Wurm of the selection process.
Art Education
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1976
Forum Special
Scenes from the lives of the masters: Vermeer, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo. But what happened to the women? They become artworks, muses or secretaries. And having barely come into existence, Adam thus asks: “Why is she not God?”
Baroque Statues
by Maria Lassnig | with Lisbet Eberwein, Willy Gabriel
Austria / USA 1970
Forum Special
Nails painted in red polish, tender hands invite the saints to dance. Out in front of the church, feet in the grass. Close-up, wide shot, doubling, solarisation. God-fearing folds of fabric get moving in earnest. A costume drama.
Il cassetto segreto (The Secret Drawer)
by Costanza Quatriglio
Italy / Switzerland 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
As Sicilian journalist Giuseppe Quatriglio turns 90, his daughter starts filming him. When he dies, she keeps on filming. Boxes become archival materials, as journeys, women and post-war Europe come to the fore. And in the end, there is a father.
Chairs
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1971
Forum Special
A scrawny chair does gymnastic exercises, an upholstered one puffs and sweats. Hand-drawn animation, burlesque sketches. Early cinema. Then she enters the scene and sits on a chair. Everything is sitting well!
Chroniques fidèles survenues au siècle dernier à l’hôpital psychiatrique Blida-Joinville, au temps où le Docteur Frantz Fanon était chef de la cinquième division entre 1953 et 1956 (True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956)
by Abdenour Zahzah | with Alexandre Desane, Gérard Dubouche, Nicolas Dromard, Omar Boulakirba, Amal Kateb
Algeria / France 2024
Forum | World premiere
Frantz Fanon is a renowned politician and decolonialisation activist. This feature focuses on his visionary social therapy methods during his time as a psychiatrist in Algeria from 1953 to 1956. A piece of sober anti-racism.
Couples
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1972
Forum Special
Scenes of men and women, sizing each other up. A match? Not if she earns more than he does. “You are not my universe”. A revue of misplaced lust. And at the end, a bleeding heart.
Deda-Shvili an rame ar aris arasodes bolomde bneli (Mother and Daughter, or the Night is Never Complete)
by Lana Gogoberidze
Georgia / France 2023
Forum Special | International premiere | Documentary Form
Greatness paired with modesty: 93 years old and a daughter, world-famous director Lana remembers her mother Nutsa, Georgia’s first female filmmaker. A cinema legacy that revolves around being human in dark times: feminist, loving, critical of violence.
Diese Tage in Terezín (Those Days in Terezín)
by Sibylle Schönemann | with Victoria Hanna Gabbay, Manka Alter, Orni, Hanna Fialová-Malka, Irene Ravelová
Germany / Czechia 1997
Forum Special | Documentary Form
Looking for clues about the “Chaplin of Theresienstadt”, ghetto cabaret artist Karel Švenk, Schönemann meets his acquaintances and creates an inter-generative network of memory. Laughter was a form of defence. Resistance means commemoration.
Doesarananeun moksori / Yomigaeru Koe (Voices of the Silenced)
by Park Soo-nam, Park Maeui | with Kim Seong-soo, Hirano Nobuto, Jeon Dong-rye, Lee Yong-im, Seo Jeong-woo
Japan / South Korea 2023
Forum Special | International premiere | Documentary Form
Now nearly 90 years of age, Park Soo-nam had already lived half her life when she swapped the pen for the camera to tell the story of Koreans in Japan: discrimination, forced labour, traces of the atomic bomb. “Beyond description” at every moment.
Encounter
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1970
Forum Special
“Ensoulment” was Lassnig’s term to describe how she made her own drawings move via stop-motion animation. Two figures, an encounter that begins as a confrontation before all differences are overcome. Her first animated film.
Gokogu no Neko (The Cats of Gokogu Shrine)
by Kazuhiro Soda
Japan 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
An ample community of cats has set up home around the Shinto shrine in Ushimado. Some local residents take care of them, others are disturbed by their mess. Kazuhiro Soda observes their co-existence with kindness, precision and occasional involvement.
Henry Fonda for President
by Alexander Horwath
Austria / Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
“The United States of Fonda” is the motto of this three-hour autobiofilmographical monument, put together with cinematic passion and editing verve for a president that will only ever have existed on the big screen: Henry Fonda.
La hojarasca (The Undergrowth)
by Macu Machín | with Carmen Machín, Elsa Machín, Maura Pérez
Spain 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
Three sisters on the Canary Islands, their everyday lives infused with a magical, meditative lyricism. Three life strategies without a breadwinner, narrated via the body, a mix of staging, observation and memory. Before the volcano, serenity arrives.
Holy Week
by Andrei Cohn | with Doru Nicolae Bem, Corneliu Ciprian Chiriche?, Mario Gheorghe Dinu, Nicoleta Lefter
Romania / Switzerland 2024
Forum | World premiere
A painterly Romanian landscape around 1900. A Jewish man named Leiba runs the village inn, a meeting point for Christians and Jews alike, although the conviviality masks racism and anti-Semitism. Between Passover and Easter, a spark.
L’homme-vertige (L’homme-vertige: Tales of a City)
by Malaury Eloi Paisley
France 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
Apartment blocks with no future are being torn down in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Malaury Eloi-Paisley follows those lost in the city through the empty streets. Their accounts form a valuable commodity, circulating in carefully developed relationships.
The Human Hibernation
by Anna Cornudella | with Clara Muck Dietrich, Brian Stevens, Jane Hubbell, Neil O’Neil
Spain 2024
Forum | World premiere | Debut film
A brother and sister are hibernating. Only the sister wakes up. Human hibernation blurs the boundary between people and animals. A thought experiment equal parts sci-fi and meditation shot in searing images.
Ihre ergebenste Fräulein (Well Ordered Nature)
by Eva C. Heldmann
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Free-floating yet rigorously structured, this essay film presents botanist and educationalist Catharina Helena Dörrien and her time in Orange-Nassau in the 18th century. Via regulations and floral formulas, nature philosophy and social policy converge.
Intercepted
by Oksana Karpovych
Canada / France / Ukraine 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
The destruction caused by the war against Ukraine is shown in lengthy tableaux. Intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families set up a shocking parallel world. Sound and image stare each other in the face, stunned.
In the Belly of a Tiger
by Siddartha Jatla | with Lawrence Francis, Poonam Tiwari, Sorabh Jaiswar, Pooja Pallavi, Rosely Raj
India 2024
Forum | World premiere
Bhagole and Prabhata are an old couple, struggling with their farm’s debts. He decides to let himself be killed by a tiger to save his family. Their last night becomes a surreal love story. A mythological, expressionistic and deeply moving film.
Iris
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1971
Forum Special
Stomach, legs, knees. The movement of the body parts collides with the movement of the film. A chin rises up from between two breasts. Iris looks at herself in a distorted mirror. “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”.
Kaddu Beykat (Letter from My Village)
by Safi Faye | with Assane Faye, Maguette Gueye
Senegal 1975
Forum Special | Documentary Form
Ngor loves Coumba with shyness but also determination in this wonderful docufiction, just as Safi Faye, who died last year, loves the Senegalese village that forms its central setting: its workers, millet and peanuts. A letter from the country.
Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl)
by Vinothraj PS | with Soori Muthuchamy, Anna Ben
India 2024
Forum | World premiere
Meena stubbornly refuses to speak. She loves a man from a lower caste. Her family thinks she is possessed and the spell is cast out of her. The day begins, a road movie starts, as religious fervour and insane misogyny are narrated in passing.
Maria Lassnig Kantate (The Ballad of Maria Lassnig)
by Maria Lassnig, Hubert Sielecki
Austria 1992
Forum Special
A life in fourteen verses: tragicomic horror stories drawn by Lassnig herself that take the form of a street ballad sung by Lassnig herself: “It’s art that always keeps me young, it makes the spirit hungry and then fills it up!”.
Marijas klusums (Maria’s Silence)
by D?vis S?manis | with Olga Šepicka, Art?rs Skrasti?š, Vilis Daudzi?š, ?irts ?esteris, Inese Ku?inska
Latvia / Lithuania 2024
Forum | World premiere
In 1937, the Moscow art scene is in free-floating accord with Soviet power. Latvian artist Maria Leiko believes she is untouchable and unwittingly plays the role of her life: that of an innocent victim. A hugely topical historical allegory.
Mit einem Tiger schlafen (Sleeping with a Tiger)
by Anja Salomonowitz | with Birgit Minichmayr, Lukas Watzl, Oskar Haag, Johanna Orsini
Austria 2024
Forum | World premiere
Birgit Minichmayr plays avant-garde painter Maria Lassnig at all ages and in all mental states, giving access to internal and external perspectives alike in radical fashion. An unconventional biopic of a female artist in the midst of a man’s world.
As noites ainda cheiram á pôlvora (The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder)
by Inadelso Cossa | with Inadelso Cossa, Maria Estevão, Moises Langa, Macuacua, Zalina
Mozambique / Germany / France / Portugal / Netherlands / Norway 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Inadelso Cossa visits his grandparents’ village in Mozambique, where he grew up during the civil war. Back then, his grandmother kept the war out of sight for him. Now the film shines a careful light into the darkness of the past.
Oasis
by Tamara Uribe, Felipe Morgado
Chile 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film | A film by MAFI Collective
In 2019, a nationwide movement forms in Chile to create a new constitution. For three years, the film accompanies indigenous, feminist, militant, legalistic, anarchist and conservative activists. A timely large-scale canvas of democratic protest.
Oasis of Now
by Chee Sum Chia | with Thi Diu Ta, Aster Ee Yeow, Abd Manaf Bin Rejab
Malaysia / Singapore / France 2023
Forum | European premiere | Debut film
An apartment block in Kuala Lumpur that houses migrants. Hanh moves calmly, incessantly. She cleans, washes up, tidies, helping everyday life to function better for others. A somnambulant wander through the spaces of an existence denied rights.
Palmistry
by Maria Lassnig | with Dona Craig, George Heyward
Austria / USA 1973
Forum Special
Split screen: the drawing of a woman sitting at a real table perfectly decked out eats and eats and eats. Maria has her palm read; she finds family photos between the lines of her hand. “Are you possessive?”
Pa-myo (Exhuma)
by Jang Jae-hyun | with Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hai-jin, Lee Do-hyun
South Korea 2024
Forum | World premiere
A rich American-Korean family has been cursed. When their ancestral vault is opened, something is released. A pair of shamans, a geomancer and an undertaker try to tame the spirit with pig’s head and horse blood rituals in this horror mystery thriller.
La piel en primavera (Skin in spring)
by Yennifer Uribe Alzate | with Alba Liliana Agudelo Posada, Eduardo Arango, Cristian López, Laura Zapata
Colombia / Chile 2024
Forum | World premiere | Debut film
Medellín. Bus 243 takes Sandra to work. She is a security guard at a mall, takes her job seriously. Her uniform fits, her son is already 15, time to start something new. A film about places, sounds, a woman, her body, the self and the world.
Reas
by Lola Arias | with Yoseli Arias, Ignacio Amador Rodriguez
Argentina / Germany / Switzerland 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Gentle or rough, blonde or shaved, cis or trans, long term inmates or those newly admitted: women re-enact their lives in a Buenos Aires prison, in trance and balance, voguing and singing. A hybrid musical and charming piece of collective empowerment.
Redaktsiya (The Editorial Office)
by Roman Bondarchuk | with Dmytro Bahnenko, Zhanna Ozirna, Rymma Ziubina, Andrii Kyrylchuk, Vasy Kukharskyi
Ukraine / Germany / Slovakia / Czechia 2024
Forum | World premiere
Young biologist Jura still lives with his mum and witnesses arson while looking for marmots on the Cherson steppe. As he tries to make what happened public, he ends up entangled in deep state matters. A surreal, self-critical satire on media and politics.
Reproduktion (Reproduction)
by Katharina Pethke
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
The ensemble of buildings that makes up the maternity clinic and art school in Hamburg where the director taught is the starting point for this sober interrogation of how motherhood and career can be combined based on three generations of German women.
Republic
by Jin Jiang | with Li Eryang, Li, Bai, Jiaojiao, VT
Singapore / People’s Republic of China 2023
Forum | European premiere | Documentary Form
Eryang has turned his Beijing cave into a private micro-club with fine music and a mezzanine bed for love. No space at all, but lots of time to kill, with passion and psychedelics. They drink and ponder money, Communism and the cosmos.
Resonance Spiral
by Marinho de Pina, Filipa César | with Bedan na Onça, Cristina Mendes, Mû Mbana, Sana na N’Hada, Vanessa Fernandes
Portugal / Guinea-Bissau / Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
The Mediateca Onshore in Malafo, a village in Guinea-Bissau, is an archive and a club for agropoetic practices. As Amílcar Cabral talks feminism on tape, the directors speak in the mangroves about the contradictions of depicting the community.
Selfportrait
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1971
Forum Special
A self-portrait with a stick. This film was completed in the same year as the painting, the facial expressions are similar. “The face of phases”. What’s new are the lyrics and her voice: “Until you are gone with the wind, be aware”.
Shahid
by Narges Kalhor | with Baharak Abdolifard, Nima Nazarinia, Narges Kalhor, Thomas Sprekelsen, Carine Huber
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere
Narges Shahid Kalhor is a director seeking to be rid of the “Shahid” (martyrs), who are too heavy a burden. From Bavarian bureaucracy and therapy to dancing with Iran’s past generations and their long shadows, she twirls through a heady autofiction.
Shapes
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1972
Forum Special
Physical poses are set in motion, like in many of Lassnig’s film works. Nudes. Engaged leg, free leg. A wild circular dance of silhouettes, templates and multiplications. And a game involving art historical platitudes to top it all off.
Spuren von Bewegung vor dem Eis (Traces of Movement before the Ice)
by René Frölke
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Twenty years after Swiss publishing house Pendo closed its doors, the descendants of its founders repeatedly circle, examine and lose sight of its legacy. Frölke’s film gives structure to this archive via media experimentation.
Techqua Ikachi, Land – mein Leben (Techqua Ikachi, Land – My Life)
by Anka Schmid, James Danaqyumptewa, Agnes Barmettler | with Qomahoyngma, Sewemunewa, Qomayumptewa, Quavayma, Dawangyawma
Federal Republic of Germany (historical) / Switzerland 1989
Forum Special
Invited by the then 74-year-old James Danaqyumptewa, two Swiss artists come to witness and document the non-violent resistance of the Hopi in Arizona, combining sketches, photography and animation. At once a message in a bottle and a cry for help.
Der unsichtbare Zoo (The Invisible Zoo)
by Romuald Karmakar
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Across the seasons, the film gives an account of life and work and the animals and visitors at Zurich Zoo, an institution that is one of the leading zoological gardens in Europe. Animals in their cages, humans in the cinema. What lies between them?
Was hast du gestern geträumt, Parajanov? (What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov?)
by Faraz Fesharaki | with Mitra Kia, Hasan Fesharaki, Rahi Sinaki, Faraz Fesharaki
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
A webcam dialogue between Berlin and Isfahan: Faraz Fesharaki documents conversations with his family over 10 years. This debut film blends recordings, text and VHS memories into a warm, melancholy intergenerational portrait. Intimacy is also work.
The Wrong Movie
by Keren Cytter | with Laura Hajek, Ashby Bland, Elijah Lajmer, Jordan Raf, Edward Baker
USA / Belgium 2024
Forum | World premiere
Chilling as the stuff of existential tragedy. Ex-lover Alex becomes a mini drone, the new lover is a stuntman; Timur can’t escape his mother and his drug problem, nor can Nicole her father’s ashes. An urban indie chamber drama with delicate synth sounds.
Yoake no subete (All the Long Nights)
by Shô Miyake | with Hokuto MATSUMURA, Mone KAMISHIRAISHI, Kiyohiko SHIBUKAWA, Ryo, Ken MITSUISHI
Japan 2024
Forum | International premiere
Two work colleagues: he suffers from panic attacks, she has extreme PMS. Their company distributes toy planetariums. What may not sound like Ozu Yasujir? is actually precisely that: people are attentive and do each other good, without even realising.
GENERATION
Generation line-up will showcase 32 works, including seven debut films and 22 world premieres.
Aguacuario
by Jose Eduardo Castilla Ponce | with Hugo Benítez Guerra, Marsell Moreno Cruz, Claudio Jurado
Mexico 2023
Generation Kplus | European premiere | Short film
Meeting his responsibilities or defying his brother and embarking on a little three-wheeled adventure? That’s the dilemma a ten-yearold boy faces in Mexico.
Anaar Daana (Sour Candy)
by Nishi Dugar | with Veda Agrawal, Manav Hinduja, Lavya Jain, Manjari Saxena, Suryakanta Bothra
India 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Short film
Guddal, a free-spirited five year old, loves eating the sour sweeties called Anaar Daana. Her antics with her brother Laddoo often land her in trouble. One day, a sad incident in the house causes a shift in her idyllic world.
Beurk! (Yuck!)
by Loïc Espuche | with Noé Chabbat, Katell Varvat, Enzo Desmedt, Camille Bouisson, Hugo Chauvel
France 2024
Generation Kplus | International premiere | Animation | Short film
Yuck! Kissing on the mouth is disgusting. But secretly, little Léo really wants to try it …
Comme le feu (Who by Fire)
by Philippe Lesage | with Noah Parker, Aurélia Arandi-Longpré, Antoine Marchand-Gagnon, Arieh Worthalter, Paul Ahmarani
Canada / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere
Seventeen-year-old Jeff is invited by his friend Max’s family to stay with them at the wilderness lodge of film director Blake Cadieux.
Cura sana
by Lucía G. Romero | with Roser Rendon Ena, Rasvely Lissette Donaire Restituyo, Yaneys Cabrera Ramírez, Leisam Ramos Rodríguez,
Ana Barja
Spain 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Short film
Spain during the Noche de San Juan festival. Sisters Jessica and Alma are once again on their way to pick up food stamps from the Caritas charity. Although they have experienced violence at home, they both try to break the cycle and treat each other with love.
Disco Afrika: une histoire malgache (Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story)
by Luck Razanajaona | with Parista Sambo, Laurette Ramasinjanahary, Joe Lerova, Drwina Razafimahaleo, Jérôme Oza
France / Madagascar / Germany / Mauritius / South Africa / Qatar 2023
Generation 14plus | European premiere | Debut film
Twenty-year-old Kwame toils in clandestine sapphire mines. When an unexpected event takes him back to his hometown, he is confronted by the rampant corruption that plagues his country. Kwame is forced to make a choice.
Ellbogen (Elbow)
by Asl? Özarslan | with Melia Kara, Do?a Gürer, Jale Arikan, Haydar ?ahin, Orhan Kiliç
Germany / Turkey / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere
Hazal is 17 and lives in Berlin. Her biggest wish: to be given a chance. For her 18th birthday she wants to escape the everyday grind and party with her friends. But a fatal incident changes everything. Hazal is forced to flee.
Fox and Hare Save the Forest (Fuchs und Hase retten den Wald)
by Mascha Halberstad | with Rob Rackstraw, Dan Skinner, Jamie Quinn, Teresa Galagher, Sarah Madiga
Netherlands / Belgium / Luxembourg 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Animation
With Owl disappearing, mischievous Rats terrorising the neighbourhood and a lake threatening to submerge their home, Fox and Hare embark on an exciting adventure to save the forest. It will push their friendship to the limit!
The Girl Who Lived in the Loo
by Subarna Dash | with Sneha Das, Pratyusha Mitra
India 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Animation | Short film
A ten-year-old girl has discovered her haven: the loo. In a bathroom, her life is calm and secure, but also somewhat lonely. She gradually tries to find a way to deal with her obsession and navigate her way through life.
Goosfand (Sheep | Schaf)
by Hadi Babaeifar | with Rose Tabatabaei, Gelavij Alam
Iran 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Short film
A little girl who lives with her mother in Tehran discovers that the sheep in her neighbours’ backyard are being sacrificed in a traditional ritual. She decides to save as many sheep as she can.
Huling Palabas (Fin)
by Ryan Machado | with Shun Mark Gomez, Bon Andrew Lentejas, Cedrick Juan, Serena Magiliw, Jay Gonzaga
Philippines 2023
Generation 14plus | International premiere | Debut film
In the summer of 2001, 16-year-old Andoy searches for his long-lost father in the most unlikely of places: on VHS tapes. When two men
who seem to have come straight out of a movie appear in his small hometown, his reality begins to falter.
Un invincible été (Invincible Summer)
by Arnaud Dufeys | with Charles Lebrun, Vadiel Gonzalez, Victor Meurice
Belgium 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Short film
Sixteen-year-old Clément spends a hot summer evening home alone by the pool. Determined to lose his virginity, he swipes through guys’ profiles on Grindr …
It’s Okay! (Es ist okay!)
by KIM Hye-young | with LEE Re, JIN Seo-yeon, CHUNG Su-bin, SON Suk-ku, LEE Jung-ha
South Korea 2023
Generation Kplus | International premiere | Debut film
One year after the tragic loss of her mother, In-young finds herself without a home. She takes shelter in the basement of her dance school, but her secret sanctuary is in peril when the choreographer, Seol-ah, discovers her.
Lapso (Lapse)
by Caroline Cavalcanti | with Beatriz Oliveira, Juan Queiroz, Dora Rosa, Thayanne Lima
Brazil 2023
Generation 14plus | European premiere | Short film
Two teenagers living in the suburbs of Belo Horizonte in Brazil meet while doing community service. Through their shared experiences of repression at the hands of the state authorities, they slowly draw closer together.
Last Swim
by Sasha Nathwani | with Deba Hekmat, Narges Rashidi, Jay Lycurgo, Solly McLeod, Lydia Flemming
United Kingdom 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Debut film
A-levels results day. An ambitious and brainy Iranian-British teenager embarks on a journey across London with her friends, while secretly grappling with a life-changing decision.
Maydegol?by Sarvnaz Alambeigi | with Maydegol, Mohadesseh, Farzaneh
Iran / Germany / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Documentary Form
An Afghan teenager living as an immigrant in Iran strives to pursue her dream of becoming a professional Muay Thai boxer while battling the social injustice and violence she encounters beyond the ring.
Muna
by Warda Mohamed | with Kosar Ali, Raha Isse Farah, Elmi Rashid Elmi, Ahmed Nur, Meena Mohamed
United Kingdom 2023Generation 14plus | International premiere | Short film
Muna is desperate to go on the school trip but her parents aren’t so sure. When her grandfather back in Somalia dies and the UK-based family mourn someone Muna never really knew, she learns that more connects the two of them than she ever realised.
Obraza (Resentment | Ressentiment)
by Gleb Osatinski | with Vladyslav Baliuk, Sergey Zdoronkov, Liudmila Gnatenko, Ariana Rimkut?, Vaidotas Martinaitis
USA / Lithuania 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Short film
Seventeen-year-old Yasha is rebelling against authority. But in the USSR of 1990, some opposing forces are more dangerous than others. Determined not to give in, Yasha’s need for self-expression will propel him to the precipice of irreparable harm.
?Un pájaro voló (A Bird Flew)
by Leinad Pájaro De la Hoz | with Yasser Ramírez Boloy, Alejandra de Jesus Garcell, Jesus Angel Cruz
Colombia / Cuba 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Short film
Boloy, a player on the Cuban national volleyball team, is tormented by the memory of a friend who is no longer around. Despite his pain, he tries to return to morning training.
Papillon (Butterfly | Schmetterling)
by Florence Miailhe
France 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Animation | Short film
A man swims in the sea. This brings back memories. They are all connected to water, from his early childhood to his adult life. This will be the story of his last swim.
Porzellan (Porcelain)
by Annika Birgel | with Nell Marie Haack, Liv Heleen Haack, Niklas Leifert
Germany 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Short film
On a remote German island, the inhabitants of a village come together to celebrate a traditional eve-of-wedding party. As the shards of the crockery smashed by the guests pile up, ten-year-old Fina struggles to keep a piece of herself intact.
Quell’estate con Irène (My Summer with Irène)
by Carlo Sironi | with Noée Abita, Maria Camilla Brandenburg, Claudio Segaluscio, Gabriele Rollo, Beatrice Puccilli
Italy / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere
Italy, 1997. When Clara and Irène, both 17, meet they are nothing like each other but get on marvellously well. They run away together to a faraway island off the coast of Sicily to live their summer freely, and to hide from a reality they want to forget.
Raíz (Through Rocks and Clouds | Durch Felsen und Wolken)
by Franco García Becerra | with Alberth Merma, Nely Huayta, Richard Apaza, José Merma, Rubén Huillca
Peru / Chile 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere
Feliciano, an eight-year-old alpaca herder, is euphoric: Peru has the chance to qualify for the World Cup! But the machinations of a mining company endanger his village and threaten Feliciano’s world and his dreams.
Reinas
by Klaudia Reynicke | with Abril Gjurinovic, Luana Vega, Jimena Lindo, Gonzalo Molina, Susi Sánchez
Switzerland / Peru / Spain 2024
Generation Kplus | European premiere
1992 is a turbulent year in Lima, Peru. Lucia, Aurora and their mother Elena decide to move to the US. A reunion with their estranged father and ex-husband, Carlos, leads to a departure filled with mixed emotions of hope and regret.
Sieger Sein (Winners)
by Soleen Yusef | with Dileyla Agirman, Andreas Döhler, Sherine Ciara Merai, Tamira Bwibo, Halima Ilter
Germany 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere
Mona has fled Syria with her Kurdish family and ends up in a primary school in Berlin-Wedding. Things are tough in the school. Everyone on the girls’ football team Mona is on plays against each other. But only “team work makes the dream work”.
Songs of Love and Hate
by Saurav Ghimire | with Saurav Ghimire, Shraddha Ghimire, Bardan Khadka, Kewal Raj Rijal
Nepal 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Documentary Form | Short film
The sudden disappearance of the popular host of a relationship advice radio show leaves a vacuum. Listeners are uncertain about the direction their romantic endeavours should take.
Sukoun (Amplified)
by Dina Naser | with Malak Nassar, Suhad Khatib, Nadeem Al-Rimawi, Hanna George Sakkab
Jordan / Egypt / Palestine 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Short film
Hind is a young karate athlete who is hard of hearing. One day, after she is subjected to abusive behaviour at the training centre, her world becomes distorted. Hind must find a way to reclaim her power.
A Summer’s End Poem (Sommer, Ende)
by Lam Can-zhao | with Jingbo Cai, Liyu Cai, Zhongqing Lan
People’s Republic of China / Switzerland / Malaysia 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Short film
Shortly before the end of the summer holidays, a country boy spends his savings on his dream of a city hairstyle – with surprising results. A story about bidding farewell to childhood and the poetic end of a summer.
Los tonos mayores (The Major Tones | Tonspuren)
by Ingrid Pokropek | with Sofía Clausen, Pablo Seijo, Lina Ziccarello, Mercedes Halfon, Santiago Ferreira
Argentina / Spain 2023
Generation Kplus | International premiere | Debut film
Following an accident, 14-year-old Ana has a metal plate in her arm. During the winter holidays, the plate suddenly starts to receive strange messages in Morse code.
Uli
by Mariana Gil Ríos | with Ulith Giraldo, María Camila Alarcón, Amelia Mejía Escobar, Emanuel Vélez Hernández
Colombia 2023
Generation Kplus | International premiere | Short film
Rafaela accompanies her older sister on a visit to a boy. As the two older ones retreat, Rafa begins to explore the house. She meets queer girl Uli and her pet and has the opportunity to find freedom in an unfamiliar place.
?Xiao Ban Jie (The Great Phuket)
by Liu Yaonan | with Li Rongkun, Yang Xuan, Kang Hang, You Junfen, Liu Huiyun
France / Hong Kong, China / Germany / Belgium 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Debut film
Fourteen-year-old Li Xing lives in a district full of ruins and reconstruction. School brings him nothing but problems and his family is no help at all. One day, he finds an underground shelter where strange things happen…
Young Hearts (Junge Herzen)
by Anthony Schatteman | with Lou Goossens, Marius De Saeger, Geert Van Rampelberg, Emile De Roo, Dirk Van Dijck
Belgium / Netherlands 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Debut film
Fourteen-year-old Elias increasingly feels like an outsider in his village. When he meets his new neighbour of the same age, Alexander, Elias is confronted with his burgeoning sexuality.
The Generation 14plus competition will open with the world premiere of UK-based director Sasha Nathwani’s feature film debut Last Swim, following one day and night in the life of a young British-Iranian Londoner as she awaits results for key exams, while grappling with the consequences of a life-changing diagnosis.
“In light of the conditions we find across the world today – which appear catastrophic from the perspective of young people, and not only to them – the question as to what cinema can be as art and social space repeatedly arises,” said program head as section head Sebastian Markt.
“This programme is our attempt to formulate an answer: films that expose the cracks that run through our world and make them graspable, films that come up with forms to make things visible and expressible, films that invent images which could become the material with which some of these cracks might be repaired.”
Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, two competition programmes screening state-of-the-art international cinema. For young audiences and for everyone else. Epic narratives and fleeting moments, flights of fantasy and bitter realities. Coming-of-age stories: awesome, wild and angry, heartfelt and headstrong.
Scorsese will receive the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement during this year’s festival
and Lupita Nyong’o will head the International Jury.
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