The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951 at the initiative of U.S. Film officer Oscar Martay, as an attempt to bring back some of the culture and romance that had been synonymous with the city during the Golden Twenties. Alfred Hitcock’s ‘Rebecca’ opened the very first festival.
The most important awards at the Berlinale are the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears. They are presented by the International Jury to films in the Competition and belong to the most renowned awards in the international film industry.
Competition
Gloria (Chile/Spain). By Sebastián Lelio (La Sagrada Familia, Navidad, El año del tigre). With Paulina García and Sergio Hernández. World premiere. Juan Sarda for Screen: “Gloria tells the story of an old woman who dreams about a last love and visits singles parties. [Her] troubled romance with another elder will make her face her last years with different expectations.”
Trailer
Nugu-ui Ttal-do Anin (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon) (Republic of Korea). By Hong Sang-soo (Night and Day, Hahaha, In Another Country). With Eun-chae Jung, Sun-kyun Lee. World premiere. This is Lee’s third collaboration with Hong after Lost in the Mountains and Oki’s Movie.
Paradies: Hoffnung (Paradise: Hope) (Austria/France/Germany). By Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days, Import Export, Paradise: Love, Paradise: Faith). With Melanie Lenz, Vivian Bartsch, Joseph Lorenz, and Michael Thomas. World premiere. The third film in Seidl’s Paradise trilogy “shows a young woman, overweight and curious. While her mother goes to Kenya, she spends her holidays at a dietary camp somewhere at the Semmering. There she falls in love with the 40 years older doctor. She loves him with the exclusiveness of a first love. He however fights it—knowing that this cannot happen.
Poziţia Copilului (Child’s Pose) (Romania). By Călin Peter Netzer (Maria, Medal of Honor, Zapada mieilor). With Luminiţa Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, and Florin Zamfirescu. World premiere. FilmNewEurope: A “contemporary drama focusing on the relationship between a mother and her 32-year-old son. After the accidental killing of a boy in a car crash, the mother tries to prevent her son being charged for the death, and she refuses to accept that her son is a grown-up man.”
Promised Land (USA). By Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, Milk). With Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Hal Holbrook. International premiere.
Camille Claudel 1915, by Bruno Dumont (The Life of Jesus, Humanity, Flanders). With Juliette Binoche and Jean-Luc Vincent. France. World Premiere. IMDb: “Confined by her family to an asylum in the South of France—where she will never sculpt again—the chronicle of Camille Claudel’s reclusive life, as she waits for a visit from her brother, Paul Claudel.”
Elle s’en va (On my Way), by Emmanuelle Bercot (Clément, Backstage, Les infidèles). With Catherine Deneuve. France. World Premiere. Cathy (Deneuve), 60, is abandoned by her lover and her family business is looking shaky. So she jumps in her car and… it’s a road movie, evidently.
Trailer
Epizoda u životu berača željeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker), by Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land, Hell, Circus Columbia). With Senada Alimanovic, Nazif Mujic, Sandra Mujic, Semsa Mujic. Bosnia and Herzegovina/France/Slovenia. World Premiere. From Filmaffinity: “Senada is 31 and she lives in Poljice neighborhood in Lukavac municipality with her partner and two daughters. She is pregnant with her third child for approximately five months. Since she didn’t have health insurance, she does not go to the doctor’s. When she started bleeding, she goes to the hospital. The doctor told Senada that she needs an emergency surgery and she needs to pay 500 EUR. Without a health insurance card and without money, Senada returns home.”
Trailer
Gold by Thomas Arslan (Dealer, Vacation, In the Shadows). With Nina Hoss, Marko Mandic, Uwe Bohm, Lars Rudolph, Peter Kurth, Rosa Enskat, and Wolfgang Packhäuser. Germany. World Premiere. Gold focuses on a group of German immigrants who trek from New York to northwest Canada in 1898, that is, well after the initial Gold Rush. To cut expenses, these inexperienced gold-diggers decide on a route slicing straight across the continent. They discover, of course, that this is not a shortcut.
La Religieuse (The Nun) by Guillaume Nicloux (The Flying Children, A Private Affair, That Woman). With Pauline Etienne, Isabelle Huppert, Louise Bourgoin, and Martina Gedeck. France/Germany/Belgium. World Premiere. An adaptation of the novel by Denis Diderot, which was also adapted, of course, by Jacques Rivette in 1966.
Trailer
Layla Fourie by Pia Marais (The Unpolished, At Ellen’s Age). With Rayna Campbell, August Diehl, Rapule Hendricks. Germany/South Africa/France/Netherlands. World Premiere. From Pandora Film: “Layla Fourie, a young single-mother in South Africa, receives a job assignment as polygraphist. In the constant presence of mistrust, lies and fear Layla soon becomes a suspect herself.”
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, the feature debut of Fredrik Bond. With Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Til Schweiger, Rupert Grint, James Buckley. USA. International Premiere. From Wikipedia: “Charlie Countryman (LaBeouf) is just a normal guy until he meets and falls in love with Gabi (Wood), a Hungarian girl after he sits next to her father on a plane that resulted in his death. But Gabi is married to Nigel (Mikkelsen), a violent and mentally unstable crime boss with a gang of thugs at his disposal. Armed with little more than his wit and naïve charm, Charlie endures one bruising beat down after another to woo Gabi and keep her out of harm’s way. Finally his exploits of blind valor create such a mess that he’s left with only one way out; to save the girl of his dreams—he has to die.” It’s a comedy.
Trailer
Parde (Closed Curtain), by Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Offside, This Is Not A Film) and Kambozia Partovi (The Fish, Café Transit). With Kambozia Partovi, Maryam Moghadam, Jafar Panahi, Hadi Saeedi, Azadh Torabi, Agha Olia, Zeynab Khanum, and Boy. Iran. World Premiere. This is all we seem to know at the moment. Nancy Tartaglione at Deadline: “Berlin provided few details about the film other than it’s co-directed by Border Café helmer Kambozia Partovi, who co-wrote Panahi’s 2000 Venice winner The Circle.”
Side Effects, by Steven Soderbergh, (sex, lies, and videotape; Erin Brockovich, Haywire). With Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum. USA. International Premiere. A psychological thriller: Emily Taylor (Mara) turns to prescription medication to ease her anxiety over her husband’s impending release from prison.
Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn (A Long and Happy Life) (Russian Federation). By Boris Khlebnikov (Koktebel, Svobodnoe plavanie, Sumasshedsay a pomoshch). With Alexander Yatsenko, Eugene Sitiy, Anna Kotova. World Premiere.
Trailer
Prince Avalanche (USA). By David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Pineapple Express). With Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch. International Premiere.
Trailer
Uroki Garmonii (Harmony Lessons) (Kazakhstan/Germany). By Emir Baigazin (feature debut). With Timur Aidarbekov, Aslan Anarbayev, Mukhtar Andassov. World Premiere.
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Vic+Flo ont vu un ours (Vic+Flo Saw a Bear) (Canada). By Denis Côté (Les états nordiques, Curling, Bestiaire). With Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marc-André Grondin. World Premiere.
Trailer
W imię… (In the Name of) (Poland). By Małgośka Szumowska (Stranger, 33 Scenes from Life, Elles) With Andrzej Chyra, Mateusz Kościukieiwcz. World Premiere. Synopsis from the Polish Film Institute: “Father Adam takes over a small parish in the middle of nowhere. He organizes a community centre for boys with troubled pasts. His energy appreciated, the locals accept him as one of their own. Everybody wants to be close to him, feeding off of his vitality and power, but no one knows he harbors his own secret. After meeting an eccentric and silent young man, a local pariah, Father Adams is forced to confront a long forgotten burden and passion. As the villagers’ worst suspicions are validated, Father Adam becomes the obvious enemy.”
Trailer
Berlinale Special
Unter Menschen (Redemption Impossible), Documentary (Germany). By Christian Rost and Claus Strigel. World premiere. “40 chimpanzees, four women, and the great themes of our civilization: guilt, responsibility, redemption. The moving adventure of former lab animals.”
The Award Ceremony will take place at the Berlinale Palast on Saturday, February 16, 2013. The event will close with a screening of the winner of the Golden Bear.
“Young talents and established film artists will present films in which reality and fiction are bafflingly similar. Worldwide independent cinema is undergoing a resurgence. Fast and turbulent: life is hard and unfair – yet still a lot of fun,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick.
For more info:
berlinale.de/en
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