Festival Programme

Films by Country

Germany

The Blood Countess

Die Blutgrafin

Ulrike Ottinger

Part gothic fantasia, part historical reverie, The Blood Countess finds Ulrike Ottinger at her most audacious, crafting a spellbinding celebration of imagination and cinematic freedom.

Calle Málaga

Maryam Touzani

An intimate and warm story of a life entwined with a deep-rooted sense of belonging, and the inconvenience of aging in a world that continues to move at pace.

The Dreamed Adventure

Das Geträumte Abenteuer

Valeska Grisebach

A vanished man, a lawless frontier, and a woman who refuses to look away: Valeska Grisebach turns the margins of Europe into an epic of startling richness.

Everytime

Sandra Wollner

A shattering portrait of grief that refuses to play by the rules. This year’s winner of the prestigious Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, Everytime is Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner's most precise and emotionally devastating work yet.

Fatherland

Vaterland

Paweł Pawlikowski

A pristine masterpiece from Polish Academy Award winner Paweł Pawlikowski, reflecting on history and its shadows on the present, as well as on the undying bond of family ties.

Gabin

Maxence Hyerneaux

A stunning debut from Maxence Voiseux, ten years in the making, Gabin follows a young boy into adulthood, crafting a tender and deeply affecting portrait of life in rural France.

Hen

Kota

György Pálfi

Beyond the confines of a factory farm, a heroic hen finds a new lease on life in a crumbling restaurant's courtyard. Feathers are ruffled and jokes are cracked in this egg-cellent adventure.

Iván & Hadoum

Ian de la Rosa

Ian de la Rosa’s queer romance asks how much of yourself can you afford to give when survival is already a struggle, in this Teddy Award winning feature direct from Berlin.

Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting  

Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes

Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster

An historically meticulous period piece examining the philosophy of art and existence, from one of German film’s greatest living master craftsmen.

Lost Land

Harà Watan

Akio Fujimoto

Using non-professional child actors, Japanese director Akio Fujimoto offers an unflinching portrayal of the Rohingya crisis and the struggles of refugees without a nation to call their own.

Minotaur

Минотавр

Andrey Zvyagintsev

A classic French psychosexual thriller about infidelity is expertly reimagined within a modern Russia of citizens feeding an inhuman war machine, in director-in-exile Andrei Zvyagintsev’s taut, chilling Cannes winner.

No Good Men

Shahrbanoo Sadat

When Kabul's only female camerawoman is given a career opportunity by the last man she expected, she finds herself falling for someone in a city that is about to fall itself. A funny, warm and deeply political romance from one of the most exciting voices in world cinema.

Prosecution

Staatsschutz

Faraz Shariat

Faraz Shariat’s sleek, suspenseful crime drama about a racially targeted prosecutor won an Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and takes the temperature of a Germany that has not shaken off its Nazi-era maladies.

Silent Friend

Ildiko Enyedi

The plant world lights up alongside Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Léa Seydoux in this playful, eccentric love letter to scientific experimentation and the beauty of noticing life in all things.

Strange River

Estrany Riu

Jaume Claret Muxart

In this film seeped in sunshine with rhythmic hints of fleeting childhood fantasy, Jaume Claret Muxart's debut is a sensitive, poetic and intuitive exploration of adolescent awakening.

Trial of Hein

Der Heimatlose

Kai Stänicke

Mystery swirls around Hein's return to his native island – is it really him? The villagers hold a trial, while director Kai Stänicke builds a Dogville-like set to stage a tense tale of empowerment.

With Hasan in Gaza

مع حسن في غزّة

Kamal Aljafari

In rediscovered 2001 camcorder footage, acclaimed Palestinian director Kamal Aljafari goes in search of a man he once met when they were prisoners, in a heartfelt tribute to the lost of Gaza, and the life that persists.

Yellow Letters

Gelbe Briefe

İlker Çatak

A celebrated Turkish theatre couple are suddenly targeted by the state and stripped of their livelihoods, leading to their marriage, their ideals and their sense of self being pushed to breaking point. Winner of the Golden Bear (the Berlin Film Festival's top prize), this is a riveting and urgently relevant political drama.