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Berlin International Film Festival 2018

View other Berlin International Film Festival Films by strand: Competition, Culinary Cinema, Homage - Willem Dafoe, Panorama

The Happy Prince The Happy Prince
The Happy Prince and Songwriter
America Land Of The Freeks (Country: German, US; Year: 2017; Director: Ulli Lommel; Stars: Ulli Lommel, Tanner King Barklow, Nola Roeper, Gil Kofman, Chris Kriesa)
The filmmaker travels across the States to document Trump’s new America, with a small band of unconventional characters in tow.
Bad Banks (Country: Germany, Luxembourg; Year: 2017; Director: Christian Schwochow; Writer: Lisa Blumenberg, Jana Burbach, Jan Galli; Stars: Paula Beer, Barry Atsma, Désirée Nosbusch, Albrecht Schuch, Mai Duong Kieu)
Ambitious Jana is confronted with the unscrupulous, profit-oriented machinations of the world of finance. Her working life is defined by pressure to succeed. She soon has to decide how far she is prepared to go for her career.
Becoming Astrid (Unga Astrid) (Country: Sweden, Germany, Denmark; Year: 2018; Director: Pernille Fischer Christensen; Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson, Pernille Fischer Christensen; Stars: Alba August, Maria Bonnevie, Trine Dyrholm, Henrik Rafaelsen, Magnus Krepper)
A biopic focused on the early life of the writer Astrid Lindgren and her decision, on becoming pregnant, to refuse to marry and choose single motherhood.
The Bookshop (Country: UK, Spain, Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Isabel Coixet; Stars: Bill Nighy, Emily Mortimer, Hunter Tremayne)
A widow moves to a small seaside town where she wants to turn a run-down building into a bookshop, but she faces local opposition.
Gurrumul (Country: Australia; Year: 2017; Director: Paul Williams; Stars: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu)
A documentary about the legendary musician, who was born blind and played the guitar left-handed and upside down.
Heimebane (Home Ground) (Country: Norway; Year: 2018; Director: Johan Fasting, Arild Andresen; Stars: Ane Dahl Torp, John Carew, Morten Svartveit)
A football coach leaves her successful women’s football team to become the first female coach of a Norwegian premier league men’s team. She wages a fight against ingrained bias and is out to prove that women are every bit as good as men.
The Happy Prince (Country: Germany, Belgium, UK, Italy; Year: 2018; Director: Rupert Everett; Writer: Rupert Everett; Stars: Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Colin Morgan, Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor, Ronald Pickup, Béatrice Dalle, Julian Wadham, Joshua McGuire, John Standing, Daniel Weyman, André Penvern, Edwin Thomas, Tom Colley)
The last days of Oscar Wilde.
Full Review
The Interpreter (Dolmetscher) (Country: Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Austria; Year: 2018; Director: Martin Šulík; Writer: Martin Šulík; Stars: Peter Simonischek, Jiří Menzel, Zuzana Mauréry, Anita Szvrcsek, Anna Rakovská)
An 80-year-old translator, Ali Ungár, comes across a book written by a former SS officer recounting his war experiences in Slovakia and realises that one of the chapters may well describe his own parents’ execution.
Full Review
A Journey To The Fumigated Towns (Viaje A Los Pueblos Fumigados, Reise In Die Vergifteten Dörfer) (Country: Argentina; Year: 2017; Director: Fernando E Solanas)
A documentary investigation of the social aftermath of monoculture and the uncontrolled use of weedkillers and other chemical substances.
Liberty (Country: Denmark; Year: 2018; Director: Asger Leth, Mikael Marcimain; Stars: Connie Nielsen, Sofie Gråbøl, Carsten Bjørnlund, Magnus Krepper, Charlie Karumi)
Scandinavian businessmen and development workers relax on their farms in Tanzania. Some use local conditions for self-enrichment, others try to make a difference in the development sector – but they are all ignoring the needs of the country’s population.
The Looming Tower (Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney, Lawrence Wright; Stars: Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Peter Sarsgaard, Wrenn Schmidt, Bill Camp)
In the late 1990s there is growing evidence of an imminent attack on the USA. The domestic and foreign security agencies, the FBI and the CIA, engage in a disastrous rivalry that prevents the timely detection of an act of terrorism.
Monster Hunt 2 (Country: China, Hong Kong; Year: 2017; Director: Raman Hui; Stars: Tony Chiu Wai Leung, Baihe Bai, Boran Jing, Chris Lee, Yo Yang)
Following the death of the evil monster king, an eerie lord with dark intentions has ascended to the throne. He puts a bounty on little Wuba, who now finds himself being hunted not only by his own kind, but also by humans
Picnic At Hanging Rock (Country: Australia; Year: 2017; Director: Larysa Kondracki; Stars: Natalie Dormer, Yael Stone, Lola Bessis, Lily Sullivan, Madeleine Madden)
Mrs Appleyard is the strict headmistress of a girls’ boarding school who watches over the moral education of her charges like a hawk. When her own far from prudish past catches up with her, three of her students mysteriously disappear.
Ryūichi Sakamoto: Async At The Park Avenue Armory (Country: US, Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Stephen Nomura Schible)
A documentary portrait of the composer with various electronic instruments, a grand piano without a lid, a guitar and a glass panel.
The Silent Revolution (Das Schweigende Klassenzimmer) (Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Lars Kraume; Stars: Leonard Scheicher, Tom Gramenz, Lena Klenke, Isaiah Michalski, Jonas Dassler)
During a visit to a cinema in West Berlin, East German high school pupils Theo and Kurt see disturbing newsreel footage of the uprising in Budapest. Back in Stalinstadt, they have the idea of holding a minute’s silence in class for the victims - a decision that has far reaching consequences.
Sleeping Bears (Country: Israel; Year: 2017; Director: Keren Margalit; Stars: Noa Koler, Yossi Marshek, Alma Zak, Yaakov Zada Daniel, Doron Tavory)
When the therapist of teacher Hadas dies in an accident, she receives his session notes in the form of threatening letters. An intrinsically personal story becomes an expedition into the depths of contemporary Israel.
Songwriter (Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Murray Cummings; Stars: Ed Sheeran)
Ed Sheeran up close, far away from raving fans and the stage. This personal portrait of the British singer-songwriter, filmed by his cousin Murray Cummings, follows this modest performer’s creative process as he writes a new song from scratch.
Full Review
The Terror (Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: David Kajganich, Soo Hugh, Edward Berger; Stars: Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, Ciarán Hinds, Paul Ready, Adam Nagaitis)
British explorer Sir John Franklin’s polar expedition, retold as a historical epic. The vast icy wastes invoke a feeling of claustrophobia aboard his ships where the men are not only fighting nature, but also the balance of power.
Usedom – Clear View At The Sea (Usedom – Der Freie Blick Aufs Meer) (Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Heinz Brinkmann)
A documentary about the Baltic island of Usedom, once a luxury holiday destination, split into a German and a Polish half after the Second World War.
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