17 films makes up the 51st Berlinale Forum program and the Forum Expanded film selection consists of four short film selections, one medium-length film and two feature-length films, with a total of 18 films to be shown in March at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival. Eight installations will also be shown in June.
In the Berlinale Forum, many films take narrative detours, alternating between fiction and documentary like Manque La Banca’s debut Esquí (Ski) and dipping into archives to link findings from the past with the present. Jean-Luc Godard’s La chinoise is, for example, subjected to two separate revisions in Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance and Vincent Meessen’s Juste un movement (Just A Movement) respectively. In her feature-length debut Sichuan hao nuren (The Good Woman of Sichuan), Sabrina Zhao transforms one of Brecht’s learning-plays into an opaque cinematic space. Uldus Bakhtiozina’s debut Doch rybaka (Tzarevna Scaling) tells a straightforward fairy tale on the one hand, while filling her fiction with dizzying culture historical pirouettes on the other. Her characters even have the shiniest diamond-encrusted teeth.
The Forum Expanded, titled “The Days Float Through My Eyes” is taken from the song “Changes” by David Bowie, is organized by Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art and is positioning itself at the place where cinema meets other areas of art and society for the 16th time.
Films of the 51st Berlinale Forum
À pas aveugles (From Where They Stood)
France / Germany
by Christophe Cognet
with Christophe Cognet
*World premiere
Anmaßung (Anamnesis)
Germany
by Chris Wright, Stefan Kolbe
with Nadia Ihjelj, Josephine Hock
*World premiere
Doch rybaka (Tzarevna Scaling)
Russian Federation
by Uldus Bakhtiozina
with Alina Korol, Viktoria Lisovskaya, Valentina Yasen
*International premiere / Debut film
Esquí (Ski)
Argentina / Brazil
by Manque La Banca
with José Alejandro Colin, Segundo Botti, Shaman Herrera
*World premiere / Debut film
The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation
France / Finland / Israel / Germany
by Avi Mograbi
with Avi Mograbi
*World premiere
Garderie nocturne (Night Nursery)
Burkina Faso / France / Germany
by Moumouni Sanou
*World premiere / Debut film
The Inheritance
USA
by Ephraim Asili
with Eric Lockley, Nozipho McClean, Chris Jarrell
Debut film
Jai jumlong (Come Here)
Thailand
by Anocha Suwichakornpong
with Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Waywiree Ittianunkul, Sirat Intarachote
*World premiere
Juste un mouvement (Just A Movement)
Belgium / France
by Vincent Meessen
with Dialo Blondin Diop, Ousman Blondin Diop, Marie-Thérèse Diedhiou
*World premiere
Mbah Jhiwo (Mbah Jhiwo / Ancient Soul)
Spain
by Alvaro Gurrea
with Yono Aris Munandar, Sayu Kholif, Musaena’h
*World premiere / Debut film
No táxi do Jack (Jack’s Ride)
Portugal
by Susana Nobre
with Amindo Martins Rato, Maria Carvalho, Joaquim Verissimo
*World premiere
Qué será del verano (What Will Summer Bring)
Argentina
by Ignacio Ceroi
with Ignacio Ceroi, Mariana Martinelli, Charles Louvet
*World premiere
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces
USA
by Shengze Zhu
*World premiere
Sichuan hao nuren (The Good Woman of Sichuan)
Canada
by Sabrina Zhao
with Weihang He, Ruobing Zhao
*World premiere / Debut film
Ste. Anne
Canada
by Rhayne Vermette
with Isabelle d’Eschambault, Jack Theis, Valerie Marion
*World premiere / Debut film
Taming the Garden
Switzerland / Germany / Georgia
by Salomé Jashi
La veduta luminosa (The Luminous View)
Italy / Spain
by Fabrizio Ferraro
with Alessandro Carlini, Catarina Wallenstein, Freddy Paul Grunert
*World premiere
Films of the 16th Forum Expanded
Black Bach Artsakh
Republic of Artsakh, 140’
by Ayreen Anastas, Rene Gabri
*World premiere
Ploy
Thailand / Singapore, 51’
by Prapat Jiwarangsan
*International premiere
Saba’ sanawat hawl delta al-neel (Seven Years Around the Nile Delta)
Egypt, 331’
by Sharief Zohairy
*International premiere
Short film selection #01
Songs of the Shirt
Germany, 4 x 1’
by Kerstin Schroedinger
*World premiere
One of the four Songs of the Shirt will be screened in each selection
Lost on Arrival
Netherlands, 8’
by PolakVanBekkum
*International premiere
Böse zu sein ist auch ein Beweis von Gefühl (Fury is a Feeling Too)
Germany, 25’
by Cynthia Beatt
Night for Day
Portugal / Austria, 47’
by Emily Wardill
*International premiere
Short film selection #02
13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Portugal, 31’
by Ana Vaz
*World premiere
Autotrofia
Italy, 31’
by Anton Vidokle
*World premiere
The Coast
India, 17’
by Sohrab Hura
*World premiere
Short film selection #03
May June July
USA, 8’
by Kevin Jerome Everson
*World premiere
Bicentenario
Colombia / Canada, 43’
by Pablo Alvarez Mesa
“레드필터가 철회됩니다.” (“The Red Filter is Withdrawn.“)
Republic of Korea, 11’
by Minjung Kim
*International premiere
Mudança (Upheaval)
Germany / Portugal, 27’
by Welket Bungué
*International premiere
Short film selection #04
After Life Followed by Red Impasto Jar
Finland, 9’
by Jonna Kina
*World premiere
Kapita
USA, 22’
by Petna Katondolo
*World premiere
Zahlvaterschaft (Fatherland)
Germany, 22’
by Moritz Siebert
*World premiere
Ahorita Frames
Germany, 22’
by Angelika Levi
*World premiere
Installations
All of Your Stars are But Dust on my Shoes
Lebanon
by Haig Aivazian
*International premiere
Black Beauty: For a Shamanic Cinema
Spain / United Kingdom / Belgium
by Grace Ndiritu
*World premiere
Jole dobe na (Those Who Do Not Drown)
India / Japan / Sweden
by Naeem Mohaiemen
*International premiere
Medicine and Magic
Canada
by Thirza Cuthand
*World premiere
Se hace camino al andar
Brazil
by Paula Gaitán
*International premiere
Sous le masque blanc: le film qu’Haesaerts aurait pu réaliser (Under the White Mask: The Film That Haesaerts Could Have Made)
Belgium
by Matthias De Groof
* World premiere
The Song of the Shirt
Germany
by Kerstin Schroedinger
*World premiere
Voices and Shells
Germany
by Maya Schweizer
The Wake
Haiti / France / United Kingdom
by The Living and the Dead Ensemble
*World premiere
The Zama Zama Project
USA / South Africa / Canada
by Rosalind Morris
*International premiere