Berlin International Film Festival today confirmed another twelve titles in the Berlinale Special along with 20 short films in the Berlinale Shorts competition. This year’s Berlinale Classics presents ten films in digitally-restored versions and will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Japanese monster movie classic Gojira (Godzilla), and the return of Golden Bear winner Deprisa, deprisa to the big screen.
Berlinale Special will showcase work from acclaimed filmmakers with Nicolas Philibert returning with Averroès & Rosa Parks, a companion piece to last year’s Golden Bear-winning Sur l’Adamant. Drawing inspiration from the great Ionesco and with an astonishing performance by Irène Jacob, Amos Gitai takes us into a building that is a metaphor for our chaotic society and the attempt to create the platform for a dialogue in the Middle East (Shikun). Abel Ferrara travels to Kyiv in Turn in the Wound to explore what remains after two years of war in Ukraine, while abroad Patti Smith sings songs of peace. In Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Martin Scorsese narrates an extensive tribute to Powell and Pressburger.
Both Beom-Joe-do-si 4 (The Roundup: Punishment, director: Heo Myeong-haeng) is the latest chapter of the successful Korean action series where Don Lee and his mighty fists play detective Ma Seok-do. Love Lies Bleeding is the new work by Rose Glass, who directs the former president of the International Jury, Kristen Stewart, in an electric love story where muscle and femininity go hand in hand. Hako Otoko (The Box Man) is a surreal story based on the iconic book by Kobo Abe in which a cardboard box becomes the perfect shell for men who want to withdraw from society, and gaze without being seen. The film signals the great comeback of Gakuryu (Sogo) Ishii, a filmmaker long admired for his unconventional style and stories.
The program also includes Das leere Grab (The Empty Grave), a documentary that follows the quest of the Tanzanian descendants of those killed by German colonialists in 19th century East Africa to retrieve the remains of their ancestors from Germany, and exergue – on documenta 14 at 840 minutes – the second-longest film ever made – that chronicles the epic journey of Adam Szymczyk in composing documenta 14, which took place in both Athens and Kassel in 2017.
Filmstunde_23, the latest film by this year’s Berlinale Kamera awardee Edgar Reitz will also be part of Berlinale Special, as will Elf Mal Morgen (Eleven Tomorrows), part of Berlinale Meets Fußball, a special project contributing to the cultural events of the UEFA EURO 2024.
For the Berlinale Classics section of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, the selection ranges from early sound film experiment to a sober and distanced black-and-white drama, to colorful, artful exploitation. All the restorations will be world premieres.
In its 70th anniversary year, Ishirō Honda’s Gojira (Godzilla) will return to the big screen. Paramount’s 4K restoration of John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust is equally impressive in the way it pays tribute to the film’s striking production values. Set at the start of a nuclear apocalypse, Andrei Tarkovsky’s drama Offret (The Sacrifice, 1986) is a powerful pictorial parable of human (mis)behaviour in the face of war and environmental destruction.
Germany is represented with Reifezeit (Time of Maturity) by director Sohrab Shahid Saless. The film is a precisely observed, black-and-white drama of everyday life in Berlin’s working-class district of Wedding, made in 1976.
Berlinale Classics will also showcase two gems by Ernst Lubitsch. The first is his silent film Kohlhiesels Töchter (Kohlhiesel’s Daughters) and also screening will be Lubitsch’s first talkie The Love Parade. Made before the stringent rules of the Hays Code took effect, the latter film is a romance that had a defining influence on the genre of film operettas.
In 1981, Deprisa, deprisa by Carlos Saura, about a gang of young delinquents, won the Golden Bear in Berlin; it returns to the Berlinale in a new 4K restoration for which reference material supervised by the director was used.
One highlight of the section is the digital restoration of 1985’s After Hours, screening in honour of this year’s Honorary Golden Bear recipient Martin Scorsese.
The Berlinale Classics section is also presenting two specials – the new 4K restoration of Carlos Reygadas’ Batalla en el cielo (Battle in Heaven) and Tsai Ming-liang’s Tian bian yi duo yun (The Wayward Cloud), both from 2005. The restoration of Batalla en el cielo, initiated by the Coproduction Office and done under the supervision of Reygadas, gives expression to the provocative visual impact of this hyper-realistic appraisal of Mexican society’s social divide. By contrast, Tsai Ming-liang’s love story Tian bian yi duo yun, which won the Silver Bear in Berlin, is about isolation and alienation in a big city.
Berlinale Special
Averroès & Rosa Parks At Averroès & Rosa Parks
Averroès & Rosa Parks
Berlinale Special
by Nicolas Philibert
France 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
Beom-Joe-do-si 4 The Roundup: Punishment
Beom-Joe-do-si 4
Berlinale Special Gala
by Heo Myeong-haeng | with Don Lee, Kim Moo-yul, Park Ji-hwan, Lee Dong-hwi
South Korea 2024
World premiere
Elf Mal Morgen: Berlinale Meets Fußball Eleven Tomorrows: Berlinale Meets Football
Elf Mal Morgen: Berlinale Meets Fußball
Berlinale Special
by Maximilian Bungarten, Anna-Maria Dutoit, Kilian Armando Friedrich, Indira Geisel, Eva Gemmer, Felix Herrmann, Hannah Jandl, Justina Jürgensen, Hilarija Ločmele, Daniela Magnani-Hüller, Sophie Mühe, Camille Tricaud, Marie Zrenner
Germany 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
exergue – on documenta 14
exergue – on documenta 14
Berlinale Special
by Dimitris Athiridis
Greece 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
Hako Otoko The Box Man
Hako Otoko
Berlinale Special
by Gakuryu Ishii | with Masatoshi Nagase, Tadanobu Asano, Koichi Sato, Ayana Shiramoto
Japan 2024
World premiere
Das leere Grab The Empty Grave
Das leere Grab
Berlinale Special
by Agnes Lisa Wegner, Cece Mlay
Germany / Tanzania 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleeding
Berlinale Special Gala
by Rose Glass | with Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone
USA / United Kingdom 2023
International premiere
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
Berlinale Special
by David Hinton | with Martin Scorsese
United Kingdom 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
Shikun
Shikun
Berlinale Special
by Amos Gitai | with Irène Jacob, Bahira Ablassi, Hana Laslo, Menache Noy, Pini Mittelman
Israel / France / Switzerland 2024
World premiere
Supersex
Supersex
Berlinale Special
by Francesca Manieri (Creator), Matteo Rovere, Francesco Carrozzini, Francesca Mazzoleni (Directors) | with Alessandro Borghi, Jasmine Trinca, Adriano Giannini
Italy 2024
World premiere | Series
Turn in the Wound
Turn in the Wound
Berlinale Special
by Abel Ferrara
United Kingdom / Germany / Italy / USA 2024
Berlinale Shorts
Adieu tortue Bye-Bye, Turtle
Adieu tortue
Berlinale Shorts
by Selin Öksüzoğlu | with Nursema Çepni, Meltem Ünel, Neriman Çilingiroğlu, Ibrahim Çolakoğlu, Serhat Şahin
France 2024
World premiere
Five-year-old Inci wanders alone through the vast hilly landscape by the Black Sea. Her mother has just died. When she meets the adult Zeynep, she decides to follow her.
Al sol, lejos del centro Towards the Sun, Far From the Center
Al sol, lejos del centro
Berlinale Shorts
by Luciana Merino, Pascal Viveros | with Fernanda Vicens, Jimena Albarrán
Chile 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
In the shimmering summer heat, Santiago becomes an almost abstract setting. Two women search for a place for their love between the small gestures of the urban everyday.
Les animaux vont mieux Lick a Wound
Les animaux vont mieux
Berlinale Shorts
by Nathan Ghali
France 2024
World premiere | Animation
A mysterious community of animals has chosen to live self-sufficiently in the basement of a church. Sheltered from humans, they engage in various rituals.
Circle
Circle
Berlinale Shorts
by Joung Yumi
South Korea 2024
World premiere | Animation
A girl draws a circle on the ground. Passers-by step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people.
City of Poets
City of Poets
Berlinale Shorts
by Sara Rajaei | with Sara Rajaei
Netherlands 2024
World premiere
In a small, semi-utopian city, all the streets are named after poets. When war begins, new neighbourhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees. Now, the streets are named after soldiers.
Jing guo Goodbye First Love
Jing guo
Berlinale Shorts
by Shuli Huang | with Simu Chen, Shuli Huang
USA 2024
World premiere
He pays him a visit during his work trip to Europe. They have not seen each other since 2015, back in Beijing. This might be the last time they meet.
Kaalkapje Baldilocks
Kaalkapje
Berlinale Shorts
by Marthe Peters
Belgium 2023
International premiere | Documentary Form
Through the lens of her father’s camera, she looks back at a period of her childhood of which she can remember nothing. Twenty years after surviving cancer, she searches for traces of the illness between scars and desires.
Kawauso
Kawauso
Berlinale Shorts
by Akihito Izuhara
Japan 2023
International premiere | Animation
A girl is going along her way when a Japanese river otter catches up with her. The two try in vain to communicate while the world around them threatens to sink under the weight of its consumer goods.
The Moon Also Rises
The Moon Also Rises
Berlinale Shorts
by Yuyan Wang
France 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
Artificial moons are going to be launched into space to eliminate the difference between day and night. An elderly couple retreats into the increasing darkness of their apartment, illuminated by digital devices.
Un movimiento extraño An Odd Turn
Un movimiento extraño
Berlinale Shorts
by Francisco Lezama | with Laila Maltz, Paco Gorriz, Sofía Palomino, Jorge Prado, Guillermo Massé
Argentina 2024
World premiere
Buenos Aires, 2019. A museum security guard foresees a sharp rise in the dollar’s value with her pendulum and falls in love with a currency exchange house employee.
Oiseau de passage Wandering Bird
Oiseau de passage
Berlinale Shorts
by Victor Dupuis | with Ilias Largo, Guillaume Fooy
Belgium 2023
International premiere
A body is floating in the water. A strange bird is calling and memories come alive again. “Where were you when I was in despair?”, asks the friend.
Pacific Vein
Pacific Vein
Berlinale Shorts
by Ulu Braun | with Niina Lehtonen-Braun, Joachim Stargard, Lily Cummings, David Ristau, Valentin Lorenz
Germany 2024
World premiere | Animation
The endless tracking shot through a picturesque US panorama allows the American Dream to slide into ghostly auto-suggestion while Assange and Bezos ponder life.
Preoperational Model
Preoperational Model
Berlinale Shorts
by Philip Ullman | with Mette Marie Fisker, Tine Street Andersen
Netherlands 2024
International premiere | Animation
Princess Sophie and her maid Jessica prepare for the new day at the royal court. Sophie’s struggle with her future existence as queen turns hierarchies, role assignments and timelines upside down. A disempowerment story from the perspective of the powerful.
Re tian wu hou Remains of the Hot Day
Re tian wu hou
Berlinale Shorts
by Wenqian Zhang | with Yuyi Wan, Jinkui Jiang, Yi Shi, Yiwen Gu, Zhengye Chen
People’s Republic of China 2024
World premiere
China at the end of the 1990s, lunch in an extended family. The father works in distant Shenzhen and is rarely home. The grandmother cooks and keeps an eye on the children. The air is filled with levity, longing and exhaustion.
Shi ri fang gu Sojourn to Shangri-La
Shi ri fang gu
Berlinale Shorts
by Lin Yihan | with Fu Yunfei, Kang Jun, Jonathan Mulcahy, Li Lu, Yu Qiugui
People’s Republic of China 2023
International premiere
An elaborate fashion shoot is planned on the beach, but the backdrop built in advance has been swallowed by the sea overnight. While the young assistant tries every means possible to find it again, the film almost imperceptibly slips into the magical.
Stadtmuseum / Moi Rai City Museum / My Paradise
Stadtmuseum / Moi Rai
Berlinale Shorts
by Boris Dewjatkin
Germany 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
An essay film that describes the city as a subjective paradise in which systems of order and chaos constantly override each other. An ode to chaos, hidden signs and the city as an eternal palimpsest.
Tako Tsubo
Tako Tsubo
Berlinale Shorts
by Fanny Sorgo, Eva Pedroza | with Len Jakobson, Anne Kulbatzki, Benjamin Martin
Austria 2024
World premiere | Animation
Mr. Ham decides to have his heart removed to free himself from his complicated emotions. The doctor assures him that, in this day and age, this procedure no longer poses a problem.
That’s All From Me So Viel von Mir
That’s All From Me
Berlinale Shorts
by Eva Könnemann | with Charlotte Munck, Eleanor Forbes, Jannis Dimmlich
Germany 2024
World premiere
A fictitious video correspondence between a filmmaker and an author about correlations between motherhood and artistic work. One of them is in a crisis, the other one has a helpful idea.
Ungewollte Verwandtschaft Unwanted Kinship
Ungewollte Verwandtschaft
Berlinale Shorts
by Pavel Mozhar | with André Mewis, Christiane Sill, Steffen Roll, Iryna Poplavska, Oleksandr Kryvosheiev
Germany 2024
World premiere | Documentary Form
Using the streets of his Berlin neighbourhood as a backdrop, a filmmaker from Belarus investigates the systematic nature of Russian and Belarusian war crimes in Ukraine and explores his own responsibility for this war.
We Will Not Be the Last of Our Kind
We Will Not Be the Last of Our Kind
Berlinale Shorts
by Mili Pecherer | with Mili Pecherer, Adrien Dupuis-Hepner
France 2024
International premiere | Animation
What if the famous biblical ark, the last refuge of humankind and the animal kingdom during the great flood, was not merely an act of divine intervention but, instead, a meticulously planned programme for professional reintegration?
Berlinale Classics
After Hours Die Zeit nach Mitternacht
After Hours
Berlinale Classics
by Martin Scorsese | with Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Thomas Chong, Linda Fiorentino
USA 1985
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Warner Bros. Discovery, Hamburg
Batalla en el cielo Battle in Heaven
Batalla en el cielo
Berlinale Classics Special
by Carlos Reygadas | with Marcos Hernandez, Anapola Mushkadiz, Berta Ruiz, David Bornstein, Rosalinda Ramirez
Mexico / Germany / Belgium / France 2005
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Coproduction Office, Berlin
The Day of the Locust Der Tag der Heuschrecke
The Day of the Locust
Berlinale Classics
by John Schlesinger | with Donald Sutherland, Karen Black, Burgess Meredith, William Atherton, Geraldine Page
USA 1975
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Park Circus, Glasgow
Deprisa, deprisa
Deprisa, deprisa
Berlinale Classics
by Carlos Saura | with Berta Socuéllamos, José Antonio Valdelomar González, Jesús Arias Aranzeque, José María Hervás Roldán, María del Mar Serrano
Spain / France 1981
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Video Mercury Films, Madrid
Gojira Godzilla
Gojira
Berlinale Classics
by Ishirō Honda | with Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, Fuyuki Murakami
Japan 1954
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Toho Co Ltd., Tokyo
Kohlhiesels Töchter Kohlhiesel’s Daughters
Kohlhiesels Töchter
Berlinale Classics
by Ernst Lubitsch | with Henny Porten, Emil Jannings, Gustav von Wangenheim
Germany 1920
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden
The Love Parade Liebesparade
The Love Parade
Berlinale Classics
by Ernst Lubitsch | with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth, Eugene Pallette
USA 1929
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: NBC Universal, Universal City
Offret The Sacrifice | Opfer
Offret
Berlinale Classics
by Andrei Tarkovsky | with Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Valérie Mairesse, Allan Edwall, Guðrún Gísladóttir
Sweden / France 1986
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm
Reifezeit Time of Maturity
Reifezeit
Berlinale Classics
by Sohrab Shahid Saless | with Mike Henning, Eva Manhardt, Charles Hans Vogt, Eva Lissa, Lothar Köster
Federal Republic of Germany (historical) 1975
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Shahid Saless Archive, Berlin
Tian bian yi duo yun The Wayward Cloud
Tian bian yi duo yun
Berlinale Classics Special
by Tsai Ming-liang | with Lee Kang-Sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Lu Yi-Ching, Yang Kuei-Mei, Yozakura Sumomo
Taiwan / France 2005
World premiere of the digitally restored version | DCP: Homegreen Films, New Taipei City