Berlin completes Panorama line-up

Some 36 films from 29 countries will feature in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16), of which 24 will be world premieres.

Most recently invited are works from Norway, Ethiopia, Mexico, India, Iran, Georgia, Greece, Hungary and Austria – with returning filmmakers Elfi Mikesch and Umut Dağ, who opened Panorama 2012 with Kuma, his directorial debut.

New titles include a number of Asian productions. In Ieji (Homeland) by Japan’s Nao Kubota, a farmer’s son, who first fled to the city, explores his home village in the Fukushima district, an area that is actually still a no-go zone following the disaster at the region’s nuclear power plant.

In the South Korean film Night Flight, LeeSong Hee-il presents a duel between two schoolmates. LeeSong previously showed the films No Regret and White Night in Panorama.

The 21-year-old Zhou Hao from the People’s Republic of China will bring YE (The Night) while masters of Hong Kong cinema who join the line-up include Dante Lam with Mo Jing (That Demon Within) and Fruit Chan, who in The Midnight After has adapted an online serial novel with an apocalyptic angle.

Two Philippine and two Taiwanese works previously announced will be complemented by a film from Taiwanese-Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang. He will present the next segment of his experimental “Walker” series, entitled Xi You (Journey to the West), a French production with Lee Kang Sheng and Denis Lavant.

Opening films

Panorama’s main programme will open on Feb 6 with Vietnamese sci-fi Nước (2030) by Nghiêm-Minh Nguyễn-Võ, in which vegetables are cultivated on floating farms in the wake of rising sea levels.

Panorama main-programme premieres will be showing at CinemaxX 7.

On Feb 7, the same day Jalil Lespert’s film Yves Saint Laurent opens Panorama Special, US filmmaker Ira Sachs will present his latest work, Love Is Strange, with Alfred Molina, John Lithgow and Marisa Tomei.

With these two films, the Berlinale returns to the newly reopened Zoo Palast in the city’s western centre.

The complete programme of Panorama Dokumente will be announced soon.

Berlinale Panorama 2014

Asabani Nistam! (I’m Not Angry!) (Iran) IP
dir. Reza Dormishian
With Baran Kosari, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Reza Behboudi, Misagh Zare, Bahram Afshari

 Blind (Norway / Netherlands) EP
dir. Eskil Vogt
With Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Vera Vitali, Marius Kolbenstvedt

Difret (Ethopia) EP
dir. Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
With Meron Getnet, Tizita Hagere

Fieber (Fever) (Luxembourg / Austria) WP
dir. Elfi Mikesch
With Eva Mattes, Martin Wuttke, Carolina Cardoso, Nicole Max, Sascha Ley

Güeros (Mexico) WP
dir. Alonso Ruízpalacios
With Ilse Salas

Highway (India) WP
dir. Imtiaz Ali
With Randeep Hooda, Alia Bhatt

Ieji (Homeland) (Japan) WP
dir. Nao Kubota
With Kenichi Matsuyama, Yuko Tanaka, Sakura Ando, Takashi Yamanaka, Seiyo Uchino

In Grazia di Dio (Italy) WP
dir. Edoardo Winspeare
With Celeste Casciaro, Laura Licchetta, Barbara De Matteis, Anna Boccadamo, Gustavo Caputo

Love Is Strange (USA) IP
dir. Ira Sachs
With John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Charlie Tahan, Cheyenne Jackson

Mo Jing (That Demon Within) (Hong Kong, China) WP
dir. Dante Lam
With Daniel Wu, Nick Cheung

Na kathese ke na kitas (Standing Aside, Watching) (Greece) EP
dir. Yorgos Servetas
With Marina Symeou, Marianthi Pantelopoulou, Yorgos Kafetzopoulos, Nikos Georgakis

Night Flight (Republic of Korea) WP
dir. LeeSong Hee-il
With Lee Jae-jun, Kwak Shi-yang

Nước (2030) (Vietnam) WP
dir. Nghiêm-Minh Nguyễn-Võ
With Quỳnh Hoa, Quý Bình, Thạch Kim Long, Hoàng Trần Minh Đức, Hoàng Phi

Patardzlebi (Brides) (Georgia / France) WP
dir. Tinatin Kajrishvili
With Mari Kitia, Giorgi Maskharashvili

Risse im Beton (Cracks in Concrete) (Austria) WP
dir. Umut Dağ
With Murathan Muslu, Alechan Tagaev, Mehmet Ali Salman, Erdem Turkoglu, Ivan Kriznjak

The Midnight After (Hong Kong, China) WP
dir. Fruit Chan
With Wong You-nam, Simon Yam, Kara Hui, Janice Man, Suet Lam

Viharsarok (Land of Storms) (Hungary) WP
dir. Adam Császi
With Andras Sütő, Ádám Varga, Sebastian Urzendowsky

YE (The Night) (People’s Republic of China) WP
dir. Hao Zhou
With Zhou Hao, Liu Xiao Xiao, Li Jin Kang, Zhou Feng Qi

Previously announced fictional features…

Arrête ou je continue (If You Don’t, I Will) by Sophie Fillières, France (WP)

Bai Mi Zha Dan Ke (The Rice Bomber) by Cho Li, Taiwan (WP)

Bing Du (Ice Poison) by Midi Z, Taiwan / Myanmar (WP)

Calvary by John Michael McDonagh, Ireland / United Kingdom (EP)

Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way He Looks) by Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil (WP)

Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? by Michel Gondry, France (EP)

O Homem das Multidões (The Man of the Crowd) by Marcelo Gomes, Cao Guimarães, Brazil (IP)

Papilio Buddha by Jayan Cherian, India / USA (EP)

Quick Change by Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines (IP)

Stereo by Maximilian Erlenwein, Germany (WP)

Test by Chris Mason Johnson, USA (EP)

The Better Angels by A. J Edwards, USA (IP)

Kuzu (The Lamb) by Kutluğ Ataman, Germany / Turkey (WP)

Things People Do by Saar Klein, USA (WP)

Triptyque (Triptych) by Robert Lepage, Pedro Pires, Canada (EP)

Über-Ich und Du (Superegos) by Benjamin Heisenberg, Germany / Switzerland / Austria (WP)

Unfriend by Joselito Altarejos, Philippines (WP)

Xi You (Journey to the West) by Tsai Ming-liang, France / Taiwan (WP)

Yves Saint Laurent by Jalil Lespert, France (IP)

(WP= World Premiere, IP= International Premiere, EP = European Premiere)