Screen previews the Berlinale’s premieres in this year’s Berlinale Special section.

Breathe Umphefumlo

Breathe Umphefumlo (S Afr)

Dir Mark Dornford-May

Dornford-May won the 2005 Golden Bear for U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, a South African operatic version of Carmen. His new film is based on another totemic musical, Puccini’s La Boheme — one of the world’s most popular operas and a heartrending story of romance. Again Dornford-May has moved the story’s setting to South Africa.

Contact Fortissimo Films, info@fortissimo.nl

Life (Can-Ger-Aus)

Dir Anton Corbijn

Control director Corbijn, who served on the Berlin jury in 2012, will present the world premiere of this anticipated drama based on the friendship that developed between iconic movie star James Dean (Dane DeHaan) and Life photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) shortly before the actor’s death in 1955.

Contact FilmNation Entertainment, info@filmnation.com

The Misplaced World (Ger)

Dir Margarethe von Trotta

Hometown film-maker von Trotta’s follow-up to Hannah Arendt concerns the unlikely intersection of two very different women: a renowned opera singer and a middle-aged woman whose father is convinced the singer looks just like his deceased wife.

Contact Wild Bunch, cbaraton@wildbunch.eu

The Seventh Fire (US)

Dir Jack Pettibone Riccobono

US film-maker Pettibone Riccobono’s documentary, which is being presented by Terrence Malick, examines a Native American gang leader, on the brink of a prison sentence, struggling to make peace with his tribe and his past.

Contact CAA, filmsales@caa.com

Virgin Mountain (Ice-Den)

Dir Dagur Kari

Formerly titled Rocketman and then Fusi, Icelandic director Kari’s fourth feature concerns a fortysomething man whose staid, uneventful life is upended by a free-spirited woman and her eight-year-old daughter.

Contact BAC Films, sales@bacfilms.fr

Woman In Gold (UK-US)

Dir Simon Curtis

My Week With Marilyn director Curtis offers this drama focusing on the true story of Maria Altmann, an elderly Holocaust survivor fighting to reclaim her family’s artworks that were stolen by the Nazis. Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Brühl star.

Contact The Weinstein Company, international@weinsteinco.com