Berlin 2024: Screen’s guide to the Encounters titles

Arcadia (Greece-Bul-US)

Dir. Yorgos Zois
Greek filmmaker Zois’ debut feature Interruption played in Venice’s Horizons in 2015. His latest is a fantasy drama about love and loss starring well-known Greek actors Yannis Economides (Stratos) and Angeliki Papoulia (Dogtooth, The Lobster) who together try to find the cause of a car accident. The film is produced by Antigone Rota and Stelios Cotionis for Foss Productions and Maria Drandaki for Homemade Films. Beta Cinema has all rights except Greece and Bulgaria.
Contact: Beta Cinema

Cidade; Campo (Bra-Ger-Fr)

Dir. Juliana Rojas
Divided into two parts, Cidade; Campo presents stories about migration between the city and the country­side in Brazil. A rural worker moves to Sao Paulo, while a couple take the opposite path, moving to the countryside. Produced by Dezenove Som e Imagens, it was backed by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund, The Films After Tomorrow and Brazil’s Audiovisual Sector Fund (FSA). Rojas is best known for 2014’s Necropolis Symphony and for titles she co-directed with Marco Dutra, including Hard Labor, which screened at Cannes in 2011.
Contact: Sara Silveira, Dezenove Som e Imagens

Demba (Sen-Ger-Qat)

Dir. Mamadou Dia
A middle-aged man on the brink of retirement finds a new connection with his estranged son, while struggling with the passing of his wife two years earlier. This is Senegalese filmmaker Dia’s second fiction feature — his first, Nafi’s Father, won the top prize in the filmmakers of the present section at Locarno 2019. Produced by Senegal’s Joyedidi and Germany’s NiKo Film, Demba received backing from Doha Film Institute and went through Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops in 2022.
Contact: The Party Film Sales

Direct Action (Ger-Fr)

Dirs. Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell
Documentary Direct Action follows a militant activist community in France — complete with squatters, anarchists, farmers and government-­labelled “eco-terrorists” — to better understand how the success of a radical protest movement can offer a path through the global climate crisis. It is produced by Germany’s Cask Films and France’s Volte Films. US filmmaker Russell and France’s Cailleau co-directed this meditative and timely deep dive into climate politics.
Contact: Shellac Films

The Fable (India-US)

Dir. Raam Reddy
It has taken nearly a decade for India’s Reddy to make his second feature after debut Thithi, which won awards at Locarno and Mumbai in 2015. His follow-up is set in the Indian Himalayas and follows a family man who battles a number of mysterious fires that consume his fruit orchards, leading him to suspect those around him. The cast is led by award-winning actor Manoj Bajpayee, most recently seen in Prime Video series The Family Man and features such as Joram, alongside Priyanka Bose of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2023 title Agra. Producers are Pratap Reddy of India’s Prspctvs Productions and Sunmim Park of US outfit Maxmedia.
Contact: Ethan Park, Maxmedia

A Family (Fr)

Dir. Christine Angot
French novelist Angot steps behind the camera for a personal documentary, as she visits Strasbourg for the release of her latest novel. There, Angot decides to push members of her family for clarity on their attitude to her father, who she says started raping her when she was 13. Angot co-wrote Claire Denis’ Let The Sunshine In and Both Sides Of The Blade, based on her novels. A Family is produced by Le Bureau’s Bertrand Faivre, who was behind 2021 documentary The Velvet Queen, and Rectangle’s Alice Girard.
Contact: The Bureau Sales

Favoriten (Austria)

Dir. Ruth Beckermann
The opening film of the Encounters section, documentary Favoriten sees director Beckermann accompany a Vienna elementary class over the course of three school years, taking as her starting point the statistic that more than 60% of all children in Viennese elementary schools do not have German as their first language. Beckermann’s The Waldheim Waltz premiered in Berlin in 2018, winning the best documentary prize. Her doc Mutzenbacher won Encounters’ best film prize in 2022.
Contact: Autlook FilmSales

The Great Yawn (Iran)

Dir. Aliyar Rasti
After a man dreams of a box of gold coins in a cave, which he cannot take due to his religion, he hires a non-religious assistant to help find the treasure. Iranian filmmaker Rasti began his career as a visual artist, before studying under Asghar Farhadi in Tehran and directing shorts including 2018’s In Between. Rasti produced his debut feature through his company Para-Doxa, with a local cast including Mohammad Aghebati, who appeared in Farhadi’s A Hero, Amirhossein Hosseini and Saber Abar.
Contact: Heretic 

Hands In The Fire (Port)

Dir. Margarida Gil
Loosely inspired by Henry James’ novella The Turn Of The Screw, Portuguese director Gil’s latest is about a woman, played by Carolina Campanela, completing a thesis on cinema who visits an isolated and seemingly enchanted house that gradually reveals horrors within. Gil’s career spans more than 30 years including early titles such as Rosa Negra (1992), which premiered at Locarno. Hands In The Fire was produced by leading Portuguese producer Alexandre Oliveira of Ar de Filmes.
Contact: Ar de Filmes

Ivo (Ger)

Dir. Eva Trobisch
Tackling the issues of palliative care and euthanasia, Ivo is German director and writer Trobisch’s second feature after 2018’s All Good, which won a raft of prizes including the best director award at Munich and best debut film at Locarno. The story centres on the titular Ivo who works as a busy palliative carer, when one of her patients — a close friend — asks for her help to die. Minna Wündrich, Pia Hierzegger and Lukas Turtur star.
Contact: Lucas Schmidt, Studio Zentral 

Matt And Mara (Can)

Dir. Kazik Radwanski
Perhaps best known for 2019 Toronto selection Anne At 13,000 Ft., Canadian filmmaker Radwanski has history at the Berlinale, having competed for the short film Golden Bear with Green Canyons in 2011, Out In That Deep Blue Sea in 2010 and Princess Margaret Blvd. in 2009. Matt And Mara received Telefilm Canada funding and tells of a chance encounter between a creative writing professor in a strained marriage, and a free-spirited author from her past with whom she takes a road trip. Deragh Campbell and Matt Johnson, whose BlackBerry played Berlin Competition last year, star. Medium Density Fibreboard Films produced in association with Zapruder Films and Arbitrage Pictures.
Contact: Medium Density Fibreboard Films 

Sleep With Your Eyes Open (Bra-Arg-Tai-Ger)

Dir. Nele Wohlatz
Born in Germany and based in Argentina, Wohlatz continues to explore the immigrant experience after her previous film, 2016’s The Future Perfect, was awarded best first feature in Locarno. This time she follows three young Asian travellers who seem to have lost their sense of belonging in a Brazilian coastal city. Emilie Lesclaux and Kleber Mendonca Filho for his Cinemascopio banner are the producers from the Brazilian side, with support coming from Ancine; the other partners are Ruda Cine (Argentina), Yi Tiao Long Hu Bao (Taiwan) and Blinker Film Filmproduktion (Germany).
Contact: Xu Jing, Rediance

Some Rain Must Fall (China-US-Fr-Sing)

Dir. Qiu Yang
Chinese director Qiu’s feature debut is an intimate drama about a 40-year-old housewife who is forced to confront the wreckage of her life when past events resurface that push her into uncertainty. Producers include Cannes Camera d’Or winning producer Jeremy Chua, Mike Goodridge (Triangle Of Sadness), Alex Lo and Mélissa Malinbaum. Qiu has earned accolades for shorts including A Gentle Night, winner of the Cannes short film Palme d’Or in 2017; O, which premiered in Venice’s virtual reality linear competition in 2019; and She Runs, which won the Leitz Cine discovery prize in Cannes Critics’ Week 2019.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas 

Through The Graves The Wind Is Blowing (US)

Dir. Travis Wilkerson
A hapless detective in Split, Croatia tries to solve a series of murders of tourists in US director Wilkerson’s self-styled homage to the Yugoslav Black Wave film movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Wilkerson’s road trip documentary Nuclear Family screened in Berlin in 2022 and his work straddles documentary and narrative, having played prestigious festivals such as Cinema du Réel and IDA. Wilkerson shot the film guerrilla-style through his Prairie Fire/Creative Agitation banner and stars alongside Ivan Peric, with brief appearances by his children Matilda Jane and Dalton, and his dog Jugo.
Contact: Creative Agitation

You Burn Me (Arg-Sp)

Dir. Matias Piñeiro
Renowned for his films’ literary settings, Argentinian director Piñeiro’s latest centres on the Greek poet Sappho and the nymph Britomart as they discuss desire and death. Production took place in Buenos Aires, San Sebastian, Turin, Syros, Athens, New York and Lima from October 2021 right up until January this year. Gabi Saidon, Maria Villar and Maria Ines Goncalves star and Agustina Muñoz narrates; Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola, Trapecio Cine and Peliculas Mirando el Techo produce. Piñeiro’s film Isabella earned a special mention in Berlin’s Encounters section in 2020.
Contact: Melanie Schapiro, Trapecio Cine 

Profiles by Ellie Calnan, Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Shaurya Thapa, Silvia Wong

• Berlin 2024: Screen’s guide to the Competition titles