Prizes were awarded to the winning filmmakers at the close of the 15th edition of Berlinale Talents at the Berlin International Film Festival. As part of the “Talent Project Market,” the VFF Talent Highlight Award, endowed with € 10,000, went to The Bus to Amerika by producer Nefes Polat and director Derya Durmaz (Turkey). Cash prizes of €1,000 each were awarded to the Cuban producer Maria Carla del Rio and the Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua for their nominated projects.
For the fifth time, the Robert Bosch Stiftung awarded during Berlinale Talents film prizes to promote international cooperation between German and Arab filmmakers, endowed with up to € 60,000 each.
Animation: Night by director Ahmad Saleh (Jordan) and producers Jessica Neubauer (Germany) and Saleh Saleh (Jordan)
Short Film: The Trap by director Nada Riyadh (Egypt) and producers Eva Schellenbeck (Germany) and Ayman El Amir (Egypt)
Documentary: Behind Closed Doors (Mor L’Bab) by director Yakout Elhababi (Morocco) and producers Karoline Henkel (Germany) and Hind Sah (Morocco / France)
Co-Partner Nespresso kicked off the vertical video contest “Nespresso Talents 2017” during Berlinale Talents. The competition is open for entries until April 17, 2017, at nespresso.com/talents. Winners will be officially announced during the Cannes Film Festival and receive a cash prize and participation in a mentoring programme.
“Once again, this year’s Berlinale Talents proves to be the festival’s innovation lab. Where else can young filmmakers and experienced experts from every culture, country and profession have such open, inspiring exchange and collaborate on bringing new films to life? I wish these Talents success as they turn their ideas into reality. And above all: Have courage!” said the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Prof. Monika Grütters, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Berlinale Talents.
Throughout over 100 events and workshops, Talents discussed and worked with renowned experts and mentors, including Paul Verhoeven and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Christo, Agnieszka Holland, Ana Lily Amirpour, Isabel Coixet, Andres Veiel, Gurinder Chadha, Laura Poitras, Timothy Spall and many more.
Berlinale Talents opened on Sunday with this year’s Berlinale International Jury President Paul Verhoeven and Berlinale International Jury member Maggie Gyllenhaal setting the tone for this year’s edition. “Be courageous and step into the unknown,” was Paul Verhoeven’s encouragement for the Talents. Christo, in his 90-minute discussion with the audience, called for creative work to be based in real contexts: “The most important thing of all our work is that it is about real things: real wind, real wet, real dry, real fear.” The days to come were a journey towards discovering personal, creative and filmic moments of courage. Talents alumna Ana Lily Amirpour, who returned this year as an expert, summed up what makes Berlinale Talents so special: “I loved it here when I came in 2010, and I still feel the same. It’s invigorating to be around so many people from everywhere in the world who are just madly in love with their ideas.”Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlinale is a unique place of artistic exploration and entertainment. It is one of the largest public film festivals in the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe each year. For the film industry and the media, the eleven days in February are also one of the most important events in the annual calendar and an indispensable trading forum.
The Berlin International Film Festival enjoys an eventful history. The festival was created for the Berlin public in 1951, at the beginning of the Cold War, as a “showcase of the free world”. Shaped by the turbulent post-war period and the unique situation of a divided city, the Berlinale has developed into a place of intercultural exchange and a platform for the critical cinematic exploration of social issues. To this day it is considered the most political of all the major film festivals.
Berlin International Film Festival started in 1951 and takes place in Berlin, Germany, Europe
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Berlinale Talents 2017 Announces Winners – THE BUS TO AMERIKA Wins VFF Talent Highlight Award
Prizes were awarded to the winning filmmakers at the close of the 15th edition of Berlinale Talents at the Berlin International Film Festival. As part of the “Talent Project Market,” the VFF Talent Highlight Award, endowed with € 10,000, went to The Bus to Amerika by producer Nefes Polat and director Derya Durmaz (Turkey). Cash prizes of €1,000 each were awarded to the Cuban producer Maria Carla del Rio and the Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua for their nominated projects.
For the fifth time, the Robert Bosch Stiftung awarded during Berlinale Talents film prizes to promote international cooperation between German and Arab filmmakers, endowed with up to € 60,000 each.
Animation: Night by director Ahmad Saleh (Jordan) and producers Jessica Neubauer (Germany) and Saleh Saleh (Jordan)
Short Film: The Trap by director Nada Riyadh (Egypt) and producers Eva Schellenbeck (Germany) and Ayman El Amir (Egypt)
Documentary: Behind Closed Doors (Mor L’Bab) by director Yakout Elhababi (Morocco) and producers Karoline Henkel (Germany) and Hind Sah (Morocco / France)
Co-Partner Nespresso kicked off the vertical video contest “Nespresso Talents 2017” during Berlinale Talents. The competition is open for entries until April 17, 2017, at nespresso.com/talents. Winners will be officially announced during the Cannes Film Festival and receive a cash prize and participation in a mentoring programme.
“Once again, this year’s Berlinale Talents proves to be the festival’s innovation lab. Where else can young filmmakers and experienced experts from every culture, country and profession have such open, inspiring exchange and collaborate on bringing new films to life? I wish these Talents success as they turn their ideas into reality. And above all: Have courage!” said the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Prof. Monika Grütters, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Berlinale Talents.
Throughout over 100 events and workshops, Talents discussed and worked with renowned experts and mentors, including Paul Verhoeven and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Christo, Agnieszka Holland, Ana Lily Amirpour, Isabel Coixet, Andres Veiel, Gurinder Chadha, Laura Poitras, Timothy Spall and many more.
Berlinale Talents opened on Sunday with this year’s Berlinale International Jury President Paul Verhoeven and Berlinale International Jury member Maggie Gyllenhaal setting the tone for this year’s edition. “Be courageous and step into the unknown,” was Paul Verhoeven’s encouragement for the Talents. Christo, in his 90-minute discussion with the audience, called for creative work to be based in real contexts: “The most important thing of all our work is that it is about real things: real wind, real wet, real dry, real fear.” The days to come were a journey towards discovering personal, creative and filmic moments of courage. Talents alumna Ana Lily Amirpour, who returned this year as an expert, summed up what makes Berlinale Talents so special: “I loved it here when I came in 2010, and I still feel the same. It’s invigorating to be around so many people from everywhere in the world who are just madly in love with their ideas.”
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Berlinale 2017: Three Films Awarded Prizes at the Berlinale Co-Production Market
Three monetary prizes were awarded to selected narrative film projects at the 2017 Berlinale Co-Production Market which runs February 12 to 15.
The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, with an endowment of 20,000 euros, was awarded to The Wife of the Pilot (director: Anne Zohra Berrached), which Razor Film Produktion from Germany presented here. The prize money is intended as a development grant from the European film fund Eurimages.
The three members of this year’s jury were renowned industry professionals Pablo Pérez de Lema (Spain), Leontine Petit (The Netherlands) and Manfred Schmidt (Germany).
Two additional prestige prizes were also awarded. The VFF – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film und Fernsehproduzenten from Munich awarded its VFF Talent Highlight Award, with an endowment of 10,000 euros, to the project The Bus to Amerika, presented at the market by producer Nefes Polat from Turkey and director Derya Durmaz. Since 2004, the VFF has each year honored a promising project by up-and-coming filmmakers from the “Talent Project Market”, organized by the Berlinale Co-Production Market in cooperation with Berlinale Talents. Nominated for the VFF Talent Highlight Award this year in addition to Nefes Polat were Cuban producer Maria Carla del Rio, with her project Shock Labor, and producer Jeremy Chua from Singapore, with Tomorrow is a Long Time. Each project received a recognition of 1,000 euros as well as the opportunity to pitch their projects to participants of the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
This year, the renowned ARTE International Prize, which has been presented since 2011, was awarded to the project Lost Country by Serbian director Vladimir Perišić, which is represented by KinoElektron (France), MPM Film (France) and Trilema Films (Serbia). ARTE bestows the 6,000 euro prize on an artistically outstanding project drawn from the entire Berlinale Co-Production Market.
The 14th Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs until February 15, is a place where the producers of the 36 selected narrative film projects can also meet with potential co-producers and funding partners. Over the four days, some 600 participants take a total of more than 1,200 individual meetings. More than 240 films that came to the market looking for partners have since become completed films, and seven of those are screening this year alone in the film festival programme.
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Berlinale 2017: Protest for Arrested Director Oleg Sentsov
Agnieszka Holland, Volker Schlöndorff, the European Film Academy, and Amnesty International staged a protest against the incarceration of the Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov at a Berlin International Film Festival screening of THE TRIAL – THE STATE OF RUSSIA VS. OLEG SENTSOV by Askold Kurov,
Presented by the Berlinale and the European film Academy as part of the Berlinale Special section, the Berlinale premiere had filmmakers team up with with the 650 spectators holding up signs demanding the release of the director.
Moderated by EFA Deputy Chairman Mike Downey, the discussion saw director Askold Kurov point out: “The story of making this film is a story of solidarity,” adding his hope that the film makes Oleg less of an abstract person. While the filmmaker’s cousin had no optimistic news to report, his lawyer Dmitrii Dinze stated that if an international campaign continues, “it will push the legal regime in Russia.” To much applause, EFA Chairwoman Agnieszka Holland said: “Oleg needs us but we also need Oleg. His courage is very relevant in times like these, maybe more so than two years ago!”
In May 2014, the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was involved in supporting the Euro Maidan protests in Kiev and who has opposed the annexation of Crimea by Russia, was arrested by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) in his house in Simferopol (Crimea). Eventually, at the end of what Amnesty International describes as “an unfair trial in a military court”, Oleg Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in jail for having committed “crimes of a terrorist nature”. In his documentary Askold Kurov investigates the truth behind this political show trial. He was joined in a conversation after the screening by EFA Chairwoman Agnieszka Holland, Oleg Sentsov’s cousin Natalya Kaplan and his lawyer Dmitrii Dinze.
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Berlinale 2017: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Spanish Trans Drama A FANTASTIC WOMAN
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A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica)[/caption]
Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio’s trans drama A Fantastic Woman (“Una Mujer Fantástica”) has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for release in North America, Australia and New Zealand. The film starring Daniela Vega and Francisco Reyes, will have its world premiere at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.
Daniela Vega plays Marina, a waitress and singer, and Francisco Reyes plays Orlando, an older man, who is in love with Marina, and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society.
Marina and Orlando are in love and plan to spend their lives together. She is working as a waitress and adores singing. Her lover, twenty years her senior, has left his family for her. One night, when they return home after having exuberantly celebrated Marina’s birthday at a restaurant, Orlando suddenly turns deathly pale and stops responding. At the hospital, all the doctors can do is confirm his death. Events follow thick and fast: Marina finds herself facing a female police inspector’s unpleasant questions, and Orlando’s family shows her nothing but anger and mistrust. Orlando’s wife excludes Marina from the funeral; she also orders her to leave the apartment – which on paper at least belonged to Orlando – as soon as possible. Marina is a transgender woman. The deceased’s family feels threatened by her sexual identity. With the same energy she once used to fight for her right to live as a woman Marina, with head held high, now insists on her right to grieve. Even if her environment conspires against her, the film at least is entirely on her side, showing us a protagonist who, although increasingly side-lined, is nonetheless strong and worldly-wise – a truly fantastic woman.
“I’m thrilled Sony Pictures Classics will be releasing ‘A Fantastic Woman,’ and am excited by their passion for Marina’s story,” Lelio said in a statement. “The story is one of great human strength, which I hope will invite and challenge audiences to explore the limits of their own empathy. For me, Marina is an inspiration.”
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Berlinale 2017: Festival to Honor John Hurt with a Screening of “An Englishman in New York”
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John Hurt in An Englishman in New York by Richard Laxton[/caption]
The Berlin International Film Festival will present a special screening of An Englishman in New York by Richard Laxton to commemorate the recently deceased actor John Hurt. In 2009 Hurt received the Teddy Award for his outstanding performance in this film.
Since the 1990s he had attended the Berlinale with regularity and starred in twelve films presented at the festival.
The British actor is know for his roles in Midnight Express (dir: Alan Parker, 1978) and The Elephant Man (dir: David Lynch, 1980), for which he garnered Oscar nominations. Younger audiences are acquainted with Hurt from his portrayal of Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter films, and more recently in Jackie directed by Pablo Larraín.
Berlinale entries with John Hurt that screened in the Competition include The Commissioner (dir: George Sluizer, 1998), V for Vendetta (dir: James McTeigue, out of competition in 2006), and Jayne Mansfield’s Car (dir: Billy Bob Thornton, 2012). John Nossiter’s Resident Alien (1991) and Owning Mahowny by Richard Kwietniowski (2003) were shown in the Panorama.
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South African Film THE WOUND to Open the Panorama Program of Berlin International Film Festival
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The Wound, John Trengove[/caption]
Just after celebrating its selection to have its world premiere in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, the film-makers of the South African film The Wound, have received news that the film has been selected to open the Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama section in February 2017.
Produced by Urucu Media, directed by John Trengove and co-written by Trengove, Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu , The Wound stars multi-talented musician and novelist, Nakhane Touré in his acting debut, with Bongile Mantsai and Niza Jay Ncoyini.
The Wound tells the story Xolani, a lonely Xhosa factory worker who joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best kept secret, Xolani’s entire existence begins to unravel.
Speaking from Cape Town, producer Elias Ribeiro said “We could not have wished for a stronger start for The Wound. We will have the spotlight in the two top festivals in North America and Europe, and that bodes well for its future, as Pyramide, our International Sales Agents will be representing the film at their booth inside the European Film Market in Berlin in February.”
“The fabrication of masculinity has long been a consistent theme in Panorama,” said the statement from the festival. “Producer Elias Ribeiro previously delighted festival audiences in Panorama 2015 with Necktie Youth.”
John Trengove commented: “I was interested in what happens when groups of men come together and organize themselves outside of society and the codes of their everyday lives. I wanted to show the intense emotional and physical exchanges that are possible in these spaces and how repressing strong feelings leads to a kind of toxicity and violence. As an outsider to this culture, it was important that I approach this story from the perspective of characters who are themselves outsiders, who struggle to conform to the status quo of which they are part.”
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Mia Spengler’s BACK FOR GOOD to Open Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2017 at Berlin Film Festival
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Angie (Kim Riedle) in Back for Good von / by Mia Spengler © Zum Goldenen Lamm[/caption]
The first seven films have been invited to participate in Perspektive Deutsches Kino program at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, and Back for Good, Mia Spengler’s graduation film will open the program. “More so than ever it’s worth going to the Perspektive’s opening film and then making yourself comfortable in Berlinale cinemas for the subsequent nine days. Coming and staying guarantees you’ll feel lucky ten times over,” section head Linda Söffker says in anticipation of these ten fiery days in icy February.
Mia Spengler’s graduation film, Back for Good (prod: Zum Goldenen Lamm Filmproduktion, co-prod: Filmakademie Ludwigsburg) will open the Perspektive with the story of Angie, a former trash-TV starlet (Kim Riedle), her despised mother (Juliane Köhler), and her pubescent sister (Leonie Wesselow). By returning to the hick town of her childhood, Angie wreaks havoc on their relationships, so that all three have to redefine their roles in life. Back for Good is an ode to humanity – softly hummed while an auto-tuned pop song blares from the radio.
The fiction film Ein Weg (Paths, dir: Chris Miera, co-prod: Miera Film, Hildebrandt Film) was made while studying at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and is the cautious exploration of a long love relationship that ends in separation. Over 15 years, as son Max gradually grows up, we accompany Andreas (Mike Hoffmann) and Martin (Mathis Reinhardt) through the highs and lows in the daily life of a partnership. Shot like a documentary, with a small team and budget at real locations, Ein Weg develops with great intensity and flexibility – and through the process of editing finds its special form of telling a story over time.
Director Tian Dong grew up in China and attended the KHM in Cologne. He has now completed his studies with the documentary Eisenkopf (Ironhead), about a young soccer team skilled in Shaolin kung fu. Tian Dong visits its young members at their sports school, and talks to them about their everyday lives and dreams. In doing so he paints an unsettling picture of China’s political situation.
In Julian Radlmaier’s new film, Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes (Self-criticism of a Bourgeois Dog, prod: Faktura Film, co-prod: dffb), a bourgeois dog confesses how he has gone through multiple transformations, from a love-struck filmmaker, to an apple picker, a traitor of the revolution, and, last but not least, a four-legged creature. In a political comedy full of burlesque escapades, we meet Camille, a young Canadian (Deragh Campbell); Hong and Sancho, a pair of proletarians who believe in miracles; a mute monk with magical powers; and a bunch of strange field labourers who indulge in idealistic visions.
All three of the medium-long works contemplate Europe and its future in quite similar yet different ways. What would happen if one day people in Europe had to flee, director Felicitas Sonvilla asks in her poetic science fiction film, Tara (prod: MOTEL Film Kollektiv; co-prod: HFF Munich). A young woman called Mira (Sasha Davydova) tells of her flight from Paris. In search of a different life she takes a train heading east to the utopianesque town of Tara. Kontener (Container) was the first medium-long fiction film that Sebastian Lang made at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. In it he portrays “two Polish ladies” who work at a dairy in Brandenburg. From the perspective of Maryna (Joanna Drozda), who narrates the story, the film depicts the last night before Tava (Anka Graczyk) disappears. The third film, titled Mikel, is about a young refugee who has left Nigeria for Berlin in search of a decent life with a properly paid job. It is the first medium-long film by Cavo Kernich, who with this work has completed his studies in “narrative film” under Thomas Arslan at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.
The following films have been invited so far:
Back for Good
By Mia Spengler
With Kim Riedle, Juliane Köhler, Leonie Wesselow
Feature film
World premiere
Eisenkopf (Ironhead)
By Tian Dong
Documentary film
World premiere
Kontener (Container)
By Sebastian Lang
With Joanna Drozda, Anka Graczyk
Medium-long feature film
World premiere
Mikel
By Cavo Kernich
With Jonathan Aikins
Medium-long feature film
World premiere
Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes (Self-criticism of a Bourgeois Dog)
By Julian Radlmaier
With Julian Radlmaier, Deragh Campbell, Beniamin Forti, Kyung-Taek Lie, Ilia Korkashvili
Feature film
German premiere
Tara
By Felicitas Sonvilla
With Sasha Davydova, Leo van Kann, Lena Lauzemis
Medium-long feature film
World premiere
Ein Weg (Paths)
By Chris Miera
With Mike Hoffmann, Mathis Reinhardt
Feature film
World premiere
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Forum Expanded 2017 for Berlin Film Festival is Themed “The Stars Down to Earth”
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Studies on the Ecology of Drama[/caption]
The selection process for the 12th Forum Expanded of the Berlin International Film Festival is currently being finalized. This year’s theme is “The Stars Down to Earth”.
The search for ways to enable art to deal with an increasingly intangible reality forms an essential similarity between the selected works. Bringing one’s gaze back down to earth now seems more necessary than ever before. Yet how can one use film to take hold of something real when that very concept is ever harder to grasp?
The films and installations in the programme approach this question by attempting to both look and listen as closely as possible. In the video installation Twelve, for example, Jeamin Cha examines the pragmatic process underpinning the annual secret wage negotiations held between Korean employer and employee associations. Berlin artist Sandra Schäfer’s video installation Constructed Futures: Haret Hreik investigates city planning and redevelopment in Beirut and the political and religious ideologies they contain.
In her film Studies on the Ecology of Drama, Eija-Liisa Ahtila explores ways of finding film images that move beyond cinematographic anthropocentrism by shifting her gaze away from people and onto their environment.
The Karrabing Film Collective from Australia, whose work Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams is being presented in the group exhibition, shows three different variants of one and the same story, demonstrating how different approaches to a problem don’t just bring forth contradictory solutions but also mutually complimentary ones.
For his part, Joe Namy does away with pictorial representation almost entirely. His installation Purple, Bodies in Translation – Part II of “A Yellow Memory from the Yellow Age” merely shows a purple-colour surface, while the soundtrack explores the question of which details are lost in translation and what additional elements and contradictions are created by the differences between subtitles and image.
The central event location is once again the Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg. A group exhibition of works by 14 artists takes place here together with screenings of numerous films. The artists already invited include Haig Aivazian, James Benning, Duncan Campbell, Anja Dornieden and Juan Gonzales, Noam Enbar, Mohamed A. Gawad and Lina Attalah, Eva Heldmann, Laura Horelli, Oliver Hussain, Ken Jacobs, Mahmoud Lotfy, Bernd Lützeler, Peter Miller, Rawane Nassif, Tomonari Nishikawa, Marouan Omara and Islam Kamal, Lukasz Ronduda, Ginan Seidl, Philip Scheffner, Merle Kröger and Izadora Nistor, Fern Silva, and Mohanad Yaqubi.
Forum Expanded will also be presenting different film archives and archive projects as part of a symposium to be held at the Kuppelhalle at the silent green Kulturquartier in Wedding, including ones from Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Palestinian Territories. SAVVY Contemporary are presenting an installation by Israeli filmmaker and artist Amos Gitai in their own exhibition space at the same location.
The full list of participating artists will be announced in mid-January.
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First 15 Films Announced for Generation Kplus and 14plus at Berlin Film Fest
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Red Dog: True Blue[/caption]
The first 15 feature films have already been selected for the 40th edition of Generation at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival, in the two competitions Kplus and 14plus. Exhibiting an impressive range of cinematic approaches, these productions tell the stories of young people on inner and outer journeys and capture a sense of longing for new and altered horizons. The complete program for Generation will be made public in mid-January.
Michael Winterbottom is slated to open the program of Generation 14plus in the newly renovated Haus der Kulturen der Welt with a special screening of his vibrant music documentary On the Road. Shot in the characteristic hybrid style that has become the English director’s trademark, his newest outing follows the members of the band Wolf Alice on tour as they travel back and forth across their native Great Britain, where they have caused quite a stir in recent years. The film intimately portrays life on the road, in all its ecstasy and exhaustion. The connection between the musicians and their fans is palpable and there is a fine interplay between watching and listening amongst concert and film audiences.
Generation 14plus
Almost Heaven
United Kingdom
By Carol Salter
World premiere
Far from home, 17-year-old Ying Ling practices for her examination to become a mortician at one of China’s largest funeral homes. In addition to frequent qualms and farewell ceremonies, the everyday routine of this unusual occupation also serves up both humorous and life affirming moments. Carol Salter’s debut outing is an empathetic documentary portrait touching on fears, friendship and coming of age amidst ghosts and the dearly departed.
Butterfly Kisses
United Kingdom
By Rafael Kapelinski
World premiere
Jake and his friends pass their time hanging out in the courtyards of their high-rise development or in pool halls, talking about girls, watching pornos and getting drunk. Jake is burdened by a dark secret that distances him more and more from the others and drives him into dangerous isolation. Rafael Kapelinski stages his debut film in contrasting black and white, moving in respectful proximity to his characters, brought to life vividly here by an ensemble cast of new discoveries and young talents (including Thomas Turgoose – This Is England, Generation 2007).
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves)
Canada
By Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
European premiere
With epic scope and stunning polymorphism, the film follows a group of young people in Québec who resolve to form a revolutionary cell together in the aftermath of student protests. This unflinching work from Mathieu Denis (Corbo, Generation 2015) and Simon Lavoie employs its protagonists to play through what it might mean to instigate a revolution and devote one’s life to a cause in today’s world.
Emo the Musical
Australia
By Neil Triffett
International premiere
The forbidden high school love between Ethan, the shy Emo kid with suicidal tendencies, and chipper Christian activist Trinity previously delighted Generation audiences as a short film in 2014. Director Neil Triffett is back with his heartbreakingly funny musical grotesque, now in feature-film length, and chock full of even more colourful characters to light up the big screen.
Mulher do pai (A Woman and the Father)
Brazil / Uruguay
By Cristiane Oliveira
International premiere
After the death of her grandmother, 16-year-old Nalu is left to care for her father alone. Any hope of leaving her dismal village now seems to have receded far off into the distance. Cristiane Oliveira’s coming-of-age drama, a work of slowly paced cinema characterised by respectful intimacy and subtle physicality, paints the complex portrait of a relationship between an adolescent daughter and her blind father.
My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
USA
By Dash Shaw
European premiere
He’s not exactly popular, he’s got friend problems, he wants to make it big with the school paper and he goes by the name of his inventor, Dash. In the school basement, he discovers a secret that rocks the very foundations of his world. Graphic novelist Shaw hopes that his film will reach 15-year-old nerds who are just as crazy about drawings and paintings as he himself was at their age. This work of animation virtually spilling over with ingenuity (and featuring the voice-over talents of Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph, Lena Dunham and Susan Sarandon) is sure to delight young viewers outside of this particular demographic as well.
Krolewicz Olch (The Erlprince)
Poland
By Kuba Czekaj
European premiere
The action in The Erlprince builds and surges as dramatically as the ballad by Goethe from which it borrows its title. The boundaries between reality, desire and appearance are blurred in this futuristically tinged film about an extraordinarily gifted young man and his ambitious and wondrous mother. Expressed in a form as unconventional as the characters it portrays, the film oscillates between the poles of both science and nature and love and violence.
Weirdos
Canada
By Bruce McDonald
European premiere
Just after the end of the Vietnam War and in the midst of the American bicentennial celebrations of 1976, runaway Kit and his girlfriend Alice hitchhike their way along the east coast of Canada. Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments, Panorama 2007) has managed to create a coming-of-age film that shines equally as a road movie, one driven by a fantastic soundtrack composed of deep cuts from the era in question. A rebellious trip in black and white, in which all sense of certainty gets left by the wayside.
Generation Kplus
As duas Irenes (Two Irenes)
Brazil
By Fabio Meira
World premiere
In the shimmering heat of Brazil, 13-year-old Irene discovers a dark secret her father’s been hiding: he has another family and even another daughter with the same name. Irene embarks on a risky game that could blow up in her face at any moment. The languid summer atmosphere of Fabio Meira’s feature film debut can’t hide the fact that something is simmering right under the surface.
Die Häschenschule – Jagd nach dem Goldenen Ei (Rabbit School – Guardians of the Golden Egg)
Germany
By Ute von Münchow-Pohl
World premiere
Scrappy city rabbit Max finds shelter in a hidden Easter bunny school after a misadventure with a model plane leaves him stranded far beyond the city limits. Here he encounters the keepers of the legendary Golden Egg, itself the coveted prize of scheming foxes. After an initial bout with boredom, the secret techniques of the Easter bunnies finally arouse Max’s curiosity. This lovingly drawn German animation film, based on the 1924 classic, is a pure delight buoyed by imagination and brisk pacing and graced with the voices of Senta Berger, Friedrich von Thun, Jule Böwe and Noah Levi.
Primero enero (January)
Argentina
By Darío Mascambroni
European premiere
Primero enero is the directorial debut of Argentinian filmmaker Darío Mascambroni. 11-year-old Valentino’s life goes off the rails when his parents get divorced, challenging him to see the world from a different angle. In a tender and moving father-son story, the director takes his protagonists and his viewers out to the countryside, into a world of heightened sensitivity.
Red Dog: True Blue
Australia
By Kriv Stenders
European premiere
Australian director Stenders delighted Generation audiences in 2011 with a legendary story about a very special dog. Now, at the centre of this sequel – which is also a prequel- the red canine is joined by 11-year-old Mick, who treasures his bond with his four-legged friend above all else. Destiny has brought the duo together on a farm in the Australian outback, where the two partake in mystical adventures and Mick encounters his first true love. With great humour and sensitivity, the film is a tale of growing up in a time of transformation.
Richard the Stork
Germany / Belgium / Luxemburg / Norway
By Toby Genkel, Reza Memari
World premiere
Even though everybody else thinks he’s a sparrow – Richard himself holds tight to the conviction that he is in fact a stork. In this fast-paced adventure, Toby Genkel and Reza Memari tell the story of a bird who sets off self-confidently on a winter trip to Africa in a literal rite of passage that simultaneously serves as an empathetic tale about otherness and self-discovery. This German-international co-production provides spellbinding entertainment with its fantastic and fanciful fable showcasing top-shelf animation.
Tesoros
Mexico
By María Novaro
World premiere
Siblings Dylan and Andrea set off with their new friends on a marvellous journey of discovery in search of long lost pirate loot. In refreshingly sunny images, María Novaro gets up close to her characters to tell a story of children confidently indulging their lust for life and curiosity. In a commune on Mexico’s Pacific coast, they are given space to go their own ways and together find something much more valuable than buried treasure.
Shi Tou (Stonehead)
People’s Republic of China
By Xiang Zhao
World premiere
10-year-old Shi Tou, the son of a migrant labourer, grows up alone with his grandmother. It’s so hard to tell right from wrong! Sharing a reward with a classmate or waiting until his father returns, obeying his teacher of protecting his friend – which one should he choose? With documental authenticity, Xiang Zhao paints a portrait of life in rural China and a society in which an entire generation has too often been left to grow up in the absence of their parents.
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Nine New Films Added to Competition lineup of Berlin International Film Festival
Nine films have been added to the Competition lineup for the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival taking place February 11 to 21. The following films are to have their world or international premiere during the upcoming festival, and will compete for the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears.
Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)
Portugal
By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)
With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova
World premiere
Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)(pictured above)
Iran
By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)
With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol
International premiere
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary
Italy / France
By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro GRA, El Sicario – Room 164)
World premiere
Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery)
Philippines / Singapore
By Lav Diaz (From What Is Before, Norte, the End of History, Melancholia)
With John Lloyd Cruz, Piolo Pascual, Hazel Orencio, Alessandra De Rossi, Joel Saracho, Susan Africa, Sid Lucero, Ely Buendia, Bernardo Bernardo, Angel Aquino, Cherie Gil
World premiere
Kollektivet (The Commune)
Denmark / Sweden / Netherlands
By Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt, Submarino, It’s All About Love)
With Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Marta Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen, Lars Ranthe, Fares Fares, Magnus Millang, Anne Gry Henningsen, Julie Agnete Vang
International premiere
L’avenir (Things to Come)
France / Germany
By Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden, Goodbye First Love, Father of My Children)
With Isabelle Huppert, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, André Marcon
World premiere
Quand on a 17 ans (Being 17)
France
By André Téchiné (Les Témoins)
With Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein, Corentin Fila, Alexis Loret
World premiere
Smrt u Sarajevu / Mort à Sarajevo (Death in Sarajevo)
France / Bosnia and Herzegovina
By Danis Tanović (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, No Man’s Land)
With Jacques Weber, Snežana Vidović, Izudin Bajrović, Vedrana Seksan, Muhamed Hadžović, Faketa Salihbegović-Avdagić, Edin Avdagić
World premiere
Zjednoczone Stany Miłosci (United States of Love)
Poland / Sweden
By Tomasz Wasilewski (Floating Skyscrapers)
With Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Cielecka, Dorota Kolak, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Łukasz Simlat, Andrzej Chyra, Tomek Tyndyk
World premiere
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13 Films Selected for Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus at 2016 Berlinale
13 feature films produced or co-produced in 13 different countries (Australia, Chile, Germany, India, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China) have already been selected to participate in competition in Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus at the upcoming 2016 Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival.
The films selected thus far feature young individuals whose inner lives are in turmoil. The protagonists’ often fragile states of mind find heightened expression in anxious spaces, dream worlds, landscapes of desire and surreal apparitions.
Generation 14plus
Ani ve snu! (In Your Dreams!) – Czech Republic
By Petr Oukropec
Athletic, fast and fearless, 16-year-old Laura has little trouble conquering her hometown’s parkour routes and none at all keeping up with the boys in the process. However, she can only express her feelings for Luky, the parkour-king, in her vivid dreams. When he suddenly disappears, the line between dream and reality begins to blur.
World premiere
Born to Dance – New Zealand (pictured above)
By Tammy Davis
For the Maori teenager, Tu, it appears that hip-hop dance is the only hope for him to escape from a predestined career in the military. Tammy Davis (Ebony Society, Generation 2010) is back again with fat beats and spectacular moves, choreographed by hip-hop dance world champion Parris Goebel.
European premiere
Girl Asleep – Australia
By Rosemary Myers
It’s the 1970s and Greta should be celebrating at her 15th birthday party.Instead she descends into a bizarre and dangerous dream world full of strange creatures. Thus begins an absurd and both terrifying and beautiful trip, into the mind of a teenager. Featuring Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Imogen Archer (52 Tuesdays, Generation 2014).
International premiere
Las Plantas (Plants) – Chile
By Roberto Doveris
Moments awash in shimmering grey and the distorted sounds of a guitar: for Florencia night beckons and threatens at the same time. She reads aloud to her comatose brother, from a comic book about the evolving souls of plants. At the same time, she starts to explore her curiosity about sex with online acquaintances.
International premiere
Sairat (Wild) – India
By Nagraj Manjule
The love that binds clever Parshya and beautiful and self-confident Archie is as passionate as it is socially taboo. Breaking away from the narrow-mindedness and violence of convention is the only way out for the young couple. With powerful imagery and epic scope, Nagraj Manjule tells the story of an impossible love.
International premiere
Triapichniy Soyuz (Rag Union) – Russian Federation
By Mikhail Mestetskiy
Vania’s introspective teenage existence takes a radical turn when he joins up with an anarchistic group of young men that call themselves the “Rag Union”. They want to set the world on fire with art and violence. A debut film told with breakneck pacing and exuberant energy.
International premiere
What’s in the Darkness – People’s Republic of China
By Yichun Wang
Qu’s world is one full of riddles, contradictions and forensic science. Her parents don’t seem to like each other at all. Her friend disappears suddenly and then there’s a serial killer on the loose to top things off. Coming-of-age meets chilling thriller.
International premiere
Generation Kplus
ENTE GUT! Mädchen allein zu Haus (Fortune Favors the Brave) – Germany
By Norbert Lechner
Because her mother had to go back to Vietnam, eleven-year-old Linh now has to take care of her little sister and the take-away restaurant on her own. Nobody is supposed to know, but nothing gets past Pauline who lives in the same neighbourhood. Will the self-appointed “spy” blow the whistle on the two sisters?
World premiere
Genç Pehlivanlar (Young Wrestlers) – Turkey / Netherlands
By Mete Gümürhan
Living, learning, suffering for their passion: the 26 boys living at the sports academy in the Turkish province of Amasya will endure a lot to realise their wrestling dream. This documentary’s observational camera remains unobtrusive while still allowing us to experience an everyday life at close range – somewhere between camaraderie and competition.
World premiere
Rauf – Turkey
By Barış Kaya, Soner Caner
Rauf hopes to win over his big crush, the older Zana, with the help of the colour pink. But what does pink really look like anyways, and will he even be able to find it in his snowy little Kurdish village up in the mountains? Meanwhile, disturbing rumours sweep in from the outside world.
World premiere
Siv sover vilse (Siv Sleeps Astray) – Sweden / Netherlands
By Catti Edfeldt, Lena Hanno Clyne
Little Siv (Astrid Lövgren) is supposed to sleep over at Cerisia’s (Lilly Brown) place, but the later it gets the stranger things start to appear in her new friend’s odd home. An original adaptation of Pija Lindenbaum’s children’s book.
World premiere
Ted Sieger’s Molly Monster – Der Kinofilm (Ted Sieger’s Molly Monster) – Germany / Switzerland / Sweden
By Ted Sieger, Matthias Bruhn, Michael Ekbladh
There’s quite a stir in Monsterland: the little monster Molly is going to get a brother or sister. But before the new baby finally hatches, Molly and her best friend Edison have to make it through a number of adventures. Colourful animation fun for the youngest festivalgoers, adapted for the big screen from the popular TV series “Ted Sieger’s Molly Monster”.
World premiere
Zud – Germany / Poland
By Marta Minorowicz
In the barren steppes of Mongolia, eleven-year-old Sukhbat is training hard for a win at the horse races and hoping thus to gain his father’s recognition. With its panoramic landscape shots and observational documental style, this feature film tells the story of a nomadic childhood.
World premiere
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First Films Revealed for Panorama Section of 2016 Berlin Film Festival
The 2016 Berlin Film Festival revealed the first wave of titles that will screen in the Panorama section. By mid January some 32 fiction films and 18 documentaries will have been selected for the Panorama 2016.
Films include Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan (pictured above) starring Julianne Moore, and Ethan Hawke. In Maggie’s Plan, everything revolves around possible relationships, and the compulsions and constraints of pregnancy, as well as a threesome – or maybe not. The fresh ideas the actors bring to their characters make for great fun.
In Nakom by Kelly Daniela Norris and TW Pittman, first fiction film from Ghana at the Berlinale, life is just starting for a young medical student, far away from his village in Ghana’s capital, Accra. But suddenly his father dies and, as the oldest son, he is ordered home. There he has his hands full, trying to deal with the wishes of his relatives and getting the farm back on track. A portrait of customs and traditions in rural Ghana, but also of a departure from the limitations that every village community in the world imposes on its children.
Dokumente films make up about a third of the Panorama program. So far the festival has selected two:
Laura Israel’s Don’t Blink – Robert Frank is an exceptionally lively and organic portrait of this photographer and filmmaker as well as a kaleidoscope of Jewish life in New York. When navigating his later years, Frank is at times grumpy and dissatisfied, at others affable and ironic. William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Ed Lachman, with music by Lou Reed, Patti Smith, the band Bauhaus – Frank’s life and work reveals a cornucopia of inspiration.
From Romania comes Hotel Dallas by Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang: the film investigates the formative influence of a TV series on a society in upheaval. With underlying humour, fun and fantasy, Livia Ungur takes us and Patrick Duffy, the star of TV series Dallas, on a tour through her Romania – a country that still has not stopped dreaming of better days.
Additionally, the only official LGBTIQ (in short, queer) film prize at an A-festival in the world is celebrating its 30th anniversary: the Teddy Award. This year’s anniversary program will present a total of 16 films. The Panorama will be presenting a special screening, the world premiere of the restoration of Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, Germany 1919). This film by Richard Oswald was the first gay film in cinematic history. Its restoration has been carried out by the Outfest Legacy Project / UCLA Film & Television Archive in Los Angeles and underscores the need to archive films on 35mm, at present the only reliable storage medium.
Panorama 2016
Já, Olga Hepnarová (I, Olga Hepnarová) – Czech Republic / Poland / Slowak Republic / France
By Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda
With Michalina Olszanska, Marta Mazurek, Ondrej Malý
World premiere
Junction 48 – Israel / Germany / USA
By Udi Aloni
With Tamer Nafar, Samar Qupty, Salwa Nakkara, Sameh Zakout, Ayed Fadel
World premiere
Les Premiers, les Derniers (The First, the Last) – France / Belgium
By Bouli Lanners
With Albert Dupontel, Bouli Lanners, Suzanne Clément, Michael Lonsdale, David Murgia
International premiere
Maggie’s Plan – USA
By Rebecca Miller
With Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph
European premiere
Nakom – Ghana / USA
By Kelly Daniela Norris, TW Pittman
With Jacob Ayanaba, Grace Ayariga, Abdul Aziz, Justina Kulidu, Shetu Musah, Esther Issaka, Thomas Kulidu, James Azudago, Felicia Awinbe, Sumaila Ndaago
World premiere
Remainder – United Kingdom / Germany
By Omer Fast
With Tom Sturridge, Cush Jumbo, Ed Speleers, Arsher Ali, Shaun Prendergast
International premiere
S one strane (On the Other Side) – Croatia / Serbia
By Zrinko Ogresta
With Ksenija Marinković, Lazar Ristovski
World premiere
Starve Your Dog – Morocco
By Hicham Lasri
With Jirari Ben Aissa, Latifa Ahrrare, Fehd Benchemsi
European premiere
Sufat Chol (Sand Storm) – Israel
By Elite Zexer
With Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Haitham Omari, Khadija Alakel, Jalal Masarwa
European premiere – debut feature film
Théo et Hugo dans le même bateau (Paris 05:59) – France
By Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau
With Geoffrey Couët, François Nambot
World premiere
The Ones Below – United Kingdom
By David Farr
With Clémence Poésy, David Morrissey, Stephen Campbell Moore, Laura Birn
European premiere – debut feature film
War on Everyone – United Kingdom
By John Michael McDonagh
With Michael Peña, Alexander Skarsgård, Theo James
World premiere
Panorama Dokumente
Don’t Blink – Robert Frank – USA / France
By Laura Israel
International premiere
Hotel Dallas – Romania / USA
By Livia Ungur, Sherng-Lee Huang
With Patrick Duffy
World premiere – debut feature film
The complete Teddy30 program with short synopses of the films
1 Berlin Harlem – Germany (Federal Republic), 1974
By Lothar Lambert, Wolfram Zobus
Legendary film from super-indy filmmaker Lambert, one time most-featured Berlinale director, about the forms of racism in Berlin’s vibrant lifestyle at the time of the film’s making. Brimming with cameos galore: alongside leading actor Conrad Jennings the likes of Ortrud Beginnen, Tally Brown, Ingrid Caven, Peter Chatel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Günter Kaufmann, Dietmar Kracht, Evelyn Künneke, Lothar Lambert, Y Sa Lo, Bernd Lubowski, Brigitte Mira, Vera Müller can all be seen.
Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) – Germany, 1919
By Richard Oswald
A significant world premiere: realised by the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project/UCLA Film & Television Archive, the newly-restored version of this cultural document of immeasurable value is screened for the first time – in a 35mm print, still the only reliable archive medium.
Before Stonewall – USA, 1984
By Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg
Info-Schau (former title of Panorama) 1985
The legendary film from Greta Schiller reveals a lot which is missing from Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall – but nevertheless agrees with him in quite a few details. The world “before Stonewall”, the beginning of the post-war gay rights movement: the German portrait of this dark Adenauer era in which homosexuals were transferred directly from concentration camps to West German correctional facilities and have not been rehabilitated is yet to come.
Greta Schiller later gained renown with Paris Was A Woman which she screened together with her partner and screenwriter Andrea Weiß in the 1996 Panorama.
Die Betörung der Blauen Matrosen (The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors) – Germany (Federal Republic), 1975
By Ulrike Ottinger
Ulrike Ottinger won the Special Teddy Award in 2014 for her incomparable lifetime achievement, of which this enchanting queer film is an early example even before her groundbreaking films Madame X and Bildnis einer Trinkerin (Ticket of No Return).
Die Wiese der Sachen (The Meadow of Things) – Germany (Federal Republic), 1974-1987
By Heinz Emigholz
Panorama / Teddy Award winner 1988
At a time when New German Cinema still appeared to be elusive, this artist and architect amongst West German filmmakers inspired with strikingly visual collages, associative streams and intellectual juxtapositions. An important work from an important German filmmaker.
Gendernauts – Eine Reise durch die Geschlechter (Gendernauts – A Journey Through Shifting Identities) – Germany, 1999
By Monika Treut
Panorama / Teddy Award winner 1999
One of the early researchers into the walled-in, gender-dualistic world of female and male, Monika Treut is at once a pioneer and veteran of Queer Cinema – an icon of the emancipation movement. She has screened numerous works in Panorama.
I Shot Andy Warhol – USA, 1996
By Mary Harron
The attempted assassination of Andy Warhol from the perspective of Factory member, artist, writer and publisher of the S.C.U.M. Manifesto Valerie Solanas. Mary Harron’s debut film was produced by Christine Vachon who, with her Killer Films production company, has produced many works screened at the Berlinale and Teddy Award winners including all of Todd Haynes’ films.
Je, tu, il, elle (I, You, He, She) – France / Belgium, 1974
By Chantal Akerman
In her boundary-breaking feature debut Chantal Akermann herself plays a young woman who seeks to address her experience of isolation through the study of other individuals. In tribute to Chantal Akerman, Panorama is screening two of her films: alongside Je, tu, il, elle, her Panorama film from 1983, Toute une nuit (A Whole Night).
Looking for Langston – United Kingdom, 1989
By Isaac Julien
Panorama / Teddy Award winner 1989
Now a star of the video art world, Isaac Julien has always first and foremost been a poetical activist, aesthete and cultural historian in the service of emancipation. This montage of archive material, dramatised scenes and literary texts creates an image of black gay identity exemplified by the life and work of Langston Hughes during the “Harlem Renaissance” in 1930s and 1940s New York City.
Machboim (Hide and Seek) – Israel, 1979
By Dan Wolman
Info-Schau (former title of Panorama) 1980
Today it is exactly the same as 36 years ago: love between Arabs and Jews is punished, hate and murder are accepted as normality. Dan Wolman casts a brave early look at this never-to-be-accepted situation.
Marble Ass – Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1995
By Želimir Žilnik
Panorama / Teddy Award winner 1995
Žilnik counters the homophobia and transphobia of Balkan societies which came to light years after the fall of the Berlin Wall with an early and anarchistic stand in what is still, to this day, one of the most extraordinary films to emerge from the entire region
Nitrate Kisses – USA, 1992
By Barbara Hammer
Forum 1993
A never seen in this way before, sensitively creative conquest of the female sexual realm, radically beyond the prescriptions of mainstream culture. Barbara Hammer has screened many of her works at the Berlinale.
The Watermelon Woman – USA, 1996
By Cheryl Dunye
Panorama / Teddy Award winner 1996
Racist tendencies might appear to have been expunged from emancipation and gender discourse – but this is far from being the case. The racism inherent in mainstream culture is not necessarily recognised as such by alternative thinkers. Dunye takes a stance with a reflection on a representative figure of this complex issue.
Tongues Untied – USA, 1989
By Marlon Riggs
Panorama / Teddy Award winner 1990
An early work of queer black emancipation from the then beacon of hope in the Afro-American gay rights movement – another artist and intellectual who died far too young from AIDS.
Toute une nuit (A Whole Night) – France / Belgium, 1982
By Chantal Akerman
Info-Schau (former title of Panorama) 1983
The director at the forefront of the post-war gender debate was already present in only the third year of the Info-Schau with this film. Virtuoso atmospheres between people and things, between spirit and world and time and space distinguish the work of this passionate artist who took her own life in October 2015. Panorama is screening two films in tribute to Chantal Akerman: alongside Toute une nuit, her debut from 1974, the radical Je, tu, il, elle (I, You, He, She).
Tras el cristal (In a Glass Cage) – Spain, 1987
By Agustí Vilaronga
A scandalous film at the time of making: an old Nazi and his young carer in Spain. A truly dark work about dark subject matters, the concealment and unrepentant nature of the post-fascist Spanish world when it had not yet begun to grapple analytically and politically with those grim times. In 2000 Vilaronga won the Manfred Salzgeber Prize with El Mar.