65th Berlinale films In Competition, III
Pablo Larraín, Radu Jude and Patricio Guzmán will compete for the the 65th Berlinale Golden Bear while Wim Wenders is Out of Competition.
The competition of the 65th Berlinale is now complete. In total 23 film will participate and 19 of them will be vying for the Golden and Silver Bears. The last press announcement includes films by Pablo Larraín, Radu Jude, Patricio Guzmán and the latest film by Wim Wenders which will be screened out of competition. If you want to find out the previously announced films you can check In Competition I and In Competition II.
Pablo Larraín is coming with a new film since his big success No (2012). According to Variety, El Club (The Club) turns on four men who live together in a secluded house in a small, seaside town. Each of them has been sent to this place to purge sins from the past. They live according to a strict regime under the watchful eye of a female caretaker, when the fragile stability of their routine is disrupted by the arrival of a fifth man, a newly disgraced companion, bringing with him the past they thought they had left behind. Lending “The Club” immediate social point, the five men are priests. The lead actors are Roberto Farias, Antonia Zegers, Alfredo Castro, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Jaime Vadell and Marcelo Alonso.
Five years after his last work, Patricio Guzmán returns with a new documentary entitled El Botón de Nácar (The Pearl Button). This is the second part of the trilogy that started with Nostalgia de la Luz (Nostalgia for the Light, 2010). The Chilean auteur is dealing with the disappearance, through extermination, of six ethnicities in Southern Chile since the 19th century.
Aferim! is the third feature film by Romanian helmer Radu Jude (Toată lumea din familia noastră / Everybody in Our Family, 2012). According to the official reports the film is set in the 19th century, while Gypsy slaver was a common practice in Romania. It is a period adventure where a policeman is hired to find a Gypsy slave who escaped from his master’s house after having an affair with his wife. The protagonists are Teodor Corban, Mihai Comanoiu, Cuzin Toma and Alexandru Dabija.
German director Oliver Hirschbiegel who became widely known for Hitler’s last days’ biopic Der Untergang (Downfall , 2004) returns to the same topic with his new biopic drama Elser (13 Minutes). This time the hero is Georg Elser, a resistance fighter who attempted to murder Hitler in 1939. The protagonists are Christian Friedel, Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner, Johann von Bülow and Felix Eitner.
Berlinale is preparing an important retrospective to the New German Cinema legend Wim Wenders and his new film will be Out of Competition. Every Thing Will Be Fine is a 3D drama where Tomas (James Franco), a writer who causes an accident while driving and spends the next 12 years examining the effect of the tragedy on his life and that of Kate (Rachel McAdams), who lost someone close. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marie-Josée Croze and Robert Naylor hold the supporting roles.
Vergine giurata (Sworn Virgin) is the debut feature film of Laura Bispuri and it is an adaptation of the same-titled book written by Elvira Dones. It is the story of Hana Doda who escapes from her destiny of being a wife and servant which is imposed on the women in the inhospitable mountains in Albania and appeals to the old law of the Kanun, swearing eternal virginity and therefore becoming a ‘sworn virgin’. She turns into a man, takes up a rifle and becomes Mark Doda. The protagonists of the are Alba Rohrwacher, Lars Eidinger, Flonja Kodheli, Luan Jaha and Emily Ferratello
Ten no chasuke (Chasuke’s Journey) by the Japanese director Sabu (Kanikosen, Dead Run) is a fantasy love story that drifts between this world and heaven. Chasuke (Ken’ichi Matsuyama) is in charge of making tea in heaven. He has feelings for a human woman named Yuri (Ito Ohno) whom he has seen from a writer who is scripting her life from heaven. He knows that Yuri is condemned to die in a car accident. To save the woman, Chasuke goes down to this world. The leading roles hold Ren Ohsugi, Yusuke Iseya, Hiromasa Taguchi, Tina Tamashiro and Susumu Terajima.
The 65th Berlin Film Festival starts in February 5th 2015.
