The administration of the Berlin Film Festival announced – today, Wednesday – in the 74th session, which will be held from February 15 to 25 next, the complete line-ups for the shows of the Panorama, Forum and Generation sections. The Panorama shows include 31 works, including one series and 25 films shown for the first time globally. .

The head of the Panorama Department, Michael Stones, points out – in a press release on the festival’s official website – that the films that were selected for display in the section reflect the current era of global crises, wars and social divisions, and he adds, “The selected group expresses its positions in different ways, and builds bridges between life experiences and possibilities.” Cinema that inspires us to look to the future.

Panorama films

Among the panorama films is “Crossing” by Swedish-Georgian director Levan Akin, which is his first feature film since the start of the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, and opens the panorama screenings with it. The events of “Crossing” revolve around a retired teacher whose search for her niece, who has been missing for a while, takes her. Long to Istanbul, where her life changes.

As for the film “My New Friends” (Les gens d'à côté) by Frenchman Andre Téchenet, in which Isabelle Huppert plays the main role, its director imagines how neighbors with opposing world views risk taking important steps towards reconciliation.

The film “Diaries from Lebanon” participates in the panorama, as director Maryam Al-Hajj follows three generations in their quest to rewrite the national narrative of Lebanon. It is a picture of a country suffering from political crises whose culprits are known to the people.

Central Africa is represented by two documentaries. They are In Africa by director David Pierre Vila, which embarks on a meditative philosophical journey through the Central African Republic. And the film “Rising in the Night” by Nelson Makingo, which tracks parts of Kinshasa suffering from power outages for several months after the floods. The film reveals its narrative through spoken word, oral history and song.

forum

Barbara Warm, the forum’s coordinator, points out the selection criteria used for the forum’s films, saying, “It was wonderful to see the number of films that attempted to address the major crises of the present time, such as poverty, inequality, war, post-war trauma, neoliberalism, or new authoritarianism, by focusing on “Time for enlightenment, reflection and empathy.”

The 54th edition of the Forum section presents 30 films, and American independent cinema stands out among them through Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Baker with her famous first film, “Janet Planet,” a story about the nature of the relationship between a mother and her daughter. From South Korea, the movie “Exhuma” is shown, which revolves around a wealthy family living in Los Angeles who summons a “shamanic tana’i” after suffering from a series of supernatural events, to save the family’s newborn.

The Forum section also presents the debut film by German-Iranian cinematographer Faraz Vicharaki, “What Did You Dream Last Night?” (What Did You Dream Last Night), which is the experience of a family in the diaspora.

The collection also includes the film “The Visitor” by Canadian director Bruce LaBruce, which was filmed in London, and is inspired by the film “Teorama” by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, in which a stranger descends on a bourgeois family, and offends everyone. Of family members, changing their lives forever.

Generation section

The Generation 14plus section displays 32 films, including 7 films showing for the first time and 22 showing world premieres. The Generation 14plus competition begins with the world premiere of “Last Swim,” the first feature film by director Sasha Natwani, who resides in the Kingdom. United, which follows the days and nights in the life of a young British-Iranian woman, as she awaits the results of her major exams, while grappling with the challenges she faces.

In a statement – within an official statement – on the festival’s website, the head of the program, Sebastian Markt, said: “In light of the conditions that we find around the world today, which appear disastrous from the point of view of young people, and adults, as well, the question of what cinema can be as an art and a social space emerges.” Frequently”.

Regarding the goal of the program, Markt said, “This program is our attempt to formulate an answer: films reveal the cracks in our world and make them perceptible. They create forms that make things visible and expressive, and they invent images that can become the material through which some of these cracks can be repaired.” .