BERLIN- World-spanning young cinema

World-spanning young cinema: The programme of the 38th Forum comprises films from 33 countries, including 32 world and international premieres

The 38th Forum of the Berlinale is showing a truly world-spanning and diverse programme with films from 33 countries and all continents. One emphasis again this year is the experimental, unconventional, imaginative work of young filmmakers; the programme presents a total of 16 directorial debuts. A conspicuous number of films adopt the perspective of children and young people – in a world where often there is no more childhood.

The Mexican film La frontera infinita (The Infinite Border) by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda tells of the uninterrupted stream of migrants from Central America to the United States; in the Irish production Seaview by Paul Rowley and Nicky Gogan, migrants have reached their goal, Europe, but find themselves captured in a no-man’s land, the former vacation facility Mosney, north of Dublin, where they often wait years for their asylum hearings. But childhood cannot be postponed to a vague future, and so these films’ most poignant moments are images of children.

The Australian film Son of a Lion by Benjamin Gilmour is set in Pakistan and focuses on a boy who wants to escape a world characterized by armed violence and archaic traditions. An interesting companion piece to this film is the German directing debut of Brigitte Bertele, Nacht vor Augen (Night Before Eyes), in which a German soldier returning from Afghanistan takes out his combat trauma on his little brother.

The central characters of the programme’s three Philippine films are children and young people. The elegant parable of the metropolis, Tirador (Slingshot) by Brillante Ma. Mendoza, and the deceptive rural idyll of Mes De Guzman’s Balikbayan Box both focus on daily survival by one’s wits, in which the young often have the advantage over the old. By contrast, in Jim Libiran’s directing debut Tribu (Tribe) a gripping feature film about gangs in Tondo, a poor quarter in Manila, the gang culture is a self-organized substitute for family, far more authoritarian than the crumbling traditional family structures.

In the Ugandan hip-hop film Divizionz by the filmmaking collective Yes! That’s Us, the protagonists also play themselves. In the slums of Kampala, they live from deals and fortunate coincidences, favors and extortion. Even the seemingly innocent dream of success as a musician has long since been corrupted by the hard conditions of thestruggle for survival.

The French debut Regarde-moi (Ain’t Scared) of Audrey Estrougo shows how even the youth subculture in the suburbs of Paris is imprisoned in conventions. The film tells the same story of 24 hours in a city twice in succession, first from a male and then from a female perspective, thereby evoking an atmosphere of social constriction that leaves no room for the individual. In his 27th film, Le premier venu (Just Anybody), French film auteur Jacques Doillon follows his young protagonist in provincial northwestern France. In her love affair with the first man to come along, she seeks an intensity that her bourgeois home denies her.

Japan is also strongly represented in this year’s programme. Kumasaka Izuru’s directorial debut, Asyl – Park and Love Hotel, discovers a peculiar big city oasis on the roof of a by-the-hour hotel in Tokyo. The directors Hirosue Hiromasa and Takahashi Izumi have a close creative tie; their respective films Higurashi and Musunde-hiraite (What the Heart Craves) are sensitively and subtly devoted to dysfunctional love and family relationships.

On the occasion of the international premiere of his impressive three-hour feature film on the Japanese terrorist group United Red Army, a tribute is paid to maverick director Wakamatsu Koji by three “pinku eiga”. Along with Secrets Behind the Wall, with which the director caused quite a stir in the 1965 Berlinale Competition, the Forum is also showing the classics Go, Go Second Time Virgin (1969) and Ecstasy of the Angels (1972).

The 38th Forum of the Berlinale is showing 36 films in its main programme, joined by the three-film “Tribute to Wakamatsu Koji”. In addition, the section is showing several Special Screenings to be announced soon.

Films in the main programme of the Forum 2008

Asyl - Park and Love Hotel (Asyl) by Kumasaka Izuru, Japan
Balikbayan Box by Mes De Guzman, Philippines/Netherlands/Switzerland (IP)
Be Like Others by Tanaz Eshaghian, USA/Canada/Iran (IP)
El Camino (The Path) by Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez, Costa Rica/France (WP)
Corridor #8 by Boris Despodov, Bulgaria (WP)
Corroboree by Ben Hackworth, Australia
Diorthosi (Correction) by Thanos Anastopoulos, Greece (IP)
Divizionz by Yes! That’s Us, Uganda/South Africa
Flipping out by Yoav Shamir, Israel/Canada (IP)
La frontera infinita (The Infinite Border) by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda, Mexico (IP)
God Man Dog by Singing Chen, Taiwan
Grandmother’s Flower by Mun Jeong-hyun, Republic of Korea (IP)
Green Porno by Isabella Rossellini, Jody Shapiro, USA (IP)
Higurashi by Hirosue Hiromasa, Japan
Invisible City by Tan Pin Pin, Singapore
Leo by Josef Fares, Sweden (IP)
Loos ornamental by Heinz Emigholz, Austria/Germany (WP)
Mafrouza/Coeur (Mafrouza/Heart) by Emmanuelle Demoris, France/Egypt (IP)
Musunde-hiraite (What the Heart Craves) by Takahashi Izumi, Japan (IP)
My Winnipeg by Guy Maddin, Canada (IP)
Nacht vor Augen (Night Before Eyes) by Brigitte Bertele, Germany (WP)
Nirvana by Igor Voloshin, Russian Federation (WP)
Paruthiveeran by Ameer Sulthan, India (IP)
Le premier venu (Just Anybody) by Jacques Doillon, France/Belgium (WP)
Regarde-moi (Ain’t Scared) by Audrey Estrougo, France (IP)
Seaview by Paul Rowley, Nicky Gogan, Ireland (IP)
Shahida – Brides of Allah (Brides of Allah) by Natalie Assouline, Israel (WP)
Son of a Lion by Benjamin Gilmour, Australia/Pakistan
South Main by Kelly Parker, USA (WP)
Sweet Food City by Gao Wendong, People’s Republic of China (WP)
Tatil Kitabi (Summer Book) by Seyfi Teoman, Turkey (WP)
La terramadre (Motherland) by Nello La Marca, Italy (WP)
Tirador (Slingshot) by Brillante Ma. Mendoza, Philippines
Tribu by Jim Libiran, PhilippinesUnited
Red Army by Wakamatsu Koji, Japan (IP)
Victoire Terminus, Kinshasa by Florent de la Tullaye, Renaud Barret, France/Democratic Republic of the Congo (WP)
Yasukuni by Li Ying, Japan/People’s Republic of China

Tribute to Wakamatsu Koji: Ecstasy of the Angels, Japan 1972; Go, Go Second Time Virgin, Japan 1969; Secrets Behind the Wall, Japan 1965