The film programme of the 2nd Berlin Critics’ Week is completed. As an additional world premiere we present the new production of directors Marita Neher und Tatjana Turanskyj. The latest works of Andrzej Żuławski, Pablo Agüero and Isiah Medina complement the previously announced films. Denis Côté, Zahra Vargas and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are included with short films. The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb) supports us as a new partner.

The additional films

Disorientation Isn’t a Crime by Marita Neher and Tatjana Turanskyj sees two women, a journalist and an activist, slowly lose the coherence of their world views. After a chance encounter their perspectives on the refugee crisis, on politics, work, and capitalism collide in a road movie. What emerges is a trip through rural Greece, in pursuit of invisible borders and an attitude towards our present times. Polish director Andrzej Żuławski returns with first film in 15 years, Cosmos. The director of feverishly disturbing works like Possession has created a fast-paced comedy in the spirit of French vaudeville that simultaneously unfolds as a metaphysical film noir. A family run guest house in the French countryside becomes the setting of an absurd detective story. In an increasingly grotesque plot turning on the characters’ longings and playfulness, mutual provocation is a constant drive. The film features remarkable performances by Sabine Azéma, Jean-François Balmer and Jonathan Gene. The embalmed body of Eva Perón and its disappearance for a time during Argentina’s military dictatorship is negotiated in its potential as a national symbol in Pablo Agüero’s Eva Doesn’t Sleep. Through an unconventional arrangement of archival footage and scripted, intimate long takes the director questions historiography, the aura of power and its implications in terms of the female body. The performances of Denis Lavant as a military driver and Gael García Bernal as the overarching figure of an admiral guarantee the film’s’ constant intensity and thrill. In his feature film debut 88:88 the Canadian experimental filmmaker Isiah Medina sets in motion a diary-like stream of images dealing with love, poetry and poverty. The montage of found footage, documentary material and fictional scenes radically questions the status of the image as well as our social, political and aesthetic preconceptions.

Short film programme

With May We Sleep Soundly Canadian director Denis Côté presents his first short film in years. Captivating as well as sinister, we follow its subjective, ambiguous view as it trespasses on the interiors of houses to prove once again the suggestive power of images. The silent parable Vapour is Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s recent take on a disturbing political situation that resists definition. The film is set in the village of Toongha, Northern Thailand, where the director lives and where a strange fog passes through, clouding the land. La fin d’Homère by Zahra Vargas explores hunting as a lurking, mechanical allegory of magical surrealism. Victims become sculptures and a story unfolds in which a hunter’s fate is sealed by a mammoth bird – almost a fairytale creature. The provincial embodies a universe.

New Partner of the Berlin Critics’ Week: The Federal Agency for Civic Education

The BERLIN CRITICS’ WEEK is an initiative of the German Film Critics Association (Verband der deutschen Filmkritik e.V.) in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Heinrich-Böll-Stifung e.V.), supported by The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb). Through their commitment, the partners of the event support the concept of linking aesthetic questions with film policy and socio-political matters.

Programme

88:88 Canada 2015 Dir: Isiah Medina German Premiere Blue Dress Ukraine/France 2016 Dir: Igor Minaev World Premiere Coma Syria, Lebanon 2015 Dir: Sara Fattahi German Premiere Cosmos France, Portugal 2015 Dir: Andrzej Żuławski German Premiere Despite The Night (Malgré la nuit) France, Canada 2015 Dir: Philippe Grandrieux German Premiere Disorientation Isn’t a Crime (Orientierungslosigkeit ist kein Verbrechen) Germany 2016 Dir: Marita Neher, Tatjana Turanskyj World Premiere Eva Doesn’t Sleep (Eva no duerme) Argentina 2015 Dir: Pablo Agüero German Premiere Sixty Six USA 2015 Dir: Lewis Klahr German Premiere

Short films

Homer, a Hunter’s Fate (La fin d’Homère) Switzerland 2015 Dir: Zahra Vargas German Premiere May We Sleep Soundly (Que nous nous assoupissions) Canada 2015 Dir: Denis Côté German Premiere Vapour (Mok mae rim) Thailand, Korea, China 2015 Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul German Premiere All films will be presented as German premieres. Blue Dress andDisorientation Isn’t a Crime will celebrate their world premieres at the Berlin Critics’ Week. The BERLIN CRITICS’ WEEK will take place from February 11th to February 18th at the Hackesche Höfe Kino in the centre of Berlin. On the occasion of the Berlin International Film Festival the Berlin Critics’ Week presents international films, a selection based on the principle of discussing the most stimulating works. Each night, international critics and filmmakers will discuss politics and aesthetics, preferences and rejection, new forms of distribution and perception. How do we watch films? Which films are we longing for? What constitutes cinema? Film criticism enters the field. The BERLIN CRITICS’ WEEK is an initiative of the German Film Critics Association (Verband der deutschen Filmkritik e.V.) in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Heinrich-Böll-Stifung e.V.), supported by The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb).

Critics’ Week

First Films in Programme