Gregor (Sebastian Zimmler) in Hüter meines Bruders von/by Maximilian Leo © Matteo Cocco

With 14 films, including nine full-length fictional features, and five medium-long fictional and documentary films (20 to 60 minutes), the selection for the Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2014 has been completed. (See also the first press release from Dec. 18, 2013.) The programme will open with the fictional feature Hüter meines Bruders made, with the support of Sixpack, a project to promote talented new filmmakers, by director Maximilian Leo. After completing the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) in 2009, and participating in the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2011 and 2012, he will now kick off Perspektive with his cinema debut.

“We are always delighted when first steps in the film world - which were taken in conjunction with projects and initiatives of the Berlinale - bear fruit. Though even better is when they result in exciting films that have their premieres in our programme,” section head Linda Söffker says about working with up-and-coming film talents.

Remarkable about this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme is that many young filmmakers found their stories abroad: Two documentary films in the programme were shot in Kyrgyzstan; the short film Bosteri unterm Rad is by Levin Hübner from the internationale filmschule köln (ifs). It tells of a village and its inhabitants in the Kyrgyz steppe, situated on the northern shore of Issyk Kul, the second largest mountain lake in the world. Almost directly opposite, on the other side of the lake, lies the Kyrgyz village of Barskoon. For years environmentalists have been fighting here for compensation for the many victims of a cyanide spill caused by Kumtor, a Canadian-operated gold mine. In her self-produced cinema debut, Flowers of Freedom, director Mirjam Lenze accompanies these courageous women activists in their difficult battle against the gold mine.

Two fictional film-academy works, El carro azul (KHM) and Anderswo (HFF Potsdam Babelsberg/dirk manthey film), also went out into the world. In her 20-minute fictional film El carro azul, director Valerie Heine goes to Cuba to tell the moving story of a reunion between two brothers. Whereas, in her fictional feature Anderswo, director Ester Amrami travels with her protagonist Noa (Neta Riskin) from Berlin to Israel, her homeland. Here she experiences how a person can at times feel just as misunderstood in their old home as in their new one.

From the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg comes the 60-minute documentary nebel. In her film, director Nicole Vögele tracks fog and solitude, while relying on the wind, animals, the sky and atmospheres. Another film, which can neither be called a conventional fictional film nor a conventional documentary, has been made by Philip Widmann and his co-director Karsten Krause. Szenario chronicles a love affair from 1970, in a city that may well be an allegory for post-war West Germany.

A second Midnight Movie (as previously announced, the first is Der Samurai) completes the Perspektive programme. Tape_13, a horror film, is the directorial debut of Axel Stein, who is best known to date for his work as an actor. With the successful production company Rat Pack (Christian Becker, Benjamin Munz) behind him, he has made a brilliant homage to The Blair Witch Project.

This year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino film list:

Amma & Appa by Franziska Schönenberger (documentary)

Anderswo (Anywhere Else) by Ester Amrami

Bosteri unterm Rad (Bosteri Beneath the Wheel) by Levin Hübner (documentary)

El carro azul (The Blue Car) by Valerie Heine

Flowers of Freedom by Mirjam Leuze (documentary)

Hüter meines Bruders (My Brother’s Keeper) by Maximilian Leo

Lamento by Jöns Jönsson

nebel (fog) by Nicole Vögele (documentary)

Raumfahrer (Spacemen) by Georg Nonnenmacher (documentary)

Der Samurai by Till Kleinert

Szenario (Scenario) by Philip Widmann and Karsten Krause

Tape_13 by Axel Stein

Die Unschuldigen (The Innocents) by Oskar Sulowski

Zeit der Kannibalen (Age of Cannibals) by Johannes Naber