For the first time in 2022, the programme will therefore feature in addition to six female directors and a male director, Perspektive talents from the fields of documentary filmmaking, camera, editing, production and production design. “It is important to me that we view film as a total work of art and that we pay more attention to the individual disciplines in this collective work. This concern accompanies my last edition before I have new tasks waiting for me as a scientific advisor at the DEFA Foundation”, says section head Linda Söffker.

"Linda Söffker has enriched Perspektive over the past twelve years with her great expertise and determination and has developed the section further. During this time she was the main figure for German filmmakers and used every chance possible to strengthen German filmmaking. We thank her for her continuous commitment, her dedication to German cinema and wish her every success in her future projects“, comments the Berlinale director duo Mariette Rissenbeek und Carlo Chatrian on the long-serving section head.

A popular German saying goes: “The way you shout into the forest, is the way it comes back.” (it means: “what goes around comes around”). This reverberation is generated by the past, and it occurs as a self-reproducing repetition - as an echo. In the shape of the nymph Echo, this phenomenon is the title of Mareike Wegener's first feature film (Echo, P: PETROLIO FILM; Perspektive Talent Camera: Sabine Panossian). Here the policewoman Saskia Harder (Valery Tscheplanowa) is supposed to determine the identity of a bog corpse lying in the forest, while at the same time a blind bomb from the Second World War is found in the village. The debut film by Saralisa Volm Schweigend steht der Wald (The Silent Forest) (P: POISON + if… Productions; Perspektive Talent Editing: Daniel Kundrat) is about a secret that is hidden underground in the forest, also an echo of the past. The forestry trainee Anja (Henriette Confurius) comes across irregularities in the forest floor during her explorations and suspects evidence of guilt and repression. The forest has always held a high symbolic and mystical power. In almost all of the films in the programme, and in the symbolism in general, the forest motif is a projection surface between two poles: loneliness and freedom, fear and security, violence and love. In Gewalten (Forces) (P: Kinescope Film; Perspektive Talent Camera: Rafael Starman), the second long feature film by Constantin Hatz, the forest is a place of longing for 14-year-old Daniel (Malte Oskar Frank). At the same time, however, it is also a symbol of suffering and pain. The tall trees, the green, soft moss and the silence of the forest give Daniel consolation and envelop him in his feeling of being lost. In the opening film in Perspektive Wir könnten genauso gut tot sein (We Might As Well Be Dead) (P: HEARTWAKE films; Perspektive Talent Production Design: Elisabeth Kozerski), Natalia Sinelnikova's graduation film at the Babelsberg Film University, a shielded high-rise building with a feel-good effect is supposed to be a place of security beyond the border to the dangerous forest. Yet, when the caretaker's dog disappears, an irrational fear spreads among the residents, which the security officer Anna (Ioana Iakob) tries to get under control within reason. A fifth, shorter, feature film (29 min) from the DFFB has been invited, and it deals with the echo of the past as a cinematographic poem. Rondo (D: Katharina Rivilis) raises the question of whether a new love can emerge from the emotional heap of rubble left behind by the end of a great love.

The two documentaries Sorry Genosse (Sorry Comrade) and Ladies Only make up the programme. Sorry Genosse (Sorry Comrade) by Vera Brückner (P: NORDPOLARIS; Perspektive Talent Production: Fabian Halbig) introduces us to the incredible love story of the Thuringian medical student Hedi and the West German left-wing activist Karl Heinz. This playfully depicted story of a ludicrous escape opens up an unusual view of the German-German past. In the documentary Ladies Only by Rebana Liz John (P: KHM; Perspektive Talent documentary filmmaking: Rebana Liz John), we become acquainted with women in the women's compartments of local trains in Mumbai who give us an insight into their perspectives, hopes and anger and create a colourful picture of the faces, languages and cultures of Indian society shining in a stylish black and white film.

All seven films invited are competing for the Kompass-Perspektive-award (jury: editor and director Carlotta Kittel, screenwriter and director Henning Beckhoff, actorand producer Sara Fazilat) and the Heiner Carow Prize of the DEFA Foundation (jury: filmmaker Sandra Kaudelka, actress Ute Lubosch and Alexander Iskrov from the DEFA Foundation), each endowed with 5,000 Euros.

Programme:

Echo
Germany
by Mareike Wegener
with Valery Tscheplanowa, Ursula Werner, Andreas Döhler, Felix Römer, Oskar Keymer, Marina Galic
Perspektive Talent: Sabine Panossian (Camera)
World premiere

The police officer Saskia Harder, traumatised by a bomb attack in Afghanistan, has barely initiated the investigation into the identity of a bog body in provincial Brandenburg when a blind bomb from the Second World War has to be defused in the village.

Gewalten (Forces)
Germany
by Constantin Hatz
with Malte Oskar Frank, Robert Kuchenbuch, Eric Cordes, Paul Wollin, Ben Felipe, Trixi Strobel
Perspektive Talent: Rafael Starman (Camera)
World premiere

The life of the meek Daniels, who cares for his terminally ill father and is exploited by his aggressive brother, is characterised by cold feelings and violence. When he meets the outsider Marcel, however, he believes he has found a friend.

Ladies Only
Germany / India
by Rebana Liz John
Documentary form
Europaean premiere
Perspektive Talent: Rebana Liz John (Documentary filmmaking)

In the women's compartments of local trains in Mumbai, women report what makes them angry. Their answers come together to form a fascinating tapestry which not only composes a portrait of Indian society, but also points far beyond it.

Rondo
Germany
by Katharina Rivilis
with Luise Wolfram, Paul Boche, Lucas Englander
Perspektive Talent: Luise Wolfram (Acting)
World premiere

A weekend on the Baltic Sea with her new boyfriend Lars becomes déjà-vu for Zoé, throwing her back into another time, to a weekend which she already spent in this place - with another man whom she loved very much.

Schweigend steht der Wald (The Silent Forest)
by Saralisa Volm
with Henriette Confurius, Robert Stadlober, Noah Saavedra, August Zirner, Johanna Bittenbinder
Perspektive Talent: Daniel Kundrat (Editing)
World premiere

After a murder in the Upper Palatine forest, trainee forester Anja sees parallels to the unsolved death of her father 20 years previously. Her investigations touch on a dark secret.

Sorry Genosse (Sorry Comrade)
Germany
by Vera Brückner
Documentary form
Perspektive Talent: Fabian Halbig (Production)
World premiere

In order to be with his great love Hedi, Karl-Heinz wants to move to the GDR. However, the pressure of the Stasi, who want to instrumentalise him, forces the couple to a ludicrous escape via Romania, in which everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

Wir könnten genauso gut tot sein (We Might As Well Be Dead)
Germany / Romania
by Natalia Sinelnikova
with Ioana Iacob, Pola Geiger, Jörg Schüttauf, Şiir Eloğlu, Moritz Jahn, Susanne Wuest
Opening film
Perspektive Talent: Elisabeth Kozerski (Production design)
World premiere

The skyscraper on the edge of the forest is known for its carefully selected house community. When a dog disappears, the security officer Anna has to fight the irrational fear of the residents. The utopia with a view of the forest is slowly unravelling.

Guest of Perspektive Deutsches Kino: Prize Donor DEFA-Stiftung
Fallada – letztes Kapitel (Fallada – The Last Chapter)
GDR 1988
by Roland Gräf
with Jörg Gudzuhn, Jutta Wachowiak, Katrin Sass, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrike Krumbiegel, Marga Legal