SHORT NEWS

64th Berlinale with 12 Austrian films and co-productions

 

Unparalleled Austrian presence at the 64th edition of the Berlin Film Festival: Contributions to Competiton and Forum are the first to be announced: MACONDO by Sudabeh Mortezai vies for Golden Bear, CRACKS IN CONCRETE by Umut Dag at Panorama Special, two Berlinale Specials THE DARK VALLEY by Andreas Prochaska and WE COME AS FRIENDS by Hubert Sauper...

 


Austrian films and co-production at the 64th Berlinale

COMPETITION GOLDEN BEAR


MACONDO directed by Sudabeh Mortezai (FreibeuterFilm (A))

A story of growing up between cultures. A coming-of-age story on identity, belonging and selfdetermination, close to harsh reality and in close contact with the amateur actors.

mit: Ramasan Minkailov, Kheda Gazieva, Aslan Elbiev
International sales: Films Boutique


BELOVED SISTERS
directed by Dominik Graf (Bavaria Film (D), Wega Film (A), WS Filmproduktion (D), Kiddinx Filmproduction (D), Senator (D))

Beloved Sisters examines a passionate love triangle between two aristocratic sisters and Friedrich Schiller, hothead and rising poet of his time. What begins playfully, almost as a game among the three of them, soon turns serious as it leads to the end of a pact.

with: Hannah Herzsprung, Henriette Confurius, Florian Stetter

International Sales: Global Screen

 

BERLINALE SPECIAL

 

The Dark Valley directed by Andreas Prochaska (Allegro Film (A), X Filme Creative Pool (D))

A remote high mountain valley towards the end of the 19th century. A stranger, Greider, arrives at a clannish village community and asks if he can take shelter for the winter. He knows the villagers’ gloomy secret. A mysterious series of deaths ensues.

 

with: Sam Riley, Paula Beer, Tobias Moretti, Johann Nikoluss

International sales: Films Distribution

 

WE COME AS FRIENDS directed by Hubert Sauper (KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production (A), Adelante Films (F))

A modern odyssey, a dizzying, science fiction-like journey into the the heart of Africa.  At the moment when the Sudan, the continent's biggest country, is being divided into two nations, an old 'civilizing' pathology reemerges – that of colonialism, clash of empires, and yet new episodes of bloody (and holy) wars over land and resources.

International sales: Le Pacte

 

FORUM


AND THERE WE ARE,  IN THE MIDDLE directed by Sebastian Brameshuber (KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Productions (A))
Ebensee, Upper Austria, became infamous in May 2009 when a couple of local male teenagers “disturbed” the annual memorial ceremony in the former concentration camp of Ebensee. This feature documentary follows four teenagers from the village over the course of a year.

THE GREAT MUSEUM directed by Johannes Holzhausen (Navigator Film)
This documentary portrays one of the most important museums in the world, Vienna’s Museum of Art History. An extensive look behind the scenes at this fascinating institution employs a number of charismatic protagonists and the varied routine there to show us the museum’s special world.

DMD KIU LIDT directed by Georg Tiller (Subobscura Film (A), naivsuperfilm (D))
An anti-music film which follows the Austrian pop-rock band Ja, Panik and their social circle of fellow musicians in Berlin and Vienna.

 

PANORAMA SPEZIAL

 

CRACKS IN CONCRETE directed by Umut Dag (WEGA Filmproduktion (A))

Ertan, a hardened, aggressive young man, was sentenced to jail for second-degree murder. When he was released from jail ten years later at 35, his prison experience turned himinto a broken man. At 15, Mikael quit his apprenticeship and spent his time hanging out with friends and saving for his own Rap tape. Ertan looks for Mikael. Mikael has no clue who Ertan is. How do they both deal with hard realities when Mikael learns the truth?

with: Murathan Muslu, Alechan Tagaev

International sales: Films Boutique

 

FEVER directed by Elfi Mikesch (AMOUR FOU Vienna (A), AMOUR FOU Luxembourg (L))

Austria, 1950. Franzi, twelve, lives in a small town with her parents. Photographs belong to her life like picture books to those of other kids. She spends days and nights between dream and reality, bringing to life the photos her dad took in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia while stationed there as a foreign legionnaire. The father’s feverish dream, triggered by a recurrent surge of malaria, becomes the girl’s nightmare.

 

SUPEREGOS directed by Benjamin Heisenberg (Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion (A), Vega Film (CH), Komplizen Film (D), Peter Heilrath Filmproduktion (D))

This “double-trouble buddy movie” centers on washed-up bohemian Nick Gutlicht, and aged and controversially viewed psychologist Curt Ledig. When both meet, Nick soon becomes the doctor’s involuntary object of interest and study. Nick’s life in disarray is gradually brought back to normal, while Curt’s fading memory manages to unearth the truth about his former involvement with the Third Reich.

International sales: Films Distribution

 

THE DECENT ONE directed by Vanessa Lapa (Felix Breisach Medienwerkstatt (A), Real Works LTD (IL), Hermann Poelking-Eiken (D))

 A cinematic deconstruction of biography, history and morality challenging the concept of coherent history. The unique and at times uncomfortable access to the mind, experiences, emotions and visions of the private man Heinrich Himmler which turned him into the merciless “Architect of the Final Solution”.

 

 

 

COMPETITION SHORT FILMS


DARKROOM directed by Billy Roisz
Billy Roisz surveys several pitch-black interior spaces from different perspectives and turns a cinematic darkroom into an abstract chamber of wonders.

OPTICAL SOUND directed by Christian Neubacher, Elke Groen (produced by Elke Groen)
Music is there at the start. The composition is in charge of direction and draws the sound-on-film onto the image. The sound-on-film generates abstract pictures that trace and visualise the music. Sound like an image in one's head. The source material is the opening and closing credits of feature films, used as a picture and sound test for projectors.

 

FORUM EXPANDED


Philipp Fleischmann: MAIN HALL
Dani Gal: WIE AUS DER FERNE
Friedl vom Gröller:
MA PEU PRÉCIEUSE
GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT
66, RUE STEPHENSON
POETRY FOR SALE
KIRSCHENZEIT
NEC SPE, NEC METU
IM WIENER PRATER
DAS NEUE KOSTÜM
WARUM ES SICH ZU LEBEN LOHNT