Berlinale 2021 Preview: Radu Jude, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Hong Sangsoo, Céline Sciamma, Bence Fliegauf to Bow in Main Competition

The leading international film festival Berlinale adapted to the new normal of virtual festivals. Berlinale will have two stages, a virtual industry event will take place March 1-5 for film professionals and on-site Summer event for public in June 9-20. The festival has revealed the full line-up for the scale-down 71st edition.

The main competition will introduce the latest work by Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, following the aftermath after a secondary-school teacher posts an amateur porn video online. Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi will be competing with Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, a portmanteau of three stories sharing the theme of coincidence and imagination, Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo will premiere Inteurodeoksyeon, and Celine Sciamma´s fifth feature Petite Maman was also picked for the main competition. More films to premiere at Berlinale 2021 below..

Main Competition

Albatros (Drift Away)

France

by Xavier Beauvois with Jérémie Renier, Marie-Julie Maille, Victor Belmondo

*World premiere

Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)

Romania / Luxemburg / Croatia / Czech Republic

by Radu Jude

with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai

*World premiere

Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde (Fabian - Going to the Dogs)

Germany

by Dominik Graf

with Tom Schilling, Saskia Rosendahl, Albrecht Schuch

*World premiere

Ghasideyeh gave sefid (Ballad of a White Cow)

Iran / France

by Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam

with Maryam Moghaddam, Alireza Sanifar

*World premiere

Guzen to sozo (Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy)

Japan

by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

with Kotone Furukawa, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Fusako Urabe

*World premiere

Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr Bachmann and His Class)

Germany

by Maria Speth

with Dieter Bachmann and pupils of class 6b *

World premiere / Documentary form

Ich bin dein Mensch (I'm Your Man) Germany

by Maria Schrader

with Maren Eggert, Dan Stevens, Sandra Hüller

*World premiere

Inteurodeoksyeon (Introduction)

Republic of Korea

by Hong Sangsoo

with Shin Seokho, Park Miso, Kim Minhee

*World premiere

Memory Box

France / Lebanon / Canada / Qatar

by Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige with Rim Turki, Manal Issa, Paloma Vauthier

*World premiere

Nebenan (Next Door) Germany

by Daniel Brühl

with Daniel Brühl, Peter Kurth *World premiere / Debut film

Petite Maman

France

by Céline Sciamma

with Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse *World premiere

Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt? (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?)

Germany / Georgia

by Alexandre Koberidze with Ani Karseladze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Vakhtang Fanchulidze

*World premiere

Rengeteg - mindenhol látlak (Forest - I See You Everywhere)

Hungary

by Bence Fliegauf

with Laura Podlovics, István Lénárt, Lilla Kizlinger, Zsolt Végh, László Cziffer, Juli Jakab, Ági Gubík *World premiere

Természetes fény (Natural Light)

Hungary / Latvia / France / Germany

by Dénes Nagy

with Ferenc Szabó, Tamás Garbacz, László Bajkó

*World premiere / Debut film

Una Película de Policías (A Cop Movie)

Mexico

by Alonso Ruizpalacios

with Mónica Del Carmen, Raúl Briones

*World premiere / Documentary form

Panorama

Censor (read the review)

United Kingdom

by Prano Bailey-Bond

with Niamh Algar, Michael Smiley, Nicholas Burns, Vincent Franklin, Sophia La Porta, Adrian Schiller Debut film

Viewing a horror movie awakens film censor Enid's trauma about the disappearance of her sister. She decides to track down the film and its director and begins a quest in which the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Death of a Virgin, and the Sin of Not Living

Lebanon

by George Peter Barbari

with Etienne Assal, Adnan Khabbaz, Jean Paul Frangieh, Elias Saad, Feyrouz Abi Hassan, Souraya Baghdadi

*World premiere / Debut film

A group of friends pool their money to pay for their first sex. Their journey to see a sex worker is accompanied by boastful teenage conversations, but also sensitive inner monologues. A painful collision between poetry and social reality.

Dirty Feathers

USA / Mexico

by Carlos Alfonso Corral

*World premiere / Debut film / Panorama Dokumente

On the streets of border towns El Paso and Ciudad Juárez we meet people living without a home. In intimate, unbiased black-and-white images, the film captures their everyday lives on the streets, as well as their hopes and their faith.

Genderation

Germany

by Monika Treut

*World premiere / Panorama Dokumente

20 years after Gendernauts, Monika Treut seeks out the pioneers of the transgender movement back then to find out how their lives and their activism have evolved, how they have grown into their identities and how their energy continues to have an impact today.

Glück (Bliss)

Germany

by Henrika Kull

with Katharina Behrens, Adam Hoya, Nele Kayenberg, Jean-Luc Bubert

*World premiere

Two sex workers meet in a Berlin brothel. In a place where the female body is a commodity, they experience moments of happiness. A feisty love story about attraction, fears and self-determination.

Kelti (Celts)

Serbia

by Milica Tomović

with Dubravka Kovjanić, Stefan Trifunović, Katarina Dimić, Anja Đorđević

*World premiere / Debut film

Belgrade in 1993. The pent-up tension of uncertain times is released at a children's birthday party. While the kids celebrate in the living room dressed up as Ninja Turtles, the adults discuss, flirt, smoke and drink in the kitchen.

Der menschliche Faktor (Human Factors) (read the review)

Germany / Italy / Denmark

by Ronny Trocker with Mark Waschke, Sabine Timoteo, Jule Hermann, Wanja Valentin Kube

Jan accepts an assignment for a political campaign without consulting Nina, who is both his wife and partner in their agency. Their family holiday is overshadowed by a mysterious break-in. A psychological portrait of a family, told from different perspectives.

Miguel's War

Lebanon / Germany / Spain

by Eliane Raheb

*World premiere / Panorama Dokumente

A portrait of a gay man who confronts the ghosts of his past. After fleeing war and repression 37 years ago, Miguel returns to Lebanon where he traces hidden longings, unrequited love and tormenting feelings of guilt.

Mishehu Yohav Mishehu (All Eyes Off Me)

Israel

by Hadas Ben Aroya

with Elisheva Weil, Yoav Hait, Leib Lev Levin, Hadar Katz

*World premiere

Danny is pregnant by Max who is busy trying out Avishag's sexual fantasies with her. She wants him to hit her when they have sex. Avishag takes her bruises to Dror, whose dog she sits. A generational portrait that asks: how liberated are we really?

Le monde après nous (The World After Us)

France

by Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas with Aurélien Gabrielli, Louise Chevillotte, Saadia Bentaïeb, Jacques Nolot

*World premiere / Debut film

When penniless young writer Labidi meets Elisa he knows she's the one for him. But Paris is expensive. A captivating film that combines the classic themes of French New Wave cinema with questions about roots, familiarity and distance.

Night Raiders

Canada / New Zealand

by Danis Goulet

with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Brooklyn Letexier-Hart, Alex Tarrant, Amanda Plummer

*World premiere / Debut film

In a dystopian future, children are considered property of the military regime which trains them to fight in a state boarding school. A Cree woman tries to get her daughter back. A parable about the situation of the First Nations, seen from a female perspective.

North By Current

USA

by Angelo Madsen Minax

*World premiere / Panorama Dokumente

The unexplained death of his niece leads the director back to his family. His investigation of injustice and the arbitrariness of officialdom turns into cathartic family therapy. A personal essay about motherhood, grieving and transgender masculinity.

Okul Tıraşı (Brother's Keeper)

Turkey / Romania

by Ferit Karahan

with Samet Yıldız, Ekin Koç, Mahir İpek, Melih Selçuk, Cansu Fırıncı, Nurullah Alaca

*World premiere

A finely spun drama set in the microcosm of an authoritarian boarding school in the Anatolian mountains. One winter's day reveals the failure of this powerful educational institution to which twelve-year-old Yusuf and his friend are helplessly exposed.

Souad

Egypt / Tunisia / Germany

by Ayten Amin

with Bassant Ahmed, Basmala Elghaiesh, Hussein Ghanem *World premiere

Egyptian Souad, 19, has several identities: one on social media, others as a diligent student and an obedient daughter. When Souad's ideas of a self-determined life are shattered, her younger sister sets out to look for answers.

Ted K

USA

by Tony Stone

with Sharlto Copley

*World premiere

Ted K takes a radical approach to addressing Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's way of thinking. Using intense images and texts from Kaczynski's pamphlets, the result is no conventional biopic but a meditative composition - and an emotional exploration of violence.

Théo et les métamorphoses (Theo and the Metamorphosis)

France

by Damien Odoul with Théo Kermel, Pierre Meunier, Élia Sulem, Louise Morin, Ayumi Roux

*World premiere

Théo, a 27-year-old with Down's syndrome, lives in seclusion in the forest with his father. Every day he trains his body to become a samurai. One day his father goes away and Théo is alone with his world of thoughts. He decides to start a new life.

A Última Floresta (The Last Forest)

Brazil by Luiz Bolognesi

*World premiere / Panorama Dokumente

In powerful images, alternating between documentary observation and staged sequences, and dense soundscapes, Luiz Bolognesi documents the Indigenous community of the Yanomami and depicts their threatened natural environment in the Amazon rainforest.

Die Welt wird eine andere sein (Copilot)

Germany / France by Anne Zohra Berrached

with Canan Kir, Roger Azar, Özay Fecht, Jana Julia Roth, Ceci Chuh, Nicolas Chaoui

*World premiere

Asli and Saeed fall in love in the mid-1990s. Although Asli's mother is against their relationship, they secretly get married. Then he disappears. A sensitive love story that recounts how Saeed changes Asli's life - before the entire world is shaken.

Yuko No Tenbin (A Balance)

Japan

by Yujiro Harumoto

with Kumi Takiuchi, Ken Mitsuishi, Masahiro Umeda, Yuumi Kawai

In her new documentary, Yuko wants to tell the true story behind the scandal of a relationship between a female student and her teacher. When she learns about her own father's affair with one of his students, she has to rethink her principles.

Encounters

As I Want

Egypt / France / Norway / Palestine

by Samaher Alqadi

*World premiere / Documentary form / Debut film

Azor

Switzerland / France / Argentina

by Andreas Fontana

with Fabrizio Rongione, Stéphanie Cléau

*World premiere / Debut film

The Beta Test

USA / United Kingdom

by Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe

with Jim Cummings, Virginia Newcomb, PJ McCabe

*World premiere

Blutsauger (Bloodsuckers)

Germany

by Julian Radlmaier

with Alexandre Koberidze, Lilith Stangenberg, Alexander Herbst, Corinna Harfouch

*World premiere

Hygiène sociale (Social Hygiene)

Canada by Denis Côté

with Maxim Gaudette, Larissa Corriveau, Eleonore Loiselle

*World premiere

Das Mädchen und die Spinne (The Girl and the Spider)

Switzerland

by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher

with Henriette Confurius, Liliane Amuat, Ursina Lardi

*World premiere

Mantagheye payani (District Terminal)

Iran / Germany

by Bardia Yadegari, Ehsan Mirhosseini

with Bardia Yadegari, Farideh Azadi, Ali Hemmati

*World premiere / Debut film

Moon, 66 Questions

Greece / France

by Jacqueline Lentzou

with Sofia Kokkali, Lazaros Georgakopoulos

*World premiere / Debut film

Nous (We)

France

by Alice Diop

with Ismael Soumaïla Sissoko, N'deye Sighane Diop, Pierre Bergounioux

*World premiere / Documentary form

Rock Bottom Riser

USA

by Fern Silva

*World premiere / Experimental film / Debut film

The Scary of Sixty-First

USA

by Dasha Nekrasova

with Betsey Brown, Madeline Quinn, Dasha Nekrasova

*World premiere / Debut film

Vị (Taste)

Vietnam / Singapore / France / Thailand / Germany /Taiwan

by Lê Bảo

with Olegunleko Ezekiel Gbenga, Thi Minh Nga Khuong, Thi Dung Le

*World premiere / Debut film