Berlin’s globetrotting festival of festivals Around the World in 14 Films is back to give Berlin audiences a first peek at some of the year’s most critically lauded films.
This year’s sharply curated line-up opens with Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless (photo), an unrelenting account of a divorcing couple whose son disappears, recently crowned Best Film at the London Film Festival. US indie darling Sean Baker follows up his attention-grabbing, iPhone-shot trans tale Tangerine with The Florida Project, a gorgeous, empathetic portrait of marginalised people living in a garish budget motel on the outskirts of Disney World in Florida. Told mostly from the perspective of precocious 6-year-old Moonee (Brooklyn Prince), the film is charming but never twee, its moments of sun-drenched optimism undercut by a pervasive sense of melancholy.
John Carrol Lynch’s Lucky is a similarly bittersweet experience, centred as it is around that last big-screen performance by the late, great Harry Dean Stanton. If understated realism isn’t your bag, you may fare better with Mexican auteur Amat Escalante’s 2016 Venice Silver Lion-winner The Untamed. Part challenging allegory, part out-there body horror, this programme highlight calls to mind both Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession and Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi oddity Under The Skin. Also well worth seeking out is Iranian drama A Man of Integrity, a clandestinely shot film by dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, which was secretly delivered to Cannes on a USB stick and subsequently awarded the top award in the Un Certain Regard section.
Claire Denis’ arthouse rom-com Let the Sunshine In and Yorgos Lanthimos’ punishing modern spin on Greek tragedy The Killing of a Sacred Deer are proving more divisive. One of us loved the latter and was exasperated by the former, but both deserve credit for provoking heated debate. The festivities come to a close on Dec 2 with Lynne Ramsay’s dark psychological thriller You Were Never Really Here, blandly renamed for Germany as A Beautiful Day, which netted two top awards at Cannes this year for Ramsay’s screenplay and Joaquin Phoenix’s lead performance.
Around the World in 14 Films, Nov 23 – Dec 2 | Kulturbrauerei, Prenzlauer Berg, most films in English or OV with English subs, see website for complete programme 23.11.2017 - 00:00 Uhr
Film
The cream of the festival crop
Berlin’s globetrotting festival of film festivals Around the World in 14 Films is back to give Berlin audiences a first peek at some of the year’s most critically lauded films. Catch it Nov 23-Dec 2 at Kulturbrauerei.
Berlin’s globetrotting festival of festivals Around the World in 14 Films is back to give Berlin audiences a first peek at some of the year’s most critically lauded films.
This year’s sharply curated line-up opens with Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless (photo), an unrelenting account of a divorcing couple whose son disappears, recently crowned Best Film at the London Film Festival. US indie darling Sean Baker follows up his attention-grabbing, iPhone-shot trans tale Tangerine with The Florida Project, a gorgeous, empathetic portrait of marginalised people living in a garish budget motel on the outskirts of Disney World in Florida. Told mostly from the perspective of precocious 6-year-old Moonee (Brooklyn Prince), the film is charming but never twee, its moments of sun-drenched optimism undercut by a pervasive sense of melancholy.
John Carrol Lynch’s Lucky is a similarly bittersweet experience, centred as it is around that last big-screen performance by the late, great Harry Dean Stanton. If understated realism isn’t your bag, you may fare better with Mexican auteur Amat Escalante’s 2016 Venice Silver Lion-winner The Untamed. Part challenging allegory, part out-there body horror, this programme highlight calls to mind both Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession and Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi oddity Under The Skin. Also well worth seeking out is Iranian drama A Man of Integrity, a clandestinely shot film by dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, which was secretly delivered to Cannes on a USB stick and subsequently awarded the top award in the Un Certain Regard section.
Claire Denis’ arthouse rom-com Let the Sunshine In and Yorgos Lanthimos’ punishing modern spin on Greek tragedy The Killing of a Sacred Deer are proving more divisive. One of us loved the latter and was exasperated by the former, but both deserve credit for provoking heated debate. The festivities come to a close on Dec 2 with Lynne Ramsay’s dark psychological thriller You Were Never Really Here, blandly renamed for Germany as A Beautiful Day, which netted two top awards at Cannes this year for Ramsay’s screenplay and Joaquin Phoenix’s lead performance.
Around the World in 14 Films, Nov 23 – Dec 2 | Kulturbrauerei, Prenzlauer Berg, most films in English or OV with English subs, see website for complete programme 