Film

Sunny skies

Hoping this summer finally sets off proper and gives us the glorious sunny days and balmy nights we so pine for, Berlin’s beloved Freiluftkinos have again put together a fine selection of films. Here's the June rundown!

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Hoping this summer finally sets off proper and gives us the glorious sunny days and balmy nights we so pine for, Berlin’s beloved Freiluftkinos have again put together a fine selection of films from the last year to enjoy under the open sky. Maybe out of superstition, vindictiveness or simple schadenfreude, this month’s programmes seem to put an emphasis on the sky being a right ass.

One variant has space Nazis raining down from it, threatening to finish off what they started back in 1939. The gleeful parody Iron Sky is showing at the Freiluftkinos, Insel (Jun 8, 20:45, photo) and Friedrichshain (Jun 20, 21:45).

In Take Shelter, Michael Shannon again delivers a masterful performance as a family man unable to distinguish whether his doomsday visions of raging tornadoes and oily rainstorms are reality or manifestations of latent paranoid schizophrenia. This favourite from last year’s festival circuit screens in Friedrichshain (Jun 14, 21:45), Kreuzberg (Jun 15, 21:45), and Insel (Jun 7, 22:00).

And then of course there’s Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia (Kreuzberg, Jun 29, 21:45), whose sky effectively trumps the other two in dickishness by hurling a planet twice the size of earth to finally put an end to frivolous humankind.

In non-sky-related business, Roman Polanski’s gut-splitting chamber drama Carnage is offered in both Friedrichshain (Jun 6, 21:30) and Kreuzberg (Jun 20, 21:45).

In case you haven’t seen it or want to again, the über-cool Drive is being shown in Friedrichshain (Jun 29, 21:45).

Other arthouse highlights include the much hyped Shame (Kreuzberg, Jun 1, 21:30), and the excellent girl-who-escapes-from-a-cult-traumatised drama Martha Marcy May Marlene (Friedrichshain, Jun 26, 21:45).

Freiluftkino Kreuzberg, Mariannenplatz 2, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor | Freiluftkino Hasenheide, Hasenheide 5-119, U-Bhf Hermannplatz | Freiluftkino Insel im Cassiopeia, Revaler Str. 99, S-Bhf Warschauer Str., throughout June