Eye For Film >> Festivals >> BIFF >> 2009 >> Competition
Films from around the world, which will vie for the Golden and Silver Bears.
View other Berlin International Film Festival Films by strand: Berlinale Shorts, Berlinale Special, Generation, German Cinema, International Forum of New Cinema, Out Of Competition, Panorama, Perspektive Deutches Kino, Retrospective: 70mm - Bigger Than Life
Gigante and About Elly
About Elly (Darbareye Elly)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2009; Director: Asghar Farhadi; Writer: Asghar Farhadi; Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Marila Zare'i, Rana Azadvar, Shahab Hosseini, Saber Abbar)
A matchmaking trip to the coast leads to tragedy.
Alle Anderen
(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Maren Ade; Writer: Maren Ade; Stars: Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger, Paula Hartmann, Nicole Marischka, Atef Vogel, Hans-Jochen Wagner)
A couple's relationship is threatened after an encounter with another couple.
Chéri (Cheri)
(Country: UK; Year: 2009; Director: Stephen Frears; Writer: Colette, Christopher Hampton, Christopher Hampton; Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Felicity Jones, Frances Tomelty, Anita Pallenberg, Harriet Walter, Iben Hjejle, Bette Bourne, Gaye Brown)
An retired courtesan embarks on a passionate love affair with the son of a former colleague.
Forever Enthralled (Mei Lanfang)
(Country: China; Year: 2008; Director: Kaige Chen; Writer: Kaige Chen, Geling Yan, Kuo-fu Chen; Stars: Leon Lai, Zhang Ziyi, Sun Honglei, Chen Hon)
Biographic account of the Chinese opera star.
Gigante
(Country: Uruguay, Argentina, Germany, Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Adrián Biniez; Writer: Adrián Biniez; Stars: Horacio Camandule, Leonor Svarcas)
A store security guard becomes obssessed with a cleaner.
London River and Chéri
Happy Tears
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein; Writer: Mitchell Lichtenstein; Stars: Demi Moore, Parker Posey, Rip Torn, Ellen Barkin, Christian Camargo, Billy Magnussen, Sebastian Roché, Victor Slezak, T. Ryder Smith, Richard Barlow)
Two sisters find their relationships threatened by their father's increasing senility.
In The Electric Mist
(Country: US, France; Year: 2009; Director: Bertrand Tavernier; Writer: Jerzy Kromolowski, Mary Olson-Kromolowski, based on the novel by James Lee Burke; Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Kelly Macdonald, Mary Steenburgen, Justina Machado, Ned Beatty, James Gammon, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Levon Helm)
A detective probing a series of murders begins to suspect they are linked to a previous case.
Katalin Varga
(Country: Romania, UK, Hungary; Year: 2009; Director: Peter Strickland; Writer: Peter Strickland, Peter Strickland; Stars: Hilda Péter, Norbert Tankó, Tibor Pálfy, Sebastian Marina, Melinda Kántor)
A woman is disowned after it is discovered that she has been raped, prompting her to seek revenge.
Little Soldier (Lille Soldat)
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Annette K. Olesen; Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson; Stars: Trine Dyrholm, Finn Nielsen, Lorna Brown, Rasmus Botoft, Jens Jørgen Spottag)
A psychologically damaged soldier returns from war and becomes a chauffeur for her father's prostitutes, finding frienship in an unlikely place.
London River
(Country: UK, France; Year: 2009; Director: Rachid Bouchareb; Writer: Rachid Bouchareb; Stars: Brenda Blethyn, Sotigui Kouyaté, Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem), Official Site
Two parents from very different backgrounds hunt their missing children after the London terror attacks.
Katalin Varga and Mammoth
Mammoth
(Country: Sweden, Denmark, Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Lukas Moodysson; Writer: Lukas Moodysson; Stars: Gael Garcia Bernal, Michelle Williams, Marife Necesito, Sophie Nyweide, Run Srinikornchot, Tom McCarthy, Jan Nicdao)
Multi-strand story about life changes, sees a businessman affected by a trip to Thailand, his family affected by their Filipino maid, and the maid's family's trials without her.
The Messenger
(Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Oren Moverman; Writer: Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman; Stars: Ben Foster, Jena Malone, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Eamonn Walker, Peter Friedman, Gaius Charles, Halley Feiffer, Merritt Wever, Jeremy Strong)
Two soldiers form a unique bond as they cope with their assignment with the Army Casualty Notification department.
The Milk Of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada)
(Country: Spain, Peru; Year: 2008; Director: Claudia Llosa; Writer: Claudia Llosa; Stars: Magaly Solier, Susi Sànchez, Efraín Solís, Marino Ballón, Delci Heredia)
Examination of Peru's dark history refracted through the story of a woman struck with an illness from her mother's breast milk.
My One And Only
(Country: USA; Year: 2009; Director: Richard Loncraine; Writer: Charlie Peters; Stars: Renée Zellweger, Kevin Bacon, Logan Lerman, Mark Rendall)
An unfaithful wife bundles her kids in the car and heads on an odyssey that will see all of them grow up.
Rage
(Country: US, UK; Year: 2009; Director: Sally Potter; Writer: Sally Potter; Stars: Judi Dench, Jude Law, Dianne Wiest, Steve Buscemi, Simon Abkarian)
A death at a fashion show sparks a murder investigation.
In The Electric Mist and Ricky
Ricky
(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2009; Director: François Ozon; Writer: François Ozon; Stars: Alexandra Lamy, Sergi López, Mélusine Mayance, Arthur Peyret, Jean-Claude Bolle-Reddat, André Wilms), Official Site, Trailer
Story of two ordinary people who go on to have a most extraordinary child.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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