Eye For Film >> Festivals >> BIFF >> 2014 >> Forum
An overview of independent, artistic filmmaking with a disregard for convention, screening 28 world and eight international premieres from every single continent.
View other Berlin International Film Festival Films by strand: Berlinale Special, Competition, Generation, Homage, Panorama, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Retrospective
The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq and The Square
10 Minutes (Ship bun)
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2013; Director: Lee Yong-seung; Stars: Baek Jong-hwan, Kim Jong-gu, Jung Hi-te)
International premiere
A man is shouldered with the debut of his family.
The Airstrip (Airstrip - Aufbruch der Moderne, Teil III)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Heinz Emigholz; Writer: Heinz Emigholz; Stars: Natja Brunckhorst, Ueli Etter)
World premiere. Documentary
The 21st part of Eighholz's Photography and beyond series.
And Here We Are, In The Middle (Und in der Mitte, da sind wir)
(Country: Austria; Year: 2014; Director: Sebastian Brameshuber; Writer: Sebastian Brameshuber)
World premiere. Documentary
Study of three 15-year-olds who live in Ebensee, a village in Austria where in 2009 the annual memorial ceremony at the former concentration camp was disrupted by a group of youths with air rifles.
Asta Upset (Ich will mich nicht künstlich aufregen)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Max Linz; Writer: Max Linz; Stars: Sarah Ralfs, Hannelore Hoger, Barbara Heynen, René Schappach, Daniel Hoevels, Franz Beil)
World premiere
The film is set in a modern day ‘Berlin Republic’ liberated from all irrelevancies. It’s about artistic production, the creative industries and above all film and cinema.
At Home (Sto Spiti)
(Country: Germany, Greece; Year: 2014; Director: Athanasios Karanikolas; Writer: Athanasios Karanikolas; Stars: Zoi Asimaki, Nikos Georgakis, Ieronymos Kaletsanos, Maria Kallimani, Alexia Kaltsiki, Nefeli Kouri, Romanna Lobats, Alexandros Logothetis, Marisha Triantafyllidou, Yannis Tsortekis)
World premiere
A housekeeper who is diagnosed with a serious illness loses her job in the economic crisis.
Thou Wast Mild And Lovely and Joy Of Man's Desiring
Le Beau Danger
(Country: Germany, Italy; Year: 2014; Director: René Frölke; Writer: René Frölke, Norman Manea; Stars: Norman Manea)
World premiere. Documentary
Documentary portrait of Norman Manea.
Blind Dates (Shemtkhveviti paemnebi)
(Country: Georgia; Year: 2013; Director: Levan Koguashvili; Writer: Boris Frumin, Levan Koguashvili; Stars: Kakhi Kavsadze, Archil Kikodze, Andro Sakhvarelidze, Ia Sukhitashvili)
25413. Restored version
Melancholic comedy about a middle-aged teacher who falls for a hairdresser.
Butter On The Latch
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Josephine Decker; Writer: Josephine Decker; Stars: Isolde Chae-Lawrence, Stephan Goldbach, Charlie Hewson, Sarah Small)
Primal instincts come to the fore when a woman and her friend visit a music retreat.
World premiere
Castanha
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2014; Director: Davi Pretto; Writer: Davi Pretto, Davi Pretto; Stars: João Carlos Castanha, Celina Castanha)
World premiere
Story of a world weary actor.
The Darkside
(Country: Australia; Year: 2013; Director: Warwick Thornton; Stars: Deborah Mailman)
International premiere
Film exploring Australian ghost stories.
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter and Snowpiercer
Daughters (Töchter)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Maria Speth; Writer: Maria Speth; Stars: Corinna Kirchhoff, Kathleen Morgeneyer, Hiroki Mano, Fabian Hinrichs, Matthias Matschke, Lars Mikkelsen, Irina Potapenko, Dzamilja Anastasia Sjöström, Hermann Beyer, Philippe Graber, Pit Bukowski, Judith Engel, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Maria Matschke, Michael Sideris)
World premiere
A woman travels to Berlin after a body is found, when it turns out not to be her daughter, she continues looking...
DMD KIU LIDT (DMD KIU LIDT: Die Manifestation des Kapitalismus in unserem Leben ist die Traurigkeit)
(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Georg Tiller, Georg Tiller; Writer: Georg Tiller, Ja Panik, Ja Panik, Georg Tiller; Stars: Andreas Spechtl, Sebastian Janata, Christian Treppo, Stefan Pabst, Thomas Schleicher, Christiane Rösinger, Hans Unstern, Chris Imler, Maurice Summen)
World premiere
An anti-music film which follows the Austrian pop-rock band Ja.
A Dream Of Iron (Cheol-ae-kum)
(Country: South Korea, US; Year: 2014; Director: Kelvin Kyung Kun Park)
World premiere. Documentary
A love story comes to an end when a woman sets out in search of a shamanic god.
The Forest is Like the Mountains (Padurea e ca muntele, vezi?)
(Country: Germany, Romania; Year: 2014; Director: Didier Guillain, Christiane Schmidt; Stars: Beniamin Boros, Iosif Boros, Simon Boros, Aronela Coscodar, Lavinia Coscodar, Anamaria Lingurar, Aron Lingurar, Aronas Lingurar, Camelia Lingurar, Elena Lingurar)
World premiere. Documentary
Story of the struggles of a Roma village.
Form (Forma)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2012; Director: Ayumi Sakamoto; Writer: Ayumi Sakamoto, Ryô Nishihara; Stars: Emiko Matsuoka, Ken Mitsuishi, Ryô Nishihara, Seiji Nozoe, Nagisa Umeno)
International premiere
Animosities surface when two women who were friends as teenagers start to work together.
Butter On The Latch and N - The Madness Of Reason
Free Range (Free Range - Ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest, Free Range/Ballad On Approving Of The World)
(Country: Estonia; Year: 2013; Director: Veiko Õunpuu; Writer: Robert Kurvitz, Veiko Õunpuu; Stars: Lauri Lagle, Jaanika Arum, Laura Peterson, Peeter Volkonski, Roman Baskin, Rita Raave, Meelis Rämmeld, Jan Uuspõld, Anne Türnpu, Loore Martma, Marion Undusk, Mari Abel, Laine Mägi, Lauri Kaldoja, Jim Ashilevi)
International premiere
Travails of a young writer.
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey
(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: tbc)
Documentary
This milestone in documentary film has been reconstructed and extended and can now finally be viewed in its intended form.
Ghashiram Kotwal
(Country: India; Year: 1977; Director: K. Hariharan, Mani Kaul, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Kamal Swaroop; Writer: Vijay Tendulkar; Stars: Mohan Agashe, Rajani Chavan, Vandana Pandit, Om Puri, Shriram Ranade, Ravindra Sathe)
New digital print
The development and fall of the Peshwa regime in western India before the backdrop of political intrigue and corruption that ravaged the country as the threat of colonialism continued to grow.
The Great Museum (Das große Museum)
(Country: Austria; Year: 2014; Director: Johannes Holzhausen; Writer: Johannes Holzhausen, Constantin Wulff)
World premiere. Documentary
A look behind the scenes of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
The Guests
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Ken Jacobs)
World premiere
Silent film, avant-garde, and digital 3D: one hundred and twenty years of film history merging into one single cinematic event.
German Concentration Camps Factual Survey and Shadow Days
Guidelines (La marche à suivre)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2014; Director: Jean-François Caissy)
World premiere. Documentary
Documentary about youngsters on the cusp of adolescence.
Home Sweet Home (Waga ya wa tanoshi)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1951; Director: Noboru Nakamura; Writer: Sumie Tanaka; Stars: Chishû Ryû, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine, Keiji Sada, Mutsuko Sakura, Kokuten Kôdô, Sugisaku Aoyama, Junji Masuda, Reiko Minakami, Shin'yô Nara, Keiko Kishi, Kazuko Fukui, Kaoru Kusuda, Shinichirô Minami, Katsumasa Okamoto)
New 35mm print
Exploration of family life.
The Honour Keeper (Lajwanti)
(Country: India; Year: 2014; Director: Pushpendra Singh; Stars: Sanghamitra Hitaishi, Pushpendra Singh, Sugna Devi)
World premiere
Iranian (Iranien)
(Country: France, Switzerland; Year: 2014; Director: Mehran Tamadon)
World premiere. Documentary
Supporters of the Iranian regime take part in a discussion about secular society.
Journey With Prabhat (Prabhat pheri)
(Country: India; Year: 2014; Director: Jessica Sadana, Samarth Dixit)
World premiere. Documentary
The film explores the history of the compound in Pune where the legendary studios of the Prabhat Film Company once stood – and the ways in which this place, now home to the National Film Archive and film school, was defended against forces hostile to film.
Non-Fiction Diary and Guidelines
Joy Of Man's Desiring (Que ta joie demeure )
(Year: 2014; Director: Denis Côté; Stars: Guillaume Tremblay, Emilie Sigouin, Hamidou Savadogo, Ted Pluviose, Cassandre Emmanuel)
Humans' relationship with machinery.
World premiere
The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq (L'enlèvement de Michel Houellebecq)
(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Guillaume Nicloux; Writer: Guillaume Nicloux; Stars: Michel Houellebecq, Mathieu Nicourt, Maxime Lefrançois, Françoise Lebrun)
The story of what might have happened when author Michel Houellebecq disappeared during a promotional tour.
World premiere
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Kumiko The Treasure Hunter)
(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: David Zellner; Writer: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner; Stars: Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Shirley Venard, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, Kanako Higashi, Ichi Kyokaku, Ayaka Ohnishi, Mayuko Kawakita, Takao Kinoshita, Yumiko Hioki, Natsuki Kanno, Brad Prather, Earl Milton, Madde Gibba)
A young Japanese woman obsessed with Fargo heads to Minnesota in search of lost treasure.
International premiere
Los Ángeles
(Country: Mexico, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Damian John Harper; Writer: Damian John Harper, Sarah Bräuer; Stars: Mateo Bautista Matías, Marcos Rodríguez Ruíz, Lidia García, Daniel Bautista, Donaciano Bautista Matías, Prisciliano Martínez Ruíz, Ambrosio Sánchez, Nieves Gutiérrez, Valentina Ojeda, Chivis Gutiérrez, Adolfo López Cruz, Andrea García García, Eugenia Bautista de López, Quirino Mateo Antonio, Manuel Ojeda)
World premiere
A boy joins a gang in a bid to make the illegal move from Mexico to Los Angeles.
Non-Fiction Diary
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2013; Director: Jung Yoon-suk ; Writer: Jung Yoon-suk ; Stars: Ko Byung-chun, Kim Hyung-tae, Park Sang-gu, Jo Sung-ae, Oh Hu-geun, Oh Young-rok, Jung Hyung-bok, Han Wan-sang )
International premiere. Documentary
What do savage serial killings have to do with the collapse of both a department store and a busy road bridge in Seoul?
N - The Madness Of Reason (N: The Madness Of Reason)
(Country: Belgium, Germany, Netherlands; Year: 2014; Director: Peter Krüger; Stars: Michael Lonsdale, Wendyam Sawadogo)
Drawing connections between European adventurer Raymond Borremans and present-day Africa.
World premiere
Parasite (Huba)
(Year: 2014; Director: Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal; Stars: Joanna Drozda, Jerzy Gajlikowski, Wojtek Slowik)
World premiere
An old man who bears the scars of a life of factory work. A woman, alone apart from her small baby, who moves in with him. The film sketches out the day-to-day lives of the three of them, taking in their cramped quarters and mutual dependency, thrown back on bare existence.
Scent Of Revolution (Arij)
(Country: Egypt, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Viola Shafik)
World premiere. Special screening.
Four people recount their experiences in Egypt: The owner of the largest collection of photo negatives in the country, a Coptic political activist, an elderly socialist writer, and a younger cyberspace designer.
Scrap Yard
(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Nadège Trébal)
International premiere. Documentary
Documentary about men bonding at a scrap yard.
Seaburners (Kumun Tadi)
(Country: Turkey; Year: 2014; Director: Melisa Önel; Writer: Feride Çiçekoglu, Feride Çiçekoglu, Melisa Önel, Melisa Önel; Stars: Mustafa Uzunyilmaz, Sanem Öge, Edanur Tekin, Hakan Karsak, Selen Uçer, Mira Furlan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Timuçin Esen)
World premiere
Between Istanbul's sordid neighborhoods and a destitute border village, Hamit, drives back and forth...
The Second Game (Al doilea joc)
(Country: Romania; Year: 2014; Director: Corneliu Porumboiu; Stars: Adrian Porumboiu, Corneliu Porumboiu)
World premiere. Documentary
The director and his father watch a 1988 football match which the father refereed, their commentary accompanying the original television images in real time.
Shadow Days (Gui ri zi)
(Country: China; Year: 2014; Director: Zhao Dayong; Writer: Zhao Dayong; Stars: Li Ziqian)
World premiere
Trouble brews for a man and his pregnant girlfriend when they return to his remote birthplace.
The Shape Of The Night (Yoru no henrin)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1964; Director: Noboru Nakamura; Writer: Toshidi Gondo, Kyoko Ohta; Stars: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijirô Hira, Keisuke Sonoi, Masuyo Iwamoto, Misako Tominaga, Bunta Sugawara, Isao Kimura)
New 35mm print
A factory worker finds herself pushed into prostitution.
She's Lost Control
(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Anja Marquardt; Writer: Anja Marquardt; Stars: Brooke Bloom, Marc Menchaca, Dennis Boutsikaris, Laila Robins, Tobias Segal, Robert Longstreet, Roxanne Day, Ryan Homchick, Gregory Korostishevsky, Henry Stram, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Michael Medeiros, Pierre Epstein, Danny Boushebel, Vin Scialla)
World premiere
A sex surrogate runs into problems.
Souvenir
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: André Siegers)
World premiere. Documentary
Alfred D. is fond of travelling, a veritable collector of countries. While on his travels, he films the world and himself.
The Square (Al Midan)
(Country: Egypt, US; Year: 2013; Director: Jehane Noujaim)
Examination of the revolution in Egypt, from the perspective of a group of activists.
Documentary. Special screening
Snowpiercer (Snow Piercer)
(Country: South Korea, US, France; Year: 2013; Director: Bong Joon Ho; Writer: Bong Joon Ho, Kelly Masterson, based on the story by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, Jean-Marc Rochette; Stars: Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Luke Pasqualino, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Alison Pill, Ed Harris, Ewen Bremner, Song Kang-ho, Kenny Doughty, Steve Park, Adnan Haskovic, Clark Middleton, Tómas Lemarquis)
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.
World premiere
Tender Are The Feet (Ché phawa daw nu nu)
(Country: Burma; Year: 1972; Director: Maung Wunna; Writer: Aung Lin, Min Shin; Stars: San San Aye, Zaw Win)
Restoration of this Burmese romance between a drummer and a dancer.
Thou Wast Mild And Lovely
(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Josephine Decker; Writer: David Barker, Josephine Decker, Josephine Decker; Stars: Joe Swanberg, Sophie Traub, Robert Longstreet, Kristin Slaysman, Matt Orme)
Romance - and trouble - brew on a farm in Kentucky.
World premiere
Top Girl oder la déformation professionnelle (Top Girl or la déformation professionnelle)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Tatjana Turanskyj; Writer: Tatjana Turanskyj; Stars: Julia Hummer, Rolf Peter Kahl, Susanne Bredehöft, Stefan Mehren, Karim Cherif, Susanne Strach, Samia Dauenhauer, Katharina Bellena, Anna Schmidt, Sabine Weithöner, Mario Pokatzky)
World premiere
Drama about a mother who makes ends meet by working as a sex escort.
To Singapore, with Love
(Country: Singapore; Year: 2013; Director: Pin Pin Tan; Writer: Pin Pin Tan)
World premiere. Documentary
Singaporean political exiles forced out 35 or 50 years ago – and who are to this day not permitted to return unless they die and their relatives bring back their ashes - discuss their native city-state.
Velvet Terrorists (Zamatoví teroristi)
(Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia; Year: 2013; Director: Péter Kerekes, Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarcik; Writer: Péter Kerekes, Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarcik)
World premiere
Three men who planned or commited acts of terror against the Czechoslovakian regime of the 80s re-enact their former deeds and talk about their lives today.
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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