Original: Official introduction of the Berlin Film Festival
Translation: The Translation Team of The Lost Shadows Network
Nobody Wants the Night
Spain / France / Bulgaria
Director: Isabelle Cosette
Writers: Miguel Barros
Translation: Jayster
Isabelle Cosette, born in Barcelona, Spain, worked as a journalist and earned a degree in history from university. She shot her first short film in 1984 and has been shooting commercials extensively since 1985. In 1990, Cosette co-founded the production company Miss Wasabi. In 1996, "The Things I Never Told You", which premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival, was a great success. In 2008, Cosette's Elegy was shortlisted for the main competition section of the Berlin Film Festival, and in 2009 he was selected as a jury member. Her two most recent tours to the Berlin Film Festival are the 2011 documentary "Listen to the Judge" and the 2013 feature film "Yesterday's Endless Period."
Synopsis:
In Greenland in 1908, a fearless woman named Josephine embarked on a thrilling journey to the North Pole in the footsteps of her husband, the famous Arctic explorer Robert Perry. But her lack of experience ignored the warnings of polar explorers about the arctic winter. After a difficult journey, she finally arrived at her husband's Arctic base camp and tried to spend the winter in the camp. Allaka, an Inuit who has long lived in a snow dome hut, knows the cold of the Arctic winter and stays with Josephine. As the long night drew nearer, Josephine became more and more aware that the exotic woman beside her had too much empathy with her.
Isabelle Cosette has appeared at the Berlin Film Festival six times and was a member of the jury in 2009. This time, she once again portrays a female character who dares to face difficulties in life and shows courage. In addition, Josephine had to learn the survival skills to adapt to another culture and survive in the snow and ice. The film focuses on the loneliness of two women in the desolate Arctic, but in the dark and claustrophobic, their mutual help is the key to survival.
Chasuke's Journey
Japan/France
Director: Sab
Writers: Sabu
Translation: Alfonso XI
Sabu, born in 1964 in Wakayama City, Japan, started as an actor and became a screenwriter and director in the 1990s. In 1996, he directed his debut film, D.A.N.G.A.N. RUNNER) (Panorama Section, Berlin International Film Festival, 1997). Sabus's work has been screened in the Panorama section and the Youth Forum section of the Berlin Film Festival, and has won numerous awards at various film festivals, including the 2000 Berlin Film Festival International Film Critics Association Award. In addition, there have been retrospectives of Saab at film festivals such as Chicago.
Above the kingdom of heaven, busy and busy. Many writers sit in front of a long scroll, scribbling and scribbling without stopping, and they are writing biographies of people on earth. The fate of the people on earth is determined by the writers of heaven, and the masters of these writers, God, are constantly demanding more violent and radical ideas. Take the beautiful girl who died in a car accident, Yuri, as an example, some heaven writers think that such a fate is boring and boring, so they re-accuse Chas, who was a rogue in his lifetime, and now he is a paradise tea assistant, back to Earth, and tell him to save Yuri no matter what. Chas returned to Okinawa to socialize with people and interfere in their fate. He was praised as "Mr. Angel" while being hunted by a ruthless enemy. Chas fell in love with Yuri long ago, but even God could not predict the story that would follow.
Hovering between philosophy and antics, Sabu's films are classic themes in the history of cinema, yet a blend of cabaret, cops, romances and farce. The underlying point in Saab's film – that all life has its own unique value, is unique and unexpected, and it is finally revealed through delicate rhythms and gorgeous visions.
As We Were Dreaming
Germany/France
Directed by: Andreas Drisson
Writer: Wolf Kolhaes
Andreas Drissen was born in 1963 in Gera, Germany. During his tenure as an assistant director at East German television, he first came into contact with film. He then studied directing at the Konrad Wolfe Film and Television University in Potsdam and has been directing films, plays and operas since 1992. Drisson's film Kebab Point was a huge success all over the world and won numerous awards, including the Silver Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2011, at the Cannes Film Festival, another of his films, Stop Tracking, was awarded "A Kind of Attention," and When We Dreamed was Drisson's third film to be screened at the BerlinAle.
On the outskirts of Leipzig, where East Germany had just disintegrated, Rico, Daniel, Paul, and Mark grew up in the chaos of the reunification of the country. In that chaos, the rules of the past have long since vanished. They turned night into day and streets into amusement parks. They run wild, wander the neighborhoods, steal cars, taste drugs, and form new clubs fornication. They opened their own discotheque, which was quickly occupied by neo-Nazi teenagers. Everything changes and declines, everyone dreams come up with so many that they can't move: Rico wants to be a boxer, Daniel longs for a grand love affair with the "little star", the most beautiful girl Leipzig has ever had...
Screenwriter Wolf Kolhais and director Andreas Drisson condensed the multi-award winning debut of Leipzig writer Clement Meyer into a cinematic allegory about friendship and betrayal, hope and disillusionment, cruelty and softness. They tell the story of a lost youth, a story of rebellion, and a utopian dream of constant pursuit of happiness.
The Club
Chile
Directed by: Pablo Laraine
Translation: Yu Xiaohui
Pablo Larrion is a director and producer born in Santiago, Chile in 1976. He studied film at the University for the Arts, Sciences, and Communication in Santiago, Chile, and co-founded Fabula Productions in 2005. In the same year, he completed his first work on the island of Fuga. He went on to make the film TONY MANERO in 2007, which premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival's Biweekly Director's Section. Another of his works, POST MORTEM, premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. In 2012, the film "NO" was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Pablo Laraine has worked for HBO since 2011 as director and producer of one of its series PROFUGOS.
Sister Monica lives with a group of priests of all ages in a house off the coast of Chile. In addition to praying and making confessions every day, they train Greyhounds to compete. What exactly brought them here, to the end of the world where this damp, viscous breeze continues to blow. One day, a new pastor came, but the new pastor received harsh accusations from others. The accusation made his voice louder and louder until it was interrupted by a gunshot. The young priest chose to avoid accusations by committing suicide. An investigator was sent from above, but did the investigator really want to find out the truth? Perhaps his appearance is simply to continue to maintain the beautiful appearance of the place.
Little by little, the film reveals the secrets of darkness, unearths the past of these servants of God, and ruthlessly reveals the many contradictions that exist in the Catholic Church. The director's script does what the church itself does not do, and he does not simply punish a scapegoat. The film actually strictly adheres to the Christian rules and rituals of martyrdom.
Life Under the Volcano (Ixcanul)
Guatemala / France
Director: Jerro Bustamante
Writers: Jerro Bustamante
Writers: Jayro Bustamante
Jerro Bustamante, born in Guatemala in 1977, studied communications and directed commercials after graduation. Afterwards he traveled to Paris to study film and learned screenwriting in Rome. His 2012 short film Cuando Sea Grande was shortlisted for several film festivals and won several awards.
Maria is a 17-year-old Kaqchiikel Maya who lives with her parents on a coffee plantation at the foot of an active volcano. She was promised a foreman on the plantation. But Mary was bent on discovering a world on the other side of the volcano that was completely unknown to her. She seduced a coffee harvester who wanted to flee to the United States. But after the harvester left her, Mary reacquainted herself with her world and culture.
Director Jerro Bustamante grew up in a Kazigal Mayan region of Guatemala, so he chose to return here to make his own films. He ran a workshop where people around him told him stories of their lives, and then examined the current living conditions of the Mayans in the area. In this way, he learned about the special relationship between the women who lived there and their mothers and grandmothers. The plot of the film is full of ancient beliefs and traditional rhythms of life. The audience will see a world completely different from the context of globalization, making people completely unfamiliar with daily life. This is not a film about indigenous culture, but a work that is really created in such a cultural atmosphere.
女仆日记（The Diary of a Chambermaid）
France
Director: Benoît Jacques
Writers: Benoy Jacques / Octave Mirbo / Helena Zimmer
Translator: Yang Bichun
Born in 1947 in Paris, France, Benoyal Jacques made his debut film, The Musician Killer, in 1975 and had previously been an assistant director. He has worked with French film stars such as Isabelle Huppel, Sandrine Kiberan and Leia Saidu and is best known for directing films, documentaries and plays. In 1996, "A Single Girl" was released in the panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival and won a lot of international attention. His costume play Farewell My Queen was shortlisted for the 2012 Berlin Film Festival competition.
The story takes place in France around 1900. Fashionable teenage girl Celestine came from turbulent Paris to Normandy to work as a house maid. In the Villa of the Langleer family, she is confronted by the lustful man and his cold, domineering and jealous wife. Selestine is determined to avoid the tragic fate of chef Marianne, the child she married and gave birth to dies, but desperately finds herself pregnant again. The young maid was intrigued by the actions of the mysterious male servant Joseph: he went around handing out anti-Semitic leaflets and suggesting that she could work as a prostitute for him in Cherbourg.
After Jean Renoir (1946) and Luis Brunauer (1964), Benois Jacques again chose Octave Mirbo's novels as a sneer at the bourgeoisie. The film features a young woman struggling to save her life, and through the perspective of her diary, Jacques shows the seemingly powerless strength and the seemingly powerful powerlessness. The image of the maid unravels the hidden dark hinterland of the early 20th century and hints at the precariousness of life today.
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Mexico / Netherlands / Finland / Belgium / France
Directed By: Peter Greenaway
Writers: Peter Greenaway
Translation: xcchlp
Peter Greenaway, born in Newport, Wales in 1942, worked as a painter and editor in the British Information Office after graduation. He directed many short films and documentaries, which slowly attracted the attention of the international community. In these works, he often collaborated with composers such as Philip Glass, John Cage, and Michael Nyman. The Contract of the Draftsman was his first film, marking his international debut as a director. In addition to movies, he created a lot of equipment as well as multimedia installations.
In 1931, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein traveled to Guanajuato to shoot his film Long Live Mexico. There, he was exposed to a whole new culture and their attitude towards death; He also found another change—for himself. Peter Greenaway portrayed Eisenstein as an eccentric artist, and at the same time came to Mexico as an internationally renowned star director. In Mexico, however, he was in trouble because he had trouble getting along with his investor, the novelist Upton Sinclair. At the same time, he began to reassess his homeland and the Stalinist social system in a foreign land that was both joyful and dangerous. This mental journey led him to transform from a film theorist to an artist concerned with the human condition. Under his lens, some of the symbols, imprints, religious and non-religious signs of Mexican culture have been given a completely new interpretation.
The film uses a lot of close-ups, multi-shot shots, and dramatic montages—all to represent the transformation of the big man who thinks he is a magic clown—and Greenaway cleverly exploits and modifies Eisenstein's cinematic language. Step by step, the film approaches Eisenstein, leaving Eisenstein surprised to discover his inner desire.
Sworn Virgin
Albania / France / Switzerland / Italy / Kosovo
Directed by: Laura Bispuri
Writers: Laura Bispuri / Francesca Manieri
Translation: Fly a little
Laura Bispree, born in 1977. After graduating from laura Bispuri with a degree in film, she was selected by producer Domenico Procacci to join the Fandango Lab workshop. Her short film PASSING TIME won the 2010 Donatello Award for Best Short Film. In 2011, she won the Active Talent of the Year award at the Nastro d'Argento Italian Film Critic Award.
Hana grew up in the ancient Alps of Albania. Ancient codes and traditional gender roles still prevail there. She escaped the fate of becoming a bride, in fact, a slave, so according to Kanun, a traditional Albanian law, she promised to keep her virginity for the rest of her life, sacrificing her feminine essence in order to perceive freedom. Since then, she has been treated as a man. She was given a dagger and the masculine name "Mark". But after a decade of seclusion, she decided to change her life and take a train to Milan, where her sister and family lived. She is completely out of watch over "Hannah"...
In laura Bispuri's debut novel, she accompanies a young woman through a difficult and painful fantasy adventure, away from the stereotypical world of the mountains into the modern life of the city. The film tells the story of a woman who rediscovers her gender roles and alludes to the ambivalence of Hannah's emotional life through allegorical images. The film rarely has dialogue, but relies on eyes, gestures, and protagonists who confront their own contradictions to represent this highly empathetic theme.
Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories
Viet Nam
Director: Pan Dangdi
Writers: Pan Dangdi
Pan Dangdi, born in 1976, Nghe An Province, Vietnam, is a screenwriter and director. After graduating from Hanoi Film and Drama University, he is currently teaching at Hanoi National University as an independent filmmaker. His 2010 debut, DON'T BE AFRAID (BI), won several international awards. He belongs to the New Wave directors of Vietnamese cinema.
The story takes place in Saigon in the late 1990s. Vu, a photography student, rents a room in a shared apartment. With a gift from his dad, a brand new camera to explore different people, places, and surroundings. He is particularly fascinated by his roommate, Thang, an charismatic young man. Don always hangs out with drug dealers, gamblers and prostitutes at night. Don introduces Wu to van, a nightclub dancer, and although U likes Don more, he and Wan have a relationship. One day, another roommate who was a street singer was robbed. When Wu and Tang rushed to the rescue, they were also hunted down and eventually forced to abscond to the village of Wu in the Mekong Delta. There, Wu's father introduced him to a door-to-door wife. But U is almost indifferent to this girl, on the contrary, he is jealous when he sees Don flirting with her...
This wonderful love story goes against the backdrop of taboo homosexuality and state sanctions, straight to the private level. Director Phan Dang Di uses natural landscapes, the wetness of the Mekong River and the impermeable jungle to metaphorically describe the emotional world and psychological states.
Under Electric Clouds
Russia
Director: Alexei Germain Jr
Writers: Alexei Germain Jr
Translation: Blue sea and clear sky
Alexei German Jr., born in 1976 in Moscow, Russia, studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he directed a number of short films and won awards at many film festivals. In 2003, his feature film debut, The Last Train, was screened at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2008, his third feature film, PAPER SOLDIER, won several awards at the Venice International Film Festival, including the Best Director Award.
Eerie riverbank shrouded in fog and snow. Steel and cement are scattered everywhere. An abandoned skyscraper. A road bridge that is still unfinished on a flat side. A large metal statue of a horse. There is also a sculpture of Lenin with his right hand stretched out to point to the open. It is a cold, rigid no-man's land where the fading past borders the imaginary future. People wander aimlessly through this unreal world. What was once certain is no longer convincing, relatives and friends have disappeared, and ideals have dissipated with the wind. Sasha returned home from abroad, and her dead father, who had been the owner of the construction site, now inherits the inheritance: a Kyrgyz worker who was looking for a co-worker; an architect with a reflective red skin on his forehead; and a tour guide who had stood shoulder to shoulder with Yeltsin at a Moscow barricade. Some of them will have nosebleeds inexplicably. A young student asked, "Who are we?" Who am I? Everything is chaotic. ”
Alexei Germain Jr. distilled the spirit of his homeland into a long-narrated symbolic film in seven chapters, a smooth and elaborate dance of people and cameras.
Cheers (Aferim!)
Romania / Bulgaria / France
Director: Radu Jude
Writers: Florin Lazarescu / Radhoo Jude
Radu Jude, born in Romania in 1977, graduated from the Department of Directing at Bucharest's Media University in 2003. He studied as an assistant director until his film debut, THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD, received worldwide attention and was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival Forum. His second feature film, EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY, premiered at the Forum in 2012 and won several awards at the Sarajevo And Namur Film Festival.
In Eastern Europe in 1835, two knights crossed the barren lands of central Wallachia. They were the gendarme Costandin and his son. The two are hunting down a gypsy slave who flees from his master's house on suspicion of having an affair with the wife of the noble master's family. The calm Constantine cheered with inspiring aphorisms no matter what the situation was, while his son observed the world in a contemplative way. In their fantastic adventures, they meet people of different faiths from different countries: Turks and Russians, Christians and Jews, Romanians and Hungarians. They have generational prejudices against each other. Even after the final hunt for slave Carfin, their adventures are far from over.
It is a fable about the late period of European feudal society, circulated from historical documents and songs: the power structure and class of society, the people's perception of themselves and others, their interaction with minorities, and the conflicts that arise from it. It is a Western black-and-white film from the Balkans that vividly recreates the harsh tones of the times while expanding the main theme to extend it to modern times.
Gone With The Bullets
China
Director: Jiang Wen
Writers: Jiang Wen / Guo Junli / Wang Shuo / Liao Yimei / Shu Ping / Yan Yunfei / Sun Yue / Sun Rui / Yu Yanlin
Jiang Wen was born in 1963 in Tangshan, Hebei Province, China. When he was ten years old, he came to Beijing with his military father. He studied at the Central Academy of Drama from 1980 to 1984, and after graduation engaged in drama and film performances, and is currently one of the most famous film stars in China. Jiang Wen directed his debut film Sunny Days in 1994, which has played an important role in the history of Chinese cinema for three decades.
In the 1920s, in Shanghai, the former Qing aristocrat Ma Zhaori turned into a professional fool and conspired with police inspector Xiang Feitian to launder money for Wu Qi, the son of the warlord. Together, they planned a beauty contest called the "Flower Domain Presidential Election." However, Yan Ying's unexpected defense of the title triggered a series of events that eventually developed into a deadly chaos.
Director Jiang Wen in his last gangster comedy "Let the Bullets Fly", successfully used a multi-genre mixture of ways to conceal a turbulent history, unlike the former, the creators moved to Shanghai in "One Step Away". Many films depicting the 20s use this bustling metropolis as a story setting. This is the second in the Bullets series, and while gorgeous, it traces the pains of the civil war and worries about future social upheavals in brilliant costumes and extravagant scenes, like a dance in the crater.
(Editor: Fan Shadow Network Editorial Team)