21 films from 16 countries, among them three German premieres. 17 feature films and four documentaries plus numerous award winners. Front-runner among the film countries is Greece, burdened by financial crisis – which seems to serve as breeding grounds for energetic and important films. A BLAST shows in a filmic explosion a woman and a whole country on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In the Western-like tragedy
STANDING ASIDE, WATCHING a woman has to fight off a violent male society. In the piercing and surreal road-movie XENIA two Albanian brothers are looking for their Greek father. Poverty causing rural exodus, sexual oppression, homophobia and crises in society are the big topics in the productions 2013/2014. In the award-winning Ethiopian film
DIFRET, co-produced by Angelina Jolie, a 14-year old girl is threatened with death-sentence, because she killed her rapist. In the Kazakh film of the same title young Nagima tries to spare the child of her deceased friend a life in the orphanage. In the Philippine
METRO MANILA paddy farmer Oscar moves to the big city in order to provide a better life for his family. In
BAD HAIR a mother can’t come to terms with her son wanting to flatten his hair – she suffers from homophobia. In the documentary
CHILDREN 404, lesbians and gays of the online-help group of the same name tell of harassments in Russian everyday life. In China internet addicts get sent to re-educations camps, as we see in
WEB JUNKIE. The Russian drama
LEVIATHAN is a razor-sharp analysis of a society on the brink of dissolution. Gripping as a Hollywood-thriller is the documentary
THE GREEN PRINCE about an Israeli intelligence informer. Love and genre are present as well:
THE WAY HE LOOKS is an adorable film about love with a blind boy taken back and forth. In
SOMETHING MUST BREAK two men fall in love, who are still in search of their sexuality. On the contrary,
ON THE JOB is an action thriller showing two sides of a story. In the horror-fairy tale musical
PATCH TOWN (the most eccentric exground has to offer this year) little cabbage-head babies have to be rescued. And in
HORSEHEAD girls’ nightmares in fascinating images are to be seen late at night. Breathtaking images of young artists are offered in
GRAZING THE SKY. You can laugh in the winner of the Locarno Audience Award: in
SCHWEIZER HELDEN asylum seekers for christmas stage "Wilhelm Tell" by Schiller. Of course, we offer you stars, too. In
ABUSE OF WEAKNESS Isabelle Huppert embodies director Catherine Breillat’s alter ego after her stroke and is taken in by a charming fraudster. Heavy gear in the snow accompanies Stellan Skarsgård on his revenge crusade in IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE – with Bruno Ganz as mafia boss "Papa". And last, but not least the tidbit, the audience favorite in Cannes, the award-winner of many other festivals, the Argentinian entry for the Oscars; in short – the film you definitely shouldn’t miss:
WILD TALES, the very black thriller comedy about the evil in all of us.
A BLAST
by Syllas Tzoumerkas
Greece/Germany/Netherlands 2014 Greek original version with English subtitles
ABUSE OF WEAKNESS [ABUS DE FAIBLESSE]
by Catherine Breillat
France/Belgium 2013 French original version with German subtitles
BAD HAIR [PELO MALO]
by Mariana Rondón
Venezuela/Argentina/Peru/Germany 2013 Spanish original version with English subtitles
CHILDREN 404
by Askold Kurov and Pavel Loparev
Russia 2014 original version with English subtitles
DIFRET
by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
Ethiopia 2014 original version with German subtitles
GRAZING THE SKY [A RAS DEL CIELO]
by Horacio Alcalá
Spain/Mexico/Portugal 2013 English-French-Spanish original version with English subtitles
HORSEHEAD [FIEVRE]
by Romain Basset
France 2014 English original version
IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE [KRAFTIDIOTEN]
by Hans Petter Moland
Norway/Sweden/Denmark 2014 Norwegian-Swedish-Danish original version with German subtitles
LEVIATHAN
by Andrej Zvjagintsev
Russia 2014 original version with German subtitles
METRO MANILA
by Sean Ellis
Great Britain/Philippines 2013 Philippine original version with English subtitles
NAGIMA
by Zhanna Issabayeva
Kazachstan 2013 Russian original version with English subtitles
ON THE JOB
by Erik Matti
Philippines 2013 original version with English subtitles
PATCH TOWN
by Craig Goodwill
Canada 2014 English original version
SOMETHING MUST BREAK [NÅNTING MÅSTE GÅ SÖNDER]
by Ester Martin Bergsmark
Sweden 2014 original version with German subtitles
STANDING ASIDE, WATCHING [NA KATHESAI KAI NA KOITAS]
by Yorgos Servetas
Greece 2013 original version with English subtitles
THE GREEN PRINCE
by Nadav Schirman
Germany/Israel/Great Britain 2014 English-Hebrew original version with German subtitles
THE WAY HE LOOKS
by Daniel Ribeiro
Brasilia 2014 original version with German subtitles
UNLIKELY HEROES [SCHWEIZER HELDEN]
by Peter Luisi
Switzerland 2014 Swissgerman original version with English subtitles
WEB JUNKIE
by Hilla Medalia and Shosh Shlam
Israel/USA 2014 English-Mandarin original version with English subtitles
WILD TALES [RELATOS SALVAJES]
by Damián Szifron
Argentina/Spain 2014 original version with English subtitles
XENIA
by Panos H. Koutras
Germany/Belgium/France 2014 Greek-Albanian original version with German subtitles
