18/01/2019 - The main programme of the 49th edition of the Berlinale’s Forum section is now complete and boasts 39 films, including 31 world premieres

Forum will be celebrating its 49th edition during the 69th Berlin International Film Festival (7-17 February 2019), curated – after Christoph Terhechte stepped down this summer, following 17 successful editions – by an interim directorate consisting of the members of the board of directors of Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art, which originally instigated this programme and has been organising it ever since. Said members are Milena Gregor, Birgit Kohler and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus.

The ambition that the independent section has always possessed – that is, to reflect on the medium of film, and expand the understanding of what it is and how it relates to the world, pushing "the boundaries of convention" in terms of form as well as message – is reaffirmed in this year's programme, the concept of which is not to present a "best of" list, but rather to gather together a selection of films "that try things out, take a stance and refuse to compromise", including by exploring other art forms besides film.

The main programme consists of 39 movies, 31 of which will screen as world premieres. Sixteen of these titles are European, and nine more are European co-productions. The whole selection includes many literary adaptations or works teeming with references to literature, such as a Super 8 silent-film version of Elfriede Jelinek’s ghost novel The Children of the Dead, an opulent rendition of Robert Musil's novella The Portuguese Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rita Azevedo Gomes
film profile] and an essayistic collage called An Open Rose, based on Rosa Luxemburg’s letters from prison, to mention but a few. As is customary, the documentary form is being granted a special place in the Forum section, represented, for instance, by two well-known European names in the field: Nikolaus Geyrhalter with Earth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
film profile] and Jean-Gabriel Périot with Our Defeats [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], in which scenes from May 1968, showing strikes and labour disputes, are restaged and discussed with high-school students.

This year’s Special Screenings, entitled “Archival Constellations”, have yet to be announced.  

Here is the list of all the films selected as part of the main programme of Forum 2019:

African Mirror [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Mischa Hedinger (Switzerland)
Belonging [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Burak Çevik
film profile] - Burak Çevik (Turkey/Canada/France)
The Portuguese Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rita Azevedo Gomes
film profile] - Rita Azevedo Gomes (Portugal)
The Blue Flower of Novalis - Gustavo Vinagre, Rodrigo Carneiro (Brazil)
Bait [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mark Jenkin
film profile] - Mark Jenkin (UK)
Breathless Animals - Lei Lei (USA)
Landless - Camila Freitas (Brazil)
From Tomorrow on, I Will [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Ivan Marković, Wu Linfeng (Germany/China/Serbia)
Delphine and Carole [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Callisto Mc Nulty
film profile] - Callisto Mc Nulty (France/Switzerland)
Demons - Daniel Hui (Singapore)
The Children of the Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška
film profile] - Kelly Copper, Pavol Liska (Austria)
Hormigas [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Antonella Sudasassi Furniss (Costa Rica/Spain)
Earth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
film profile] - Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Austria)
Far from Us - Verena Kuri, Laura Bierbrauer (Argentina)
Progress in the Valley of the People Who Don’t Know [+see also:
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film profile] - Florian Kunert (Germany)
Fourteen - Dan Sallitt (USA)
Fukuoka - Zhang Lu (Republic of Korea)
The Last to See Them [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Sara Summa (Germany)
Heimat Is a Space in Time [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Thomas Heise (Germany/Austria)
The Stone Speakers [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Igor Drljača (Canada/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
And Your Bird Can Sing - Sho Miyake (Japan)
Lapü - César Alejandro Jaimes, Juan Pablo Polanco (Colombia)
A Russian Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Alexander Zolotukhin (Russia)
Vanishing Days - Zhu Xin (China)
Monsters. [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Marius Olteanu
film profile] - Marius Olteanu (Romania)
Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You - Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (Lesotho)
MS Slavic 7 - Sofia Bohdanowicz, Deragh Campbell (Canada)
Leakage [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Suzan Iravanian (Iran/Czech Republic)
Just Don't Think I'll Scream [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Frank Beauvais (France)
Our Defeats [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Jean-Gabriel Périot (France)
Olanda [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Bernd Schoch (Germany)
Khartoum Offside [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Marwa Zein (Sudan/Norway/Denmark)
Homing [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Helvécio Marins Jr (Brazil/Germany)
Retrospekt [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Esther Rots (Netherlands/Belgium)
Serpentarius [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Carlos Conceição (Angola/Portugal)
So Pretty [+see also:
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film profile] - Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli (USA/France)
The Plagiarists - Peter Parlow (USA)
Warda, An Open Rose - Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon)
Music and Apocalypse [+see also:
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film profile] - Max Linz (Germany)
What We Left Unfinished - Mariam Ghani (US/Afghanistan/Qatar)
Years of Construction [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Heinz Emigholz (Germany)