18/01/2006

Perspektive Deutsches Kino, a section of the Berlin IFF dedicated to the new generation of German filmmakers, is celebrating its fifth anniversary. This event created by Dieter Kosslick and directed by Alfred Holighaus will screen a total of nine world premieres.

A highlight of this year's selection is the debut feature of the 31-year-old actress Franka Potente, Digging For Belladonna (o.t. Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt). Pretty Lola (from Tom Tykwer's famous movie) has stopped running to go behind the camera and dedicate a silent black-and-white tribute to the 7th art. Her film, produced by X Filme Creative Pool, stars Emilia Sparagna, Christoph Bach, Justus von Dohnanyi, and Teresa Harder.
Goldkind (Sophie Scholl [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Razor Films (Paradise Now [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), two producers now well-known for their ability to spot great movies, will present, respectively, Wholetrain [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Running On Empty (o.t. Der Lebensversicherer). The former, written and directed by Florian Gaag, is a modern melodrama depicting the tribulations of a group of graffiti writers, while the latter, by Bülent Akinci (a dffb graduate who has already made two short films), is a tragicomic road movie where the characters (played by Jens Harzer and Anna Maria Mühe) travel around in an absurd loop —as the English title indicates.

The programme also includes a documentary on recent events of the German past which help to understand the present. Indeed, Katharina Bullin – And I Thought I Was The Greatest (o.t. Katharina Bullin - Und ich dachte ich wär' die Größte), a film written, directed and produced by young Marcus Welsch, alludes to the many doping scandals in GDR competitive sport through the story of a volleyball player who lost her control over her own body to a demanding State and a brutal society.

(Translated from French)