10/02/2006

his year's Berlinale competition emphasizes the strong state of German films, with no less than four wholly German titles and three co-productions.

Tomorrow, the public will discover The Elementary Particles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franka Potente & Moritz Ble…
interview: Oskar Roehler
film profile] (Elementartiteilchen) by Oskar Roehler. Produced by Constantin Film Produktion, Roehler’s film was adapted from the eponymous novel by Michel Houellebecq and deals with the apprehension of two completely different half-brothers (Moritz Bleibtreu and Christian Ulmen) towards the notion of a couple.

On February 13, the Berlinale Palast will screen The Free Will (Der freie Wille by Matthias Glasner, a co-production between Colonia Media, Label 131 and Schwarzweiss Filmproduktion, in which the director depicts the love, for better and for worse, between Theo (Jürgen Vogel), a rapist just released after nine years of psychiatric detention, and Nettie (Sabine Timoteo), who has just left her father after 27 years of abuse. The official screening of Longing () by Valeska Grisebach will take place on February 15. This debut feature with a documentary-like feel stars Ilka Welz, Annett Dornbusch and Andreas Müller and was produced by Peter Rommel. Through the tragic story of a couple that has nonetheless loved each other forever, Grisebach portrays the generation of 30 year-olds in Berlin.

Finally, on February 17, Hans-Christian Schmid will present Requiem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Sandra Hueller
film profile], based on a true story from the 1970s, written by Bernd Lange and produced by 23/5 Filmproduktion. Michaela Klingler (Sandra Hüller), a young epileptic girl raised in a very Catholic family, moves to the city to study but begins suffering terrible fits and hearing voices, which leads her to agree to an exorcism.

The three German co-productions in competition are: Grbavica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
interview: Jasmila Zbanic
film profile], co-produced by Noir Film with Coop 99 (Austria) and Deblokada (Bosnia and Herzegovina), in which Jasmila Zbanic depicts the condition of children in post-war Sarajevo; Pandora Film’s El custodio [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Rodrigo Moreno, co-produced with Argentina and France; and Claude Chabrol’s eagerly awaited Comedy of Power [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Integral Film).

(Translated from French)