Today, the Berlinale (16-26 February) announced the full line-ups for its Forum and Forum Expanded strands. In detail, this year’s Forum section will see “powerful documentaries stand alongside highly personal essay films”, and according to the official press release, the 28 titles look set to “celebrate the diversity of cinematic forms, approaches and narratives, and explore the predicaments of the past and present in unflinching fashion”.

Among the Forum’s European highlights is, without a doubt, Claire Simon’s new documentary Our Body [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (France). In it, the helmer looks around a gynaecological clinic in Paris “with a gaze full of tenderness, collecting scenes of births and cancer diagnoses, consultations about endometriosis and hormone therapy”. Next, Paris-based Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon will present Where God Is Not [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mehran Tamadon
scheda film] (France/Switzerland). The director asks acquaintances of his, who have served time in Iranian prisons, to reconstruct their experiences in an empty warehouse. Another timely work set to world-premiere at the German gathering is Tomasz Wolski and Piotr Pawlus’ In Ukraine [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski
scheda film] (Poland). Here, the two filmmakers examine “the pulse of everyday life in a state of war”, deliberately “avoiding dramatisation and the pathos of urgency”.

Meanwhile, the 34 films and installations from 20 countries which make up this year’s Forum Expanded line-up revolve around “political and personal legacies which often lie in shambles”, and see their makers “keen on artistic experimentation, [...] propelling them forward on ever-changing and surprising trajectories”. The seven European (co-)productions included in this strand are Ana Vaz’s The Tree (Spain/Brazil), Manthia Diawara’s AI: African Intelligence (Portugal/Senegal/Belgium), Dan Guthrie’s Black Strangers (UK), Heiko-Thandeka Ncube’s The early rain which washes away the chaff before spring rains (Germany), Graeme Arnfield’s Home Invasion (UK), Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory’s Prototype (Canada/Denmark) and Cana Bilir-Meier’s In-between Worlds (Germany).

Here is the complete list of titles (including the previously announced ones – see the news):

Forum

Allensworth – James Benning (USA)
Anqa [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Helin Çelik (Austria/Spain)
About Thirty – Martin Shanly (Argentina)
Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Luke Fowler (UK)
The Bride – Myriam U Birara (Rwanda)
Cidade Rabat [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Susana Nobre (Portugal/France)
De Facto [+leggi anche:
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The Intrusion [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Flora Dias, Juruna Mallon (Brazil/France)
The Temple Woods Gang [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (France)
Leaving and Staying [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Volker Koepp (Germany)
Between Revolutions [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vlad Petri
scheda film] – Vlad Petri (Romania/Croatia/Qatar/Iran)
There Is a Stone – Tatsunari Ota (Japan)
Where God Is Not [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mehran Tamadon
scheda film] – Mehran Tamadon (France/Switzerland)
Our Body [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Claire Simon (France)
A Golden Life [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Boubacar Sangaré (Burkina Faso/Benin/France)
The Face of the Jellyfish – Melisa Liebenthal (Argentina)
Remembering Every Night – Yui Kiyohara (Japan)
Forms of Forgetting – Burak Çevik (Turkey)
Regardless of Us – Yoo Heong-jun (South Korea)
In Ukraine [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski
scheda film] – Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski (Poland)
Concrete Valley – Antoine Bourges (Canada)
Dearest Fiona [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fiona Tan
scheda film] – Fiona Tan (Netherlands)
Horse Opera – Moyra Davey (USA)
The Trial [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Ulises de la Orden (Argentina/Italy/France/Norway)
Calls from Moscow [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Luís Alejandro Yero (Cuba/Germany/Norway)
Mammalia [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Sebastian Mihăilescu (Romania/Poland/Germany)
Notes from Eremocene [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Viera Čákanyová
scheda film] – Viera Čákanyová (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
This Is the End [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Vincent Dieutre (France)