Sunday's Illness

Ramón Salazar : 2018
La enfermedad del domingo

Anabel is a successful businesswoman with a wealthy husband. At a reception in her villa she meets a woman, a member of the catering staff who has been hired for the evening. This woman is none other than her own daughter Chiara, whom she had left over thirty years ago. Chiara was just eight years old at the time. She now approaches her mother with an unusual request: to spend ten days together with her. Anabel agrees and follows her daughter to a remote house in the mountains. She begins exploring the largely uninhabited region; meanwhile Chiara initially does her own thing and seems to pursue a mysterious goal. In the end, unexpected borderline experiences bring mother and daughter closer together and Anabel finds herself having to make the most difficult decision of her life. Ramón Salazar's feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Jibril

Henrika Kull : 2018

At a party, Maryam and Jibril exchange glances. Years later, Maryam happens to meet the same young man again when she is asked to deliver a parcel to someone in prison. The recipient is none other than Jibril, who is serving a sentence of several years. The attraction between this single mother-of-three and the inmate is just as strong as it was when they first met. Maryam plunges enthusiastically into an initially largely platonic romance, which on the one hand may satisfy certain longings on both sides, yet on the other also awakens desire. But having a relationship with someone who isn't there and who doesn't participate in her life, and who she can't even really get to know, is a challenge for Maryam. Jibril too finds his situation as a prisoner increasingly difficult to bear. The two of them, in search of happiness, grapple with the idealisations and projections of each other. In their yearning for one another, they attempt to fill an inner void. The attention they draw from each other ultimately becomes the measure of their self-esteem. Henrika Kull's feature debut premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Horizonti

Tinatin Kajrishvili : 2018
Horizon

The change in Giorgi's life could not be more radical. The city, art, his regular, middle-class existence and his marriage to Ana are all behind him. Now he is alone. Giorgi goes into isolation on a small barren island in a simple hut by the sea. In an inhospitable environment, surrounded only by a handful of strangers, between chicken farming and duck hunting, he is trying to pick up the pieces of his life. But his wounds are deep, and the shadows of his happy past repeatedly catch up with him. It becomes increasingly unlikely that he will break out of his isolation. Ana has found somebody new. The city is far away, as are all thoughts of the future. Tinatin Kajrishvili's second feature-length drama is a meticulously and consistently told story about the end of a relationship. Her film premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

The Silent Revolution

Lars Kraume : 2018
Das schweigende Klassenzimmer

1956. During a visit to a cinema in West Berlin, East German high school pupils Theo and Kurt see disturbing newsreel footage of the uprising in Budapest. Back in Stalinstadt, one of the GDR's flagship workers' settlements, they have the idea of holding a minute's silence in class for the victims of the Hungarian struggle for freedom. Neither the boys, nor their parents, nor the school's administration are prepared for the minor and major reactions that their expression of solidarity unleashes. The school principal tries to dismiss the incident as juvenile mischief and deal with it internally, but the pupils find themselves snared in the political machinery of a state determined to make an example of them. Condemning their act as counter-revolutionary, the education minister demands that the pupils name their ringleader. They are faced with a decision that has dramatic consequences for their future. Lars Kraume's feature premiered as a Special Gala Screening at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.