A Dog Barking at the Moon

Xiang Zi : 2019

When the young student Li Jiumei meets her future husband Huang Tao, she is youthful and happy; her daughter Huang Xiaoyu has not yet been born and the secrets of the family are still hidden behind closed doors deep inside the house. Her daughter Huang Xiaoyu is already a young girl when creeping suspicion overcomes Li Jiumei. She kicks down a door behind which she catches her husband with a young man. Huang Xiaoyu is now pregnant and living in the USA; a little while later she returns to pay a visit with her boyfriend. She discovers that, in addition to bitterness and hatred, the teachings of an ominous sect have now also spread throughout the house. A complex family saga and tale of suppressed desire, with narrative strands unfolding simultaneously in different periods. Xiang Zi's directorial debut won the Teddy Awards Special Jury Award when it premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

37 Seconds

Hikari : 2019

Yuma is a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo. When she commutes by train to her job in a manga studio, her face is at hip height to the other passengers standing up. Yuma uses a wheelchair on account of cerebral palsy. Her deformed limbs only allow her to crawl – and to hold a pencil. The fact that her boss, a successful comic artist and blogger named Sayaka, who has a penchant for garish Fairy Kei attire, passes Yuma's drawing ideas off as her own, dismays the talented 'mangaka'. Even worse, her overprotective mother hardly lets her out of her sight and refuses to talk about her father. As Yuma attempts to live a more independent life, she stumbles across adult comics – manga porn – and toys with the idea of drawing some herself. The publisher advises her to gain some personal experience first. But what happens when a woman in a wheelchair asks a tout in Tokyo's red light district to fix her up with a sex date? Hikari's feature directorial debut won the CICAE Award and the Audience Award when it premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

All My Loving

Edward Berger : 2019
Geschwister

The three siblings Stefan, Julia and Tobias lead comfortable middle-class lives. Outwardly, they are doing well, but all three are becoming more and more aware that there are gaps in their lives, that something is not right, and that something has to change. Stefan, 41, is a successful pilot and a real ladies man; up to now he has always led the life of a carefree hedonist. But suddenly his health will not play along anymore; moreover, an encounter with his daughter Vicky, whom he fathered in an earlier affair, throws him off course. While holidaying in Italy with her husband, Julia, 44, begins taking care of a street dog that's been hit by a car. All of a sudden the pain of her son's death catches up with her. Tobias, 34, is married to a career-orientated woman. He has been taking care of their three children and cannot seem to finish his studies; now his siblings have decided that he should also take care of their sick father. Three people in search of happiness and inner peace; an emerging image of an insecure generation in a rapidly changing world. Edward Berger's feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Last to See Them

Sara Summa : 2019
Gli ultimi a vederli vivere

The Durati family lead an idyllic, secluded life in the south of Italy, in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by olive groves. Their daily routines are not particularly spectacular, although the eldest daughter is soon to be married and each of the family members is preparing for the wedding in their own way. It's the younger daughter, Dora, who takes on most of the tasks. She sews the dresses for the bridesmaids, and does the shopping and the cooking. Her mother wanders around the house like a ghost, complaining of a headache, her father is busy dealing with an insurance agent with whom he took out life insurance, and her brother is making a wooden shrine intended as a wedding present. Through the eyes of each of the characters, the events are repeated from different perspectives, and at certain moments, a few new details emerge as the story progresses. The film makes no secret of the fact that father Enzo, mother Alice, daughter Dora and son Matteo will not survive the coming day. The knowledge of their imminent demise changes how the viewer sees their everyday actions, their plans both big and small. The fragility of life shines through and it almost feels like everything is slowing down. The smallest events are lent greater significance, making the inescapable end appear like a trancelike countdown. By concentrating so radically on the "before", the story of a brutal crime is told in an entirely unique way. It is much more a tender tale of life than one of death. We're the last to see them living. Sara Summa's feature debut premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Ground beneath My Feet

Marie Kreutzer : 2019
Der Boden unter den Füßen

Lola is almost thirty. A successful management consultant, she is constantly on the move between the companies she is tasked with restructuring. Her chic apartment in Vienna is more of a mailbox and a launderette than a home. A hundred working hours a week is not uncommon in addition to five sessions at the gym, expensive dinners with clients and nights spent in sterile hotels. Her career, which she is advancing with cleverness, efficiency and ruthless cunning, appears to be unstoppable. Lola applies a similarly disciplined approach when it comes to managing her private life. She keeps her relationship with her boss Elise secret, as well as the existence of her older sister Conny, who has been suffering from mental illness for a long time and who never leaves her apartment. But when Conny attempts suicide, Lola's secrets threaten to explode into the open. As she tries to do what's best for her sister without jeopardising all she's worked so hard for, Lola slowly finds her own grip on reality slipping away. Marie Kreutzer's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

A Tale of Three Sisters

Emin Alper : 2019
Kız Kardeşler

The three sisters, twenty-year-old Reyhan, sixteen-year-old Nurhan and Havva who is thirteen, all live with their father in a remote village in central Anatolia. One after the other they were sent away to town to work as housemaids, but each of them has now returned. The last of the sisters to do so is Nurhan. She beat the local doctor's son because he wet his bed every night. When Reyhan returned home pregnant, her father hastily married her off to the shepherd, Veysel. One day, the inebriated Veysel rises up against the village elder; his actions have dramatic consequences. Even if the dream of a better future does not come true for any of these young women and they always seem to be getting into arguments with each other, they nonetheless steadfastly stick together. While they wait for the snow-covered roads to become passable again, father and daughters pass the time with stories. A fairy tale in haunting images that portrays a society in which neither women nor men have a chance to break their predetermined cycle. Emin Alper's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Mr. Jones

Agnieszka Holland : 2019

In March 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones takes a train from Moscow to Kharkov in the Ukraine. He disembarks at a small station and sets off on foot on a journey through the country where he experiences at first hand the horrors of a famine. Everywhere there are dead people, and everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out to the general public. Stalin's forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin; the policy is tantamount to mass murder. Supported by Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter, Jones succeeds in spreading the shocking news in the West, thereby putting his powerful rival, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, pro-Stalin journalist Walter Duranty, firmly in his place. Based on real events, the dramatic thriller recalls the legendary journalist Gareth Jones (1905-1935) who, despite fierce resistance, could not be dissuaded from telling the truth. Agnieszka Holland's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Elisa y Marcela

Isabel Coixet : 2019
Elisa & Marcela

When Marcela and Elisa meet on their first day in high school, it is love at first sight. A deep friendship begins which soon turns into a romantic relationship. Nothing can prevent the two girls' feelings for each other, not even Marcela's suspicious parents, who eventually send their daughter to boarding school. Years later, the two women meet again and decide to live together. Both are respected teachers, but their partnership has to be kept secret from the critical Catholic population. For this reason, Elisa decides to pose as a man and marry Marcela. Their wedding photo depicts two young women, one in a black dress with her hair up, the other with a short haircut and wearing a suit; both are looking hopefully into the future. But their love remains exposed to great dangers. Based on true events, a deeply empathetic rendition of the story of Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, who were married in the church of San Jorge in A Coruña in northwest Spain in 1901. A paean to passion, dignity and resistance. Isabel Coixet's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Rift

Peter Bebjak : 2019
Trhlina

Igor, an unemployed university graduate, discovers the psychiatric assessment reports of Walter Fischer. One day seventy years ago, Fischer disappeared under mysterious circumstances while walking in the Tribec mountains. Two months later, he reappeared under equally mysterious circumstances and had strange wounds and burns all over his body. He was disoriented, could not explain what had happened to him and never recovered. Igor continues his investigation and, to his astonishment, he learns that Fischer's case was not at all isolated – mentions of mysterious disappearances in the mountains date far back into history. More and more chilling stories keep piling up. Igor, his girlfriend Mia, the conspiracy theorist Andrej and the inveterate sceptic David begin to dig deeper into the mystery and unearth a truth more terrifying than any fantasy. They embark on an expedition to the forests of Tribec, where they witness something that defies human understanding. Their initially innocent quest ends in tragedy. This mystery, as the group find out, has incredibly sharp teeth.

Bait

Mark Jenkin : 2019

The picture-postcard idyll of the Cornwall fishing village is misleading. While fishing used to be a way of supporting oneself, wealthy London tourists have now descended and are displacing the locals, whose livelihood is thus threatened. The relationship between brothers Steven and Martin is also strained. Martin is a fisherman without a boat, since Steven started using it for far more lucrative tours for all the day-trippers. They've sold the family cottage and now it seems that the final battle to be fought is that with the new owners over the parking space next to the sea. Yet the situation soon gets out of hand, and not just because of the wheel clamp. A black-and-white film shot on hand-processed 16mm, reminiscent of the tradition of social realism in British cinema. Mark Jenkin's feature premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Rust Creek

Jen McGowan : 2018

Sawyer is an ambitious, overachieving college senior with a seemingly bright future. While on her way to a job interview, a wrong turn leaves her stranded deep in the frozen Kentucky woods. Suddenly, the young woman with everything to live for finds herself facing her own mortality as she's punished by the elements and pursued by a band of ruthless outlaws. With nowhere left to run, she is forced into an uneasy alliance with Lowell, an enigmatic loner with shadowy intentions. Though she's not sure she can trust him, Sawyer must take a chance if she hopes to escape Rust Creek alive. Jen McGowan's survival thriller, her second feature, was winner of the Award for Best Thriller at San Diego International Film Festival 2018.

The Guilty

Gustav Möller : 2018
Den skyldige

Former police officer Asger Holm has been suspended from duty and has been relegated to emergency dispatcher. During his mundane night shift, he receives a strange phone call from a panicked woman. Despite his first surprised reaction, Asger will realise that the woman on the other end of the line has been kidnapped, and then the search will start. Confined to his desk at the emergency services call centre, Asger will have to track down and help the endangered woman with the help of his colleagues across the country. As the clock is ticking and the seconds go by, Asger will not only have to face the escalating events of the crime but also his own personal demons. Gustav Möller's feature debut premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2018 where it won the Audience Award, and had its European premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018 where it won the Audience Award and Youth Jury Award.

End of Season

Elmar Imanov : 2019
Ende der Saison

A small family in Azerbaijan is on the brink of running its course. Son Machmud feverishly seeks a home of his own; mother Fidan wants her life back after years of service to the family; father Samir just wants to be left alone. Three free spirits orbiting each other, ignoring the annoyances as much as possible. However, freedom can also hide incomprehension and alienation. A dramatic incident during a trip to the beach painfully highlights the hairline fractures in their existence. Elmar Imanov's feature debut was winner of the FIPRESCI Award when it premiered in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.