La fille inconnue

Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne : 2016
The Unknown Girl

Jenny Davin is a young doctor who receives a late night call at the door of her practice after hours and decides to ignore it. The next morning she learns that the caller was a girl who has been found dead and that the police have no way to identify her. Shocked and guilt-stricken by the news, Jenny resolves to discover the name of the young girl so that she will not be buried anonymously. Playing intelligently with the traits of traditional detective dramas, an engaging social commentary and morally astute and compelling investigation of personal responsibility, justice and guilt. The Dardenne's feature premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2016.

A Serious Game

Pernilla August : 2016
Den allvarsamma leken

Stockholm at the beginning of the twentieth century. Lydia, the daughter of a landscape painter, and Arvid, a young journalist at the beginning of his career, fall in love at first sight. But the time is not ripe for their happiness: after the sudden death of her father, Lydia finds herself without an inheritance. Believing that he has nothing to offer her, penniless Arvid, who comes from a poor background, shies away from the idea of marriage. They part. When they meet again ten years later – both are now married and have children – they embark upon a passionate affair with unforeseeable consequences. A romance about two people who transcend the morals of their time and discover their own, unexpected ways of fulfilling their emotions. Pernilla August's adaptation of Hjalmar Söderberg's classic 1912 novel premiered in the Berlinale Special section at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery

Lav Diaz : 2016
Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis

Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro is considered to be one of the most influential proponents in the struggle against Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines during the late nineteenth century. Today, he is still celebrated as the father of the Philippine Revolution. Bonifacio's widow is searching for her husband's missing dead body; as she and her followers stumble deeper into the jungle, they become entangled in the dense thicket of their own guilt and responsibility. The Spanish governor tries to play off the various rebel factions and their utopian visions against each other. At the same time, a badly wounded companion of Bonifacio reflects upon the victims a revolution inevitably creates. The film was winner of the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize when it premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Alone in Berlin

Vincent Perez : 2016
Jeder stirbt für sich allein

Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime's victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel's son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the 'Führer' and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat. A quietly persuasive eulogy to human courage and dignity in an atmosphere of surveillance and intimidation. Vincent Perez's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Fire at Sea

Gianfranco Rosi : 2016
Fuocoammare

Samuele is twelve and lives on an island in the Mediterranean, far away from the mainland. Like all boys of his age he does not always enjoy going to school. He would much rather climb the rocks by the shore, play with his slingshot or mooch about the port. But his home is not like other islands. For years, it has been the destination of men, women and children trying to make the crossing from Africa in boats that are far too small and decrepit. The island is Lampedusa which has become a metaphor for the flight of refugees to Europe, the hopes, hardship and fate of hundreds of thousands of emigrants. These people long for peace, freedom and happiness and yet so often only their dead bodies are pulled out of the water. Thus, every day the inhabitants of Lampedusa are bearing witness to the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our times. Gianfranco Rosi's feature was winner of the Golden Bear when it premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

The Night Manager

Susanne Bier : 2016

In Cairo at the height of the Arab Spring, hotel night manager Jonathan Pine receives a plea for help from the beautiful Sophie Alekan. As the mistress of the powerful but dangerous hotel owner, Sophie has evidence of an arms deal that could help crush the popular uprising. Compelled to do what he thinks is right, Pine makes contact with his friend at the British Embassy. But his actions unwittingly draw him into the terrifying world of ruthless arms dealer, Richard Roper. When Sophie's information makes its way to Angela Burr, a government anti-corruption agent intent on bringing down Roper's empire, a leak in her network triggers a chain of events that could end in tragedy. A TV mini-series adapted from the novel by John le Carré.

24 Wochen

Anne Zohra Berrached : 2016
24 Weeks

Astrid is a comedian who makes people laugh for a living; her husband Markus is her manager and the two of them work well together. They have a nine-year-old daughter and are expecting their second child. When they learn that their child will not be born healthy, they are at first optimistic that they will be able to meet this challenge – although they have no idea what awaits them. But the closer it gets to the due date, the more Astrid begins to worry about the future of her unborn child as well as that of her family and her career. After many discussions and arguments Astrid realises that the decision that will affect all their lives must be made by her alone. What complicates matters further is the fact that, as a successful entertainer, she is in the eye of the public and the media. Anne Zohra Berrached's second feature explores the way in which women choose to live their lives, delivering a powerful portrait of a woman who finds herself caught up in a major moral dilemma for which there are no easy solutions. Her film premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Ida

Paweł Pawlikowski : 2013

1960s Poland. A noviciate nun, about to take her vows in the Catholic Church, is told by her Mother Superior that she will be accepted into the church after she has visited her aunt. The young and prim Anna soon finds herself in the presence of the middle-aged Wanda, her mother's sister, a raven-haired sensualist. It is here that her past - and her real name, Ida - is revealed to her for the first time. This triggers a remarkable journey into the countryside, to the family house to learn what happened to Ida's parents during the war and where they might be buried – a trip that has a profound effect on both of them.

We are the tide

Sebastian Hilger : 2016
Wir sind die Flut

Fifteen years ago the sea disappeared from Windholm's shore. The tide simply retreated and has remained out ever since. There were no recognisable causes, it just happened. From that day this anomaly has lain like a curse on the area, throwing up questions and causing disquiet.
Ambitious physics student Micha has a bold theory and hopes to figure out the phenomenon. But after years of preliminary work, his project is rejected by the rigidly old-style university system. Micha and his colleague Jana secretly set out to test his hypothesis. In the restricted military area, the young researchers meet the piteous remains of the village community. They arrive in Windholm and fall under the spell of the isolated village community where there are no children. For years the people here have been trying to come to terms with the fact that, on the day the tide went out, their children also disappeared. They searched high and low for them until eventually they were declared drowned but their bodies were never found. Gradually, Jana and Micha begin to suspect that it is no coincidence that they of all people have ended up in Windholm. Did they even have a choice? Or was it predestined? And precisely what are they looking for? Little by little the pair not only begin to unravel a great secret, they also discover how they themselves are entangled in Windholm's history. The film premiered in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Augustine

Alice Winocour : 2012

Paris, winter 1885. At the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Professor Jean-Marin Charcot studies a mysterious illness which he calls 'Hysteria'. Home to thousands of seemingly catatonic women and run by only a handful of doctors, the isolated corridors of the hospital perfectly shadow the Professor's hypnotic tests on his patients. Augustine, a 19-year-old girl, is admitted to the hospital and soon becomes the Professor's favourite subject; the star of his demonstrations of hypnosis. But the object of his studies will soon become the object of his desire. Alice Winocour's feature debut premiered in competition in the Séances Spéciales at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2012.

The Wall

Julian Roman Pölsler : 2012
Die Wand

A woman inexplicably finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall suddenly surrounds the countryside, leaving her isolated in the Austrian Alps. Accompanied by her loyal dog Lynx, she becomes immersed in a world untouched by civilisation and ruled by the laws of nature. Told via the voice-over of the woman as she enters her account of daily events in her journal, all the acting is delivered through expressions or actions. An adaption of the best-selling novel by Marlen Haushofer, this beautiful tale of survival and endurance, ultimately about the meaning of humanity, is a moving masterpiece that leaves a lasting impression.

Alone

Park Hong-min : 2015
Honja

Su-min spies from his balcony on the house of neighbours over the road and happens to photograph a brutal murder. It marks the start for a series of muddy events. Until Su-min wakes up and it seems he has dreamt it all. But there is no avoiding of horrific events, while it becomes less and less clear whether they are real or inside his head. Memories, dream and reality become entangled. Victims and culprits continually swap roles. A nightmare set in a labyrinthine residential area of Seoul. Houses are close together, but there's no one on the street. Su-min can run as far as he likes, but always seems to return to the same spot. Park Hong-min's second feature had its international premiere in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Pacífico

Fernanda Romandía : 2016

On the beach of Puerto Escondido in Mexico, a sleepy community where very little seems to happen, people are working hard on constructing a house designed by the famous Japanese architect Ando Tadao. The tranquil coastline is a strange place for such a huge concrete construction, and it's not clear who commissioned the work, but the villagers and workmen don't seem to mind. Through the construction work, we get to know three people, each with their own problems, dreams and fears. Seven-year-old Coral goes to the building site every day after school to visit her godfather Diego, a bricklayer addicted to his telephone. There she also meets the carpenter Oriente, a poet muttering profundities whom she hopes will become her godfather, but who himself yearns to return to his family. Fernanda Romandía's fictional feature debut premiered in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Endorphine

André Turpin : 2015

Twelve-year-old Simone is a witness to the gruesome murder of her mother, a trauma that causes her increasingly to shut herself off from reality. Together with her cousin, she plays a game in which they suffocate each other until they faint. At the age of twenty, Simone works in a parking garage, where panic attacks and visions make her life unbearable. And in her sixties, as a professor of physics, Simone gives a lecture about how the senses deceive our view of reality. Continuously turning in circles, a beautifully filmed puzzle unfolds, a hypnotic mix of dream, nightmare and mystery, in which the lives of three women going by the name of Simone are linked together through time and space. André Turpin's feature premiered at Toronto Independent Film Festival 2015, and screened in the Voices section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Alba

Ana Cristina Barragán : 2016

Alba is eleven years old and terribly shy. She has great difficulty standing up for herself among the precocious girls in her class, who talk like little adults about relationships but keep making fun of Alba with the cruelty of children. The fact that she wears a plastic corset to straighten her crooked spine and gets nosebleeds at inconvenient moments doesn't help. And then she is occasionally dumped off with her eccentric father Igor, who she never knew and of whom she is very ashamed. Very slowly and cautiously, the father and daughter get to know each other. Ana Cristina Barragán's feature debut was winner of the Lions Film Award when it premiered in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.

Kollektivet

Thomas Vinterberg : 2016
The Commune

Erik and Anna are an academic couple with a dream. Together with their daughter Freja, they set up a commune in Erik's huge villa in an upmarket district of Copenhagen. With the family at the centre of the story, we are invited into their dream of a real commune. We participate in the house meetings, the dinners and parties. There is friendship, love and togetherness under one roof, until an earth-shattering love affair puts the small community to its greatest test yet. A humorous, delicate but also painful and touching portrait of an entire generation, a gentle yet confrontational declaration of love for a group of idealists and dreamers who have long since awakened to reality. Thomas Vinterberg's feature was winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress at its international premiere in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Julieta

Pedro Almodóvar : 2016

Spanning 30 years in Julieta's life from a nostalgic 1985, at a more prosperous time in her life where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness. 12 years ago Julieta's daughter, Antía, abandoned her without warning and hasn't spoken to Julieta since. When a chance encounter brings news of her daughter, Julieta returns to her former home to revive her search for Antía, whilst also examining the events leading to her daughter's estrangement. The film speaks of inevitable destiny, a guilt complex, the unfathomable mystery which makes us abandon the ones we love, wiping them out of our life as if they had never meant anything to us – and about the pain this abandonment causes in the victim. Pedro Almodóvar's feature had its international premiere in competition at Festival de Cannes 2016.

Quand on a 17 ans

André Téchiné : 2016
Being 17

Damien is the pampered teenage son of a soldier and a doctor. He lives with his mother in Army barracks in the south of France while his father is on a military mission in the Central African Republic. Damien shows a new, defiant side of himself in high school in order to stave off the bullies who taunt him over his effeminate ways: a friend of his father's is teaching him to wrestle. When he meets Tom, the adopted son of local farmers, the hatred between the two boys is immediate and visceral. But when Tom's mother is forced to go to the hospital, Damien's mother quite naturally offers to take Tom into their home for a short while. The tension between the two boys becomes more and more palpable. André Téchiné's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

L'avenir

Mia Hansen-Løve : 2016
Things to Come

Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. But when her husband announces he is leaving her for another woman, she finds a newfound freedom suddenly thrust upon her that is simultaneously liberating and disconcerting. An intelligent, poetic and naturalistic exploration of one woman's pursuit of contentment in the face of adversity. Mia Hansen-Løve's fifth feature was winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director when it premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2016.

Beyond Sleep

Boudewijn Koole : 2016

A mythical quest for a stone that fell from the sky. Alfred Issendorf, a young, ambitious geologist, goes in search of meteorites in the swampy north of Norway, hoping that the journey will cement his academic reputation by uncovering a significant scientific proof. Alfred is also trying to continue where his father left off when he died during a similar research trip of his own. Alfred searches, stumbles and suffers on the pitiless Northern European tundra. He finds redemption only when he has reached the very brink of insanity. Based on the Dutch literary classic Nooit meer slapen by Willem Frederik Hermans. Boudewijn Koole's feature premiered as the opening film at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016.