Sneak Peak: Berlin Film Festival 2016

Synopsis:

This is the chronicle of the search by Gregoria de Jesus - one of the few women leaders of the Philippine resistance against Spain - for the body of her husband, Andres Bonifacio, who was executed on a mountain by a rival faction of the rebellion.

Synopsis:

The Coens next film, about a fixer named Eddie Manix in Hollywood circa 1950s, who works for the studios to protect the stars of the day from deep-six scandalous stories, whether it be romantic dalliances, drug use, DUIs, arrests, serious threats, you name it.

Synopsis:

Situated some 200km off Italy's southern coast, Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants hoping to make a new life in Europe. Rosi spent months living on the Mediterranean island, capturing its history, culture and the current everyday reality of its 6,000-strong local population as hundreds of migrants land on its shores on a weekly basis. The resulting documentary focuses on 12-year-old Samuele, a local boy who loves to hunt with his slingshot and spend time on land even though he hails from a culture steeped in the sea.

Synopsis:

Damiens plays Philippe Mars, a mild-mannered computer programmer about to celebrate his 49th birthday. But when his ex-wife (Lea Drucker) heads off to Brussels, saddling him with his quirky 13-year-old son, Gregoire (Tom Rivoire) and uber-studious daughter, Sarah (Jeanne Guittet), things take a turn for the worse when Philippe starts having issues with office mate Jerome (Macaigne), a sweat-stained, highly erratic nutcase who walks around with a meat cleaver in his knapsack.

Synopsis:

A drama centered on the growing violence in Chicago. Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago’s Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Synopsis:

Letters from War (Cartas da guerra) is based on letters written in 1971 from Angola, during the Portuguese colonial war, by the young military doctor Antònio Lobo Antunes to his pregnant wife, and gathered in 2005 into the book entitled This Life Here Described on This Piece of Paper.

Synopsis:

Centered on the dilemma faced by a woman who is already six months pregnant when she learns that her unborn child will have Down's syndrome as well as a serious heart defect. Should she be able to choose the option of a late-term abortion? How can she and her husband know whether the unborn child could have a life worth living or would only suffer? In the end, the expectant mother realizes that only she can make this decision.

Synopsis:

Gao Chun, a young captain, steers his cargo boat up the Yangtze river. His father has recently died and, according to his beliefs, his son is now responsible for liberating his soul. At the same time, Gao Chun is looking for the love of his life. But all the women he meets in all the different ports are the same person: a magical being who grows ever younger the closer he gets to the source of the Yangtze. His trip up river turns into a journey through space and time.

Synopsis:

An orange Chevrolet Impala drives across a cemetery towards an abandoned shipwreck in the middle of a desert landscape. It is the 22nd of January, 1965. The day before, the Iranian prime minister was shot dead in front of the parliament building. Inside the wreck, a banished political prisoner has hung himself. The walls are covered in diary entries, literary quotes and strange symbols. Can they help Police Inspector Babak Hafizi in his investigations? Will they shed any light on why there is always an earthquake whenever somebody is buried in this desert cemetery?

Synopsis:

Hedi a young man with great dream is struggling his way through social conventions in Tunisia. While his mother tries to decide his life for him, Hedi meets Rym and suddenly he discovers that his world goes beyond and above conventions.

Synopsis:

In Denmark in the 1970s, a married couple set up a commune in a big rambling house, but must deal with the pressures and stresses of collective living as well as its joys and freedoms.

Synopsis:

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. One day, Nathalie's husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With freedom thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent her life.

Synopsis:

A tale of family rivalry and reconciliation, set against the stunning backdrop of rural New Zealand in the 1960's.

Synopsis:

A father and son go on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers.

Synopsis:

The story revolves around Damien, the son of a soldier, who lives in a barracks in Southwest France with his mother, a doctor, while his father has been despatched to Central Africa. The homosexual boy gets knocked around by another kid at school, Tom, whose adoptive mother has fallen ill. The revulsion and violence that they show towards one another is further stirred up when Damien’s mother decides to take Tom in under their roof.

Synopsis:

Not everyone in France is a wine connoisseur. In “Saint Amour,” country bumpkin cattle farmer Bruno (Benoit Poelvoorde) tosses back the stuff just to get drunk, estimating that he’s been plastered twice a week for the past 25 years. At the Paris Agricultural Show, Bruno grabs his best friend and heads straight for the wine stand, aiming to do a virtual tour of France’s wine-producing regions without even leaving the fair.

Synopsis:

Nero, a deported Mexican, returns illegally to the U.S in search of his identity. He joins the U.S army as a Green card soldier, a shortcut to citizenship. Lost in a maze, Nero fights to obtain his nationality.

Synopsis:

Documentary detailing claims of American/Israeli jointly developed malware Stuxnet being deployed not only to destroy Iranian enrichment centrifuges but also threaten attacks against Iranian civilian infrastructure. Adresses obvious potential blowback of this possibly being deployed against the US by Iran in retaliation.

Synopsis:

Poland, 1990. The first euphoric year of freedom, but also of uncertainty for the future. Four apparently happy women of different ages decide it's time to change their lives, and fulfill their desires.