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New titles include ‘Seven Winters In Tehran’, ‘Lonely Oaks’.

The Berlinale has unveiled the programme for the Perspektive Deutches Kino strand at its 2023 festival, with 16 films of which seven are feature world premieres.

The section will open with the world premiere of Steffi Niederzoll’s feature debut documentary Seven Winters In Tehran, analysing the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari, a female student in Iran who was hanged for murder having acted in self-defence against her rapist.

Scroll down for the Perspektive Deutches Kino features list

Titles also include Engin Kundag’s debut feature Ararat, in which a woman causes a traffic accident in Berlin,...

Sylvester Groth shines in this East German movie about a luckless private in a Polish prison, thrown in with a group of defeated Nazi war criminals. For a country that usually paints the ideological divide in black and white red, Frank Beyer’s film of Hermann Kant’s semi-autobiographical story is surprisingly even-handed. An excellent addition to films from behind the old Iron Curtain.

Held for Questioning

DVD

The Defa Film Library

1982 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / Der Aufenthalt, The Turning Point, Staying Alive / Availability noted August, 2017 / available through the Defa Film Library Store / 29.95

Starring: Sylvester Groth, Fred Düren, Matthias Günther, Klaus Piontek, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Alexander Van Heteren, Horst Hiemer, Günter Junghans, Krzysztof Chamiec, Gustaw Lutkiewicz, Roman Wilhelmi, Andrzej Krasicki, Zygmunt Maciejewski, Andrzej Pieczynski.

Cinematography: Eberhard Geick

Film Editor: Rita Hiller

Original Music: Günther Fischer

Written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Dieter Wolf from a novel by Hermann Kant

Produced by...

Retrospective to include around 20 East and West German feature and documentary films from cinema and television.

The Retrospective of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) is to be dedicated to the year 1966, a year considered to be a turning point in German cinema.

“The year 1966 stands for extraordinary films in the West and the East, films which broke new artistic ground,” said Berlinale festival director Dieter Kosslick.

“The Retrospective 2016 shows the audacious revolt and tentative exploration in a time of transition.”

The strand will include around 20 East and West German feature and documentary films from cinema and television. Additionally, more than 30 films of short and medium length - a typical format at the time - will feature in film programmes and as supporting films.

In 1966, the New German Cinema wave received critical acclaim at major film festivals for the first time.

At the Berlinale, Peter Schamoni’s debut No Shooting Time for Foxes (Schonzeit für Füchse) won a...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Set in 1960s Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski’s black-and-white drama Ida focuses on faith and identity after family secrets are revealed. Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young orphan brought up in a convent preparing to take her vows to become a nun. When told she must visit her aunt, her only living relative, Anna discovers she’s Jewish, her name is actually Ida and her parents were killed in WWII. Anna/Ida and her aunt embark on a journey to learn more about the family’s history and discover the truth about what happened.

The film landed on the Oscar shortlist for best foreign-language film and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category.

A number of foreign films focused on WWII have done well at the Oscars throughout the years. Ones based on real events include The Counterfeiters (2007), about the Nazis’ attempt to...