News

"Everything I have to give is in this place." Picturehouse has debuted an official trailer for the upcoming UK release this summer of the German family drama film titled Dying – yes that's the direct translation from the film's original Sterben in German. This premiered at the 2024 Berlinale Film Festival and already won awards – including Best Film at the German Film Awards just last year. An epic and darkly funny symphony of family dysfunction, Dying follows the estranged members of the Lunies family as they wrestle with chaotic private lives. Lars Eidinger stars as an acclaimed conductor, juggling working and his parent and the rest of his family. It already played at tons of fests and has 100% on Rt for now. Dying is a brilliant and sharply comic portrayal of a family unraveling...with outrageous consequences. The cast includes Lars with Lilith Stangenberg, Corinna Harfouch, Robert Gwisdek, Ronald Zehrfeld, Saskia Rosendahl,...

Robert Schwentke’s “Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes” ushers audiences into the fraught final hours of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Roman philosopher, playwright, and statesman. With John Malkovich embodying the titular figure, the narrative unfolds as Emperor Nero, Seneca’s former pupil, decrees his mentor’s death.

The film anchors itself in the familiar terrain of ancient Rome, yet from its inception, a current of the unconventional, a distinctly theatrical sensibility, courses beneath the surface, suggesting that historical representation here will be anything but staid.

What follows is an examination of a man confronting mortality under the capricious shadow of absolute power, a historical episode reimagined with a peculiar, disquieting verve.

The Philosopher as Performer

The Seneca presented is a creature of immense intellectual vanity, a renowned mind whose philosophical pronouncements are matched only by his profound self-absorption. Once the guiding hand to a young Nero, he now faces...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yii9n_0GlY8&ab_channel=AsianMoviePulse

On the occasion of her latest collaboration with Khavn in “Rizal’s Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge,” acclaimed German actress Lilith Stangenberg speaks with Panos Kotzathanasis about their creative partnership, which has evolved over several years and across continents.

In this exclusive interview, Lilith reflects on:

How her collaboration with Khavn first began

The contrasts between filming in the Philippines and Germany

Her experience working in theater vs. cinema

Singing

The unique process behind selecting her acting roles

And much more…

A deep dive into international collaboration, creative freedom, and the intersection of art, culture, and performance.

Inspired by Jose Rizal’s third, unfinished novel, but ultimately a radical deconstruction, “Rizal’s Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge” is a silent film like no other, that recently won Best Feature Film ln Lausanne. Shot on expired film stock that was later hand-painted and scratched by Khavn, the result is a visual experiment that embraces chaos in every form.

The main story, though intentionally thin, revolves around three central figures. Agaton Damaso is a cruel Spanish priest, Simoun Rizal is a melancholic Filipino poet, and Sisa Bracken is an enigmatic American woman who serves as a source of conflict between the two men. Rizal is determined to write the ultimate Filipino poem, while Sisa searches desperately for her two lost children. Damaso’s oppressive presence looms over them until it vanishes in the most shocking manner. Meanwhile, Rizal’s epic poem unfolds visually on screen, interwoven with an ever-growing cast...

"I did it for Rome." Freestyle Digital Media has debuted their official trailer for the film Seneca, made by director Robert Schwentke who worked in Hollywood for years (he last made Snake Eyes before this). The full title is actually Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes - this first premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival a few years ago and opened in Germany that year. But most critics hated it and reviews have been harsh. It's about the relationship between Seneca and Nero, the infamous Emperor he mentored since childhood and who accused him of plotting his assassination. The plot revolves around Nero telling him to kill himself and Seneca's response to this directive. "Schwentke has made a pyrotechnic display of a film that is almost peerless in its use of over-the-top punchlines, splatter-sarcasm, love of verbal precocity. Stunning & incredibly topical, Seneca asks: is the educated elite a victim...

Matthias Glasner’s “Dying” is three hours long but it passes by like a breeze. As its English title suggests, the film is more about the verb than the noun. It isn’t about the hopeless finality of death as much as it is about the process of dying. While it examines the effects of loss, it remains focused on following the gradual loss of life in whatever ways we choose to define it. Glasner’s script mainly revolves around six characters – four family members and two people related to them. Through their lives, Glasner explores ‘dying’ in different contexts and shows the gradual journey that precedes and/or follows a loss; be it of a person or our hopes, passions, or lifelong ambitions.

The film is divided into a few chapters and it ends with an epilogue. Splitting it into these individual chapters helps the film connect its different...

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Matthias Glasner’s Berlinale Competition Dying from The Match Factory.

The melodrama follows a woman secretly enjoying her husband’s deteriorating health before death knocks on her door as well, causing estranged family members to reconnect.

Corinna Harfouch, Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, Ronald Zehrfeld, Robert Gwisdek and Anna Bederke lead the cast.

Dying picked up several prizes in Berlin including the silver bear in best screenplay. It scored a solid 2.8 on Screen’s critics jury grid.

‘Dying’: Berlin Review

The feature is written by Glasner who also produces with Jan Krüger and Ulf Israel.

Writer-director Matthias Glasner’s Dying, a nuanced anatomy of a dysfunctional German family, begins with Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) prostrated on the living room floor covered in feces and unable to move. Meanwhile, her husband, Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer), aimlessly parades around their apartment in the buff. Clearly withdrawn from reality, he doesn’t register Lissy’s presence, let alone her distress, as he walks in front of her.

We’ll learn across this poignant and unforgiving saga of the origins and results of lovelessness that this is an average day in the life of the elderly couple. And while it’s easy to read this disturbing opening as a raw portrait of the predicaments of old age, the scene is ultimately understood as the embodiment of an entire family’s sad state of affairs: It always seems as if someone in the Lunies clan is drowning in shit and everyone else is looking the other way.

The Match Factory has unveiled multiple distribution deals for its Berlinale competition titles Dying by Matthias Glasner and Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky.

Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.

Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...

The Match Factory has unveiled multiple distribution deals for its Berlinale competition titles Dying by Matthias Glasner and Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky.

Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.

Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...

The Match Factory has revealed multiple distribution deals for two Berlinale competition titles: German director Matthias Glasner’s “Dying,” which won the festival’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, and Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s documentary “Architecton.”

“Dying,” which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. Variety‘s review describes the film as “a profoundly affecting exploration of life and loss.”

The Match Factory closed deals for the film in France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film) and South Korea (Pancinema). A U.K. deal has also been signed with the buyer yet to be announced. Wild Bunch will be distributing the film in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland.

The Match Factory has locked multi-territory deals on Berlinale titles Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky and Dying by Matthias Glasner, which picked up the festival’s Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.

Alongside the Silver Bear, Dying also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas Prize and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. The pic has sold to France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Match Factory has said negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury described the film as a “deep and darkly funny family drama.” The film stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, and Corinna Harfouch.

Elsewhere, Kossakovsky’s Architecton has sold to me Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Be Water), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Filmdistributie...

Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) is huddled on the floor in her nightgown, trying to ring her son. Her legs and nightgown are smeared brown with her regular nightly incontinence, but it is her husband who worries her: Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer) has wandered outside again, not sure where he is and wearing no pants. Her neighbor is at the door, insisting on being helpful, while Lissy just wants her to cut short this humiliation; has she spotted that even the phone is now daubed with excrement?

Old age ain’t no place for sissies, as Bette Davis famously said. The usual riposte is that it’s better than the alternative, but Matthias Glasner’s long, absorbing and intermittently very funny film calls that into question. Life, even before the debilities of age become its main feature, is the real difficulty.

Glasner’s story is a version of a traditional family saga, but...

Unabashedly sporting the most inauspicious of titles, a three-hour running time and a logline that features terminally ill elders and self-destructive descendants, German feature Dying (Sterben) looks like a hard sell on paper. And yet writer-director Matthias Glasner’s crisscrossing family drama manages to be exceedingly funny, often in some of its darkest moments, as well as expectedly sad.

Anchored by a nuanced, detailed performance by Lars Eidinger as Tom, an orchestra conductor juggling all manner of personal and professional commitments, and pitch-perfect turns by Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg and Ronald Zehrfeld as the rest of his combustible nuclear family, this richly rewards the time investment it requires. Sure, a few trims here and there wouldn’t have necessarily ruined it, and some might suggest this could work better as a multi-part limited series for upscale TV.

But it’s hard to imagine watching the musical performance set pieces anywhere...

Kirsten Niehuus, head of German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is confident that the changes to film funding proposed by the German government recently will have a “very positive effect on the production scene in Berlin-Brandenburg.”

The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here).

Kirsten Niehuus, Martin Moszkowicz

Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.”

Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions,...

Lars Eidinger plays the man embarking on a major orchestral project, but whose professional status is threatened by family turmoil behind the scenes

Matthias Glasner’s epic is a black comedy of Franzenesque family dysfunction; maybe not profound exactly but terrifically watchable and entertaining. It is about the time-honoured subject of what we inherit from our parents and what is gained and lost by rejecting that inheritance. The film features that always formidable German actor Lars Eidinger as an orchestra conductor - and it will be no surprise that when he takes to the podium at the Berlin Philharmonic, it is the scene of the biggest and most embarrassing fiasco since Cate Blanchett’s fierce creation Lydia Tár had her own meltdown on the exact same spot two years ago.

Eidinger plays Tom, an emotionally withdrawn figure about to embark on the most serious project of his career. It is a performance of Sterben,...

Over three hours and five different chapters, Matthias Glasner’s “Dying” chronicles the travails of an estranged family of four: an elderly couple on the brink of death, their successful composer son and their alcoholic, ne’er-do-well daughter. The film casts a wide net over their experiences, and every leading performance is as impeccable as the last. However, Glasner’s formal rigidity prevents their stories from feeling intrinsically bound, leaving each of them with little to say.

The film opens in the German countryside with elderly couple Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) and Gerd Lunies (Hans-Uwe Bauer) being found helpless by a neighbor. Lissy’s litany of ailments render her only semi-mobile, and she often ends the day by soiling herself, while Gerd’s dementia leads him to wander naked into people’s homes. They can’t help each other, and their adult children are too preoccupied with their own metropolitan lives to get involved.

Ready for another deliciously outré performance from Lars Eidinger, everybody’s favorite German arthouse weirdo (known for his work in Personal Shopper, Clouds of Sils Maria, White Noise, and on and on)? Well, strap in for Sterben (Dying) from German director Matthias Glasner.

In the exclusive first trailer from The Match Factory (see below), Eidinger plays Tom, a Berlin conductor with more than a few personal issues to deal with.

Dying is a rare new feature from Glasner who, unlike his prolific star, has kept his filmography tight. (His last feature was 2012’s Gnade.) Judging by the trailer, and Glasner’s previous work, including 2006 Silver Bear winner The Free Will, Dying looks like another powerful mix of melodrama, wry humor and philosophical ponderings about the “big questions” of life and, given the title, of death.

“The name of the piece… is ‘Dying’,” a high-strung composer, played by Robert Gwisdek, instructs the orchestra.

The Match Factory has secured the rights for Berlinale Competition title “Dying,” by German director Matthias Glasner. Wild Bunch will be distributing the film in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland.

Glasner credits include Golden Bear nominees “Gnade” (2012) and “Der Freie Wille” (2006).

The ensemble cast is led by Lars Eidinger, and also includes Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg and Ronald Zehrfeld.

“Dying” follows the very individual members of the Lunies family, who haven’t been a family for a long time. Lissy (Harfouch) is quietly happy about her demented husband Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer) slowly wasting away in a home. But her new freedom is short-lived: Diabetes, cancer and kidney failure mean that she doesn’t have much time left either.

Son Tom (Eidinger), a conductor in his early 40s, is working on a composition called “Dying,” while at the same time being made the surrogate father of his ex-girlfriend’s child. Tom...

The Match Factory has acquired world sales rights to Berlinale Golden Bear contender Dying by German director Matthias Glasner.

It is one of 20 films set to play in the Berlinale’s main Competition which was announced on Monday alongside the festival’s Encounters sidebar.

Glasner was previously in Competition at the Berlinale with Gnade and Der Freie Will in 2012 and 2006 respectively. More recent credits include directing episodes of Das Boot and TV movie Redemption Road.

German star Lars Eidinger co-leads the family drama following the very individual members of the dysfunctional Lunies family.

Corinna Harfouch co-stars at the mother who is quietly happy about her demented husband, played by Hans-Uwe Bauer, slowly wasting away in a home, until her new freedom looks set to be cut short by diabetes, cancer and kidney failure.

Eidinger plays a conductor in his...

The Match Factory has secured the rights for Berlinale Competition title Dying by German director Matthias Glasner.

Glasner’s previous films Gnade (2012) and Der Frei Wille (2006) played in competition at the Berlinale.

Dying’s ensemble cast includes Lars Eidinger, whose credits include All The Light We Cannot See and Irma Vep, and Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg and Ronald Zehrfeld.

It follows the Lunies family, who are forced to meet following a long estrangment. Hans-Uwe Bauer plays the father, living in a care home; Harfouch is the mother, living with diabetes, cancer and kidney failure. Their son played by Lars Eidinger,...

Not to be confused with Haider Rashid’s 2021 thriller of the same name, drama Europa (2023) from Iranian-Austrian writer-director Sudabeh Mortezai was nominated for Best Film in Official Competition at Lff 2023. A slow-burn thriller of corporate defiance and corruption set in rural Albania, it stars German actor Lilith Stangenberg in the lead role of Beate Winter, an ambitious executive of a mysterious corporation called ‘Europa’ that must persuade locals to part with land and livelihoods for unclear, nefarious reasons – all for the euro and not the environment.

The term ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ aptly fits here, as a compelling, stoic and quite ambiguous Stangenberg as Beate ‘hunts’ around stunning countryside, targeting her prey, befriending them and then spinning stories of woe or enlightenment to make the kill and get the contracts signed. With her male assistant Lasse (Tobias Winter) in tow, there is a sense that both are ‘stuck’ in...

"Albanian tradition. She should show respect." Memento Films has revealed a festival promo trailer for a film titled Europa, the latest from an Austrian-Iranian filmmaker named Sudabeh Mortezai. This recently premiered at the 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival, with extra stops at more European fests in the fall. Not to be confused with the harrowing refugees in Europe thriller also titled Europa from just last year. This Austrian production is about a woman named Beate, played by Lilith Stangenberg, an ambitious executive working at "Europa", a mysterious multi-national corporation looking to expand into the Balkans region. Seemingly promoting philanthropy, Europa actually needs to buy off lands from locals in a remote valley in Albania. She encounters pushback from a local farmer who refuses to leave the land of his ancestors and refuses any deal. The cast includes Jetnor Gorezi, Steljona Kadillari, Mirando Sylari, and Tobias Winter. This reminds me of Toni Erdmann,...

There is one thing to be said for Seneca — On the Creation of Earthquakes, which has its world premiere in Berlin this week. It may be the first major film set in ancient Rome in a couple of decades. But those who are hoping for a vivid adventure like Gladiator or Spartacus or even a campy hoot like Quo Vadis will be sorely disappointed by this bizarre effort to create a historical fantasia. John Malkovich has a rare starring role and acquits himself solidly enough. But it is harder to understand what motivated director Robert Schwentke, who has some successful films to his credit (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Red, the Divergent series) but adds no luster to his resume with this head-scratcher.

Schwentke was born in Germany but has made most of his films in Hollywood. This German-financed effort was filmed primarily in Morocco and showcases a cast from all over the world,...

Actor John Malkovich is in Berlin to debut his latest pic Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes, and during a press conference Monday, he spoke to reporters about his relationship with his co-star, Julian Sands, who has been missing since January.

“Julian and I were very, very close,” Malkovich told reporters in Berlin.

“I’m a godfather to his first son from his first marriage to Sarah, who I know very well. I introduced him to his second wife, and we have been close since we met in 1983 on the set of The Killing Fields. It’s a very sad event.”

Related: Deadline’s Berlin Film Festival Coverage

Sands was reported missing on January 13 after he failed to return from a hiking expedition in California. Several searches by public and private parties have already been carried out. The actor is also an experienced hiker.

John Malkovich, Julian Sands, ‘The Killing...

Few directors have had as eclectic a career as Robert Schwentke. His 2002 German-language debut Tattoo — a slick Se7en-style serial-killer thriller — got the attention of Hollywood, and he initially appeared to be on the classic studio-director track, helming the Jodie Foster-starrer Flightplan, the all-star action hit Red and its sequel, and, most recently, the G.I. Joe movie Snake Eyes with Henry Golding and Andrew Koji.

But even from the start, Schwentke was a difficult director to pigeonhole. Best known for his action thrillers, he also took time to direct the romantic sci-fi drama The Time Traveler’s Wife with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, the supernatural comic-book adaptation R.I.P.D. with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, and two films in the Divergent YA sci-fi franchise with Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort.

He has also continued to make smaller, more personal, German movies. The Family Jewels, his 2003 follow-up to Tattoo, is...

The German-based distribution and production company Port au Prince Film And Kultur Produktion has hired Roshanak “Rosh” Khodabakhsh as a producer and executive board member.

Khodabakhsh will start the role on March 1. One of her tasks will be to further expand and lead the company’s Berlin branch.

Khodabakhsh mostly recently spent three years at the German distributor-producer Dcm, where she was a producer. Prior to Dcm, Khodabakhsh spent six years as a freelance production coordinator and production manager on projects such as Netflix’s Sense8, UFA’s Charité, and the X Filme series Babylon Berlin. She has also worked with directors such as Tom Tykwer, Sönke Wortmann, Fatih Akin (The Golden Glove), Jan Schomburg (Divine), and Ilya Khrzhanovsky (Dau).

Port Au Prince Producer and Managing Director Jan Krüger previously collaborated with Khodabakhsh in 2009 on Ali Samadi-Ahadi’s Grimme Award-winning doc The Green Wave.

“I would like to thank Marc Schmidheiny,...

"Aim for virtue, happiness will follow." German distributor Weltkino Filmverleih has revealed two official trailers for the film Seneca, the latest from director Robert Schwentke who has been working in Hollywood for years (he last made Snake Eyes). The full title is actually Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes, and this is premiering at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival later this month, with a German release set in March. A look at the relationship between Seneca and Nero, the infamous Emperor he mentored since childhood and who accused him of plotting his assassination. The plot revolves around Nero telling him to kill himself, and how Seneca then responds. "Schwentke has made a pyrotechnic display of a film that is almost peerless in its use of over-the-top punchlines, splatter-sarcasm and love of verbal precocity. Stunning and incredibly topical, Seneca asks: is the educated elite a victim of tyranny or an opportunistic collaborator?...

Europa

We jumped the gun a bit last year when we included the latest project by Austrian–Iranian filmmaker Sudabeh Mortezai in our most anticipated list but we can expect this third fiction feature film project to drop at a major film fest this year. Production on Europa began around the month of June last year on what is can be described as a relationship drama between friends with a certain air of malaise. Albania is the backdrop here. Following 2014’s Macondo (Berlinale preemed) and 2018’s Joy (Giornate degli Autori preemed), Europa stars Lilith Stangenberg, Jetnor Gorezi and Steljona Gjika in this Austria-United Kingdom co-production.…...

John Malkovich starrer Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes and Alex Gibney’s untitled Boris Becker documentary are set to have their world premieres at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival next year. The projects are among the six titles which will play in the fest’s Berlinale Special Gala section, which also includes Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, starring Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman and Todd Field’s Tár.

Infinity Pool will get its European premiere at the festival while Field and Tár stars Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir will attend the festival to give a public talk as part of the Berlinale Talents section.

The festival also announced its first project from its Berlinale Series section: Zdf’s eco-thriller The Swarm (Der Schwarm), based on the eponymous bestseller by Frank Schätzing. The project follows an international group of scientists who do research...

The full programme will be revealed in January 2023.

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 16-26) has announced six titles for its Berlinale Special Galas, including the world premieres of John Malkovich starrer Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes and Alex Gibney’s untitled Boris Becker documentary.

The festival has also unveiled eight Forum titles, including world premieres of Fiona Tan’s Dearest Fiona and Vincent Dieutre’s This Is The End.

In addition, the festival has named the first title to play in Berlinale Series, the eco-thriller The Swarm (Der Schwarm) – based on the eponymous bestseller by Frank Schätzing.

Robert Schwentke...

Berlin-based sales company Picture Tree Intl. has boarded Robert Schwentke’s historical drama “Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes,” which has its world premiere in the Berlinale Special Gala section of the Berlin Film Festival. The teaser (below) for the film, which stars John Malkovich, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Xander, “Dark’s” Louis Hofmann and Mary-Louise Parker, has been released.

The movie is a look at the relationship between Seneca and Nero, the infamous Roman Emperor he mentored since childhood, and who accused him of plotting his assassination.

As the foster father and mastermind of Nero, Seneca is instrumental in the rise of the self-indulgent young tyrant. The philosopher, known for his great speeches on renunciation and clemency, is himself one of the richest men in ancient Rome. But when one day the student tires of his teacher, Nero orders Seneca to kill himself. Is the latter ready for an honorable suicide,...

Arri Media has closed a deal with Crescendo House – a new boutique distribution company – for North American rights on Marxist vampire comedy “Bloodsuckers,” following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film, which screened as part of the Berlinale’s Encounters section, was written and directed by Julian Radlmaier.

Radlmaier’s script was praised by the jury as being “extravagant, bizarre, and hilarious” when he was presented with the Golden Lola for Best Unfilmed Screenplay during Berlinale 2019.

Set in 1928, the film centers on a penniless Soviet refugee, who falls in love with an eccentric young vampiress, played by Lilith Stangenberg (“Wild”), spending the summer at the seaside with her awkward servant.

Soviet factory worker Lyovoshka is cast to play Trotsky in a film by Sergei Eisenstein. But his dreams of a new life as an artist are shattered when the real Trotsky falls out of favor with Stalin...

This year’s Berlin International Film Festival will look a bit different this year, with a virtual edition taking place March 1-5 for industry and press, then a public, in-person edition kicking off in June.

The complete lineup has now been unveiled, including Céline Sciamma’s highly-anticipated Portrait of a Lady on Fire follow-up Petite Maman, a surprise new Hong Sang-soo feature, the latest work from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, along with new projects by Radu Jude, Xavier Beauvois, Dominik Graf, Pietro Marcello, Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, and more.

Check out each section below.

Competition Tiles

“Albatros” (Drift Away)

France

by Xavier Beauvois

with Jérémie Renier, Marie-Julie Maille, Victor Belmondo

“Babardeală cu buclucsau porno balamuc” (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)

Romania/Luxemburg/Croatia/Czech Republic

by Radu Jude

with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai

“Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde” (Fabian – Going to the Dogs)

Germany

by Dominik Graf

with Tom Schilling,...

Arri Media Intl. has signed a deal with Faktura Film to handle the international sales for the Marxist vampire comedy “Bloodsuckers.” The film has been selected to world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section, which aims to “foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers.” Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer.

Arri Media Intl. will present the film, which was written and directed by Julian Radlmaier, to buyers at the European Film Market, which runs March 1-5.

“Bloodsuckers,” which is set in 1928, centers on a penniless Soviet refugee, who falls in love with an eccentric young vampiress, played by Lilith Stangenberg (“Wild”), spending the summer at the seaside with her awkward servant. The script won the Golden Lola for Best Unfilmed Screenplay during the 2019 Berlinale, and was praised by the jury for being “extravagant, bizarre, and hilarious.”

In the film, the Soviet...

Day 3 of this year’s Berlinale announcements contain the line-ups for Encounters, Panorama and Perspektive Deutsches Kino. Check back in tomorrow for the Competition program.

Encounters was first introduced at last year’s festival to support new voices in cinema. A three-member jury will award Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award during the industry event in March, with the prizes handed out physically at the summer event.

The selection consists of 12 titles from 16 countries, including seven debuts. Scroll down for the full list.

Over in Panorama, there are 19 titles including 14 world premieres. Several titles arrive from Sundance such as Prano Bailey-Bond’s UK feature Censor and Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors.

Perspektive Deutsches Kino will again present new views on German cinema, with six titles, all of which are world premieres. The full lists are below.

This week so far has seen the Generation, Retrospective, Forum, Forum Expanded and Shorts programs announced.

Lilith Stangenberg began her acting career at P14 youth theater of the Volksbühne Berlin. Without training as an actor, she was then hired at the Basel Theater and the Hanover Theater and from 2009 to 2012 was in the ensemble of the Zurich Schauspielhaus. At the same time, she also worked for film and television. As a film actress, Stangenberg was best known for the multi-award-winning leading role in Nicolette Krebitz ‘s feature film Wild , in which she played a young woman who had a relationship with a wolf. In October 2018, she starred in the television film “Tatort: ​​Blut”, the leading role in an episode of a woman suffering from a light allergy, who believes she is a vampire. In “Orphea“, the adaptation of the myth of Orpheus with reverse gender roles by Alexander Kluge and Khavn, she embodies the title role. The film celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale 2020.

On the occasion of the #TheKhavnProject,...

Considering how many works of art deal with the concept of mythology, this approach demonstrates how these stories might provide important answers on how to define modernity or at the very least provide much needed ideas. At the same time, it is also quite entertaining, from the side of the spectator and the artist, to witness and play around with these ancient stories, their heroes and their topics. With their first collaboration “Happy Lamento” German director Alexander Kluge and Filipino filmmaker Khavn de la Cruz proved their willingness and skill to approach towards concepts of modernity and, through combining the audiovisual worlds of their individual works, find a language to communicate these ideas. Screening at Berlinale 2020, their new feature “Orphea” is a modern re-telling of the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus, a wild mixture of musical and drama, and very much in line with their approach in “Happy Lamento”.

“Orphea...

The 70th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 20 – March 1) unveiled its Encounters program today, featuring the premieres of new works by Tim Sutton and Romanian director Cristi Puiu.

Also screening is Josephine Decker’s Shirley with Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg, marking the film’s international premiere after its upcoming Sundance bow, and Gunda by Victor Kossakovsky, whose last pic was the 2018 Venice doc Aquarela.

Encounters is a newly-created competitive section at the Berlin festival that looks to highlight “new voices in cinema and to give more room to diverse narrative and documentary forms.” A three-member jury will choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award.

“As a result of passionate research, the 15 titles chosen for Encounters present the vitality of cinema in all of its forms. Each film presents a different way of interpreting the cinematic story: autobiographical, intimate, political,...

The American Film Institute unveiled their lineup for AFI Fest’s World Cinema and the inaugural Documentary section. The fest will take place November 14-21 in Los Angeles.

The world cinema section will include five international feature film Oscar submissions and 16 titles from 19 countries. This includes the Los Angeles premiere of Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life as well as Levan Akin’s And We Danced from Sweden, Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone from Canada, Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi from Poland, Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor from Italy and Cornlieu’s The Whistlers from Romania.

On the documentary side, the fest will include Alex Gibney’s Citizen K as well as Desert One from two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple. Other films in the doc lineup include Bikram: Yoga, Guru, Predator from Eva Orner, Jolie Coiffure from Rosine Mbakam and The Human Factor from Dror Moreh.

Read AFI Fest’s...

The Berlin film festival’s brochure notes for Angela Schanelec’s new puzzler of a movie map out some of the action: a 13-year-old boy who, after having gone missing for a week, returns home without a word. His father died two years ago and his mother, Astrid (Maren Eggert), struggles to confront single motherhood as her life stutteringly gets back to normal.

But these plot points have to be wrung from the clutches of a willingly opaque film, and most comprehensive interpretations will involve hardy concentration and perhaps multiple viewings. For this is a film that stages itself in non-linear narratives, in severe, clinical long takes, in metaphorical observations, and even extended sequences of Shakespearean re-enactment–a film whose aesthetics may be intensely controlled and yet whose narrative is sprawling with meanings and readings.

There is no dialogue in the first ten minutes, and only intermittently do characters say...

The film is directed by Angela Schanelec.

Deutsche Kinemathek has boarded world sales on Angela Schanelec’s I Was At Home, But… , which is making its world premiere in Competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival (Febuary 7-17).

Berlin-based Deutsche Kinemathek is principally a film archive, but it also occasionally handles sales for select German titles.

German director Schanelec’s previous films include Un Certain Regard titles Places In Cities (1998) and Marseille (2004), Berlin title Orly (2010) and Cannes special screening Bridges Of Sarajevo (2014).

I Was At Home, But… is about a 13-year-old schoolboy who vanishes without a trace for a week.

Nine titles announced for Berlinale, which runs Feb 7-17.

The first films have been announced for the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival Competition and Berlinale Special sections.

The Competition line-up includes new films by Fatih Akin (The Golden Glove), François Ozon (By the Grace of God) and Denis Côté (Ghost Town Anthology).

The other three films in the strand are Marie Kreutzer’s The Ground Beneath My Feet, Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, but and Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters. All are world premieres except By the Grace Of God which is an international premiere.

The...

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed the first wave of titles for its competition lineup, including new films from François Ozon, Marie Kreutzer, Denis Côté and Fatih Akin. Charles Ferguson’s Watergate documentary is among the Berlinale Special titles.

The first nine Competition and Berlinale Special films were revealed today, alongside the previously announced opening film, The Kindness of Strangers by Lone Scherfig.

Festival favourites Akin (In The Fade) and Ozon (In The House) return with German-language thriller The Golden Glove and French-language drama By The Grace Of God, respectively. The former follows a serial killer who strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s. The latter looks at a real-life case of sexual abuses allegedly committed by a French priest in the late 1980s. Oscar-winner Ferguson (Inside Job) will present anticipated 260-minute feature doc Watergate, which is sure to draw plenty of contemporary parallels.

Rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince and Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Unga Astrid picked for Berlinale Special.

Source: Wiki Commons

Steven Soderbergh, José Padilha

Five more films have joined the main lieups of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). A further six films have been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.

Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane will get an out of competition world premiere. It stars Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah and Juno Temple and was reportedly shot on iPhone.

Also premiering out of competition is José Padilha’s true story thriller 7 Days In Entebbe, starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Eddie Marsan.

New films from Lav Diaz and Alonso Ruizpalacios will play in competition.

Rupert Everett’s Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince and Becoming Astrid by Pernille Fischer Christensen have been added to the Berlinale Special Gala section.

Read more: Robert Pattinson, Christian Petzold movies join Berlin Film Festival Competition

23 of the 24 titles...

What happens when a prosecutor tracks down one of the most evil criminals of the century, only to find that politics and corruption prevent him from issuing an arrest warrant? This is the true story of the hunt for the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann — not from the Pov of the Israeli agents that pounced on him in Argentina, but a German prosecutor hemmed in on all sides by Nazi sympathizers in his own government bureaucracy.

The People vs. Fritz Bauer

Blu-ray

Cohen Media Group

2015 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 105 min. / Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer / Street Date January 10, 2017 / 30.99

Starring Burghardt Klaußner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Michael Schenck, Cornelia Goöscher, Lilith Stangenberg.

Cinematography Jens Harant

Film Editor Barbara Gies

Original Music Christopher M. Kaiser, Julian Maas

Written by Lars Kraume, Olivier Guez

Produced by Thomas Kufus

Directed by Lars Kraume

As a movie reviewer I’m attracted to certain subjects. I’ve written up...

★★★☆☆ At its primeval heart, Nicolette Krebitz's Wild is the story of a lonely girl, Ania (Lilith Stangenberg), and a wolf whom she happens upon while making her daily walk to a dead-end job. A cautious, frightened distance initially held between beauty and beast will be slowly eroded by a magnetic, inexorable fascination, obsession even, which sees established boundaries between human and animal broken - in some instances literally. Beginning with the sombre greys and muted colours of a wintry urban setting, reflecting the monotonous drudgery of Ania's unfulfilled existence, Wild will beat darker and burn more vividly as a bestial union.

Award Winning Director Wolfgang Becker (“Good Bye Lenin!”) will open the festival at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre with “Me and Kaminski” bringing outstanding German cinema and its stars to Los Angeles from October 20 to 23rd.

Full Program Line Up Announced with a selection of the best new German, Austrian and Swiss Cinema

Celebrating its 10th year, German Currents features an expanded program including screenings of ten La premieres, conversations with prolific German directors, writers and actors, as well as the return of the free family matinee film screening for local schools.

“Me and Kaminski” starring Daniel Brühl and directed by Wolfgang Becker

2016 has been a successful year for German language cinema, not only in Europe, but across the globe. Beginning on Thursday, October 20th 2016 German Currents will open this year’s 4 day festival with the red carpet event Los Angeles premiere of Wolfgang Becker’s (“Goodbye Lenin”) five-time...

Quick takes from the 60th London Film Festival, with public screenings from October 5th-16th, 2016.

Down Under

Set against a backdrop of real-life race riots that occurred in the Sydney suburbs in 2005, this Australian black comedy may take place a decade ago, but it couldn’t feel more of-the-moment with its withering takedown of bigotry as, obviously, ignorant and insular, and — perhaps less obviously — as a brand of tribalism that it can be difficult for even those who are not ignorant and insular to extricate themselves from. Two bands of idiots, one white-supremacist and one Middle Eastern immigrants, head out of an evening to make trouble and “defend” and “protect” their own: they will, inevitably, run into one another, with bitter, ironic results. (If only bigotry always backfired on bigots in reality the way it does here.) Reminiscent of the brilliant 2010 British film Four Lions, about four moron wannabe jihadis in Sheffield,...

"Do you want justice?" Cohen Media Group has debuted a trailer for the German drama The People vs. Fritz Bauer, from director Lars Kraume, which premiered at the Locarno and Toronto Film Festivals last year to some positive reviews. Burghart Klaußner stars as Fritz Bauer, an attorney general who decides to hunt down and process SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, who is supposedly hiding out in Buenos Aires. He enlists the help of the Israeli secret service Mossad, and risks breaking the law but believes in his actions. Also starring Carolin Stähler, Sebastian Blomberg, Michael Schenk, Ronald Zehrfeld, Lilith Stangenberg. This looks like it might be an undiscovered gem worth checking out, give this a watch. Here's the official Us trailer for Lars Kraume's The People vs. Fritz Bauer, in high def from Apple: Germany, 1957. Attorney General Fritz Bauer (Klaußner) receives crucial evidence on the whereabouts of SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann. The lieutenant colonel,...