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November 2024 brings an exciting lineup of Prime Video Originals, featuring a diverse range of films and series that cater to various tastes. Kicking off the month is Freedom on November 1, a gripping French thriller inspired by the true story of a notorious gangster, featuring a strong cast led by Lucas Bravo. Following this, on November 7, the Hindi action series Citadel (Honey Bunny), a spin-off of the acclaimed original, delves into the world of international spies with stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan. The disaster film Every Minute Counts arrives on November 8, chronicling the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

On November 10, the documentary series German Cocaine Cowboy examines the rise of gangster Joe Marx within the Cali cartel. Other highlights include the thriller series Cross on November 14, the action-adventure film Red One on November 15, and the intriguing docu-film Billions Mike on November 17. Comedy fans can look forward to Jeff Dunham...

From ritual washing in Islam to cleanliness as a virtue in Hinduism. religions frequently place keeping clean at the heart of orderly behaviour, make it central to membership of a civilisation. Nikia Chryssos’ second film, which screened as part of Fantaspoa 2022, is set in a cult based around soap itself, manufacturing it as a means of economic subsistence. it is also a deeply hierarchical environment in which children serve as factory slaves, down in the dark and the dirt, whilst those deemed to have attained a sufficient level of purity lead an idyllic life at the summit of their Mediterranean island (actually Aegina), close to their leader, the man they call Fust.

The divide between clean and unclean is an important one, but other loyalties still exist in this place. The bond between Irina (Greta Bohacek) and her little brother Paul (Claude Heinrich) is strong. When an unexpected discovery...

The new film by the German director will star actors Justus von Dohnányi and Hans Löw alongside newcomer Claude Heinrich as the main protagonist. The shoot for the adaptation of the novel Wir sind dann wohl die Angehörigen (lit. “We Are the Relatives”), written in 2018 by young German musician and first-time author Johann Scheerer, has started, helmed by director Hans-Christian Schmid, who wrote the script for this family drama together with Michael Gutmann. Schmid, best known for films such as Crazy (starring Robert Stadlober and Tom Schilling) and Requiem (starring Sandra Hüller), is producing the film together with Britta Knöller and their production company, 23/5 Filmproduktion. Through the unusual and enthralling perspective of a 13-year-old, the film tells the story of the abduction of Jan Philipp Reemtsma, which actually took place in 1996. Johann Scheerer, Reemtsma's son, converted his experience into a novel. He paints the portrait of a...

Following his acclaimed debut feature “Der Bunker,” Germany’s Nikias Chryssos’ returns to dark fables with a timely tale of a mysterious cult in “A Pure Place.”

The offbeat coming-of-age tale follows two young siblings who live in a secret community on a remote Greek island, isolated from the rest of the world, which they consider impure and dangerous.

Chryssos, who stems from a Greek-German family, describes “A Pure Place” as a “magical, poetic” story inspired by Greek mythology that explores “the contrast between light and darkness, cleanliness and purity.”

In the film, the pristine community on the island is served by child slaves who toil down in the darkness below. The young boy Paul, played by Claude Heinrich, must challenge the obsessive community in order to free his sister Irina (Greta Bohacek) from the nefarious machinations of the cult leader (Sam Louwyck).

Like fairytales that offer allegories of the real world,...

Selection includes TV series from UK, Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Israel and Denmark.

The Berlin International Film Festival (February 7 – 17) has unveiled the seven TV titles set to be screened in this year’s Berlinale Series programme.

Among the line-up is Amazon’s Hanna written by David Farr, who co-wrote the 2011 film of the same name. It is directed by Sarah Adina Smith, whose film credits include Buster Mal’s Heart, which starred Rami Malek. Hanna stars Esmé Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos. NBCUniversal International Studios is producing alongside Working Title Television.

Also in the selection is Netflix’s first Swedish original series Quicksand,...