The Berlin International Film Festival (February 7 through 17) has announced that the Berlinale Shorts 2013 program will be comprised of 27 films from 20 countries, 22 of them world premieres, five international premieres, and one film out of competition: Ossama Mohammed’s Khutwa Khutwa (Step by Step, 1979). Making up this year’s International Short Film Jury, who’ll be awarding the Golden and Silver Bears for Best Short Film, are Spanish director Javier Fesser, Korean programmer and director of the Asian Film Fund Hong Hyosook, and German curator Susanne Pfeffer.
The lineup, with occasional notes from the festival:
A coup de couteau denté, Clément Decaudin, France, 12’ (World Premiere).
Al Intithar, Mario Rizzi, Italy/United Arab Emirates, 30’ (WP). “The uprisings in Syria have been raging for over a year now. Mario Rizzi (Berlinale Shorts 2008, Impermanent) lived for weeks with Syrian refugees in Camp Zaatari in Jordan. A kaleidoscope of a time spent in waiting.”
About Ndugu, David Muñoz, Spain, 15’ (WP). A “black boy is looking for a new wife for his American foster father and hopes his grandmother might be the right one.”
Aşura, Köken Ergun, Turkey/Germany, 22’ (WP). “Only by collaborating closely with the protagonists was artist Köken Ergun able to follow preparations in his film Aşura, the Shiite’s highest day of commemoration, until the final and most sensitive moment: when everyone participating is asked to weep and wail publicly for the hero in chorus.”
Ba Bi Lun Shao Nian, Yan Zhou, People’s Republic of China, 25’ (WP).
Beshivhey Hayom, Oren Adaf, Israel, 19’ (WP).
Between Regularity and Irregularity, Masahiro Tsutani, Japan, 8’ (WP).
Die ruhe bleibt, Stefan Kriekhaus, Germany, 14’ (WP).
ECHO, Merlin Flügel, Germany, 5’ (WP).
Forst, Ulu Braun, Germany, 10’ (WP).
Hypozentrum, Xenia Lesniewski, Germany, 15’ (WP).
Ja, kada sam bila klinac, bila sam klinka, Ivana Todorovic, Serbia, 30’ (WP).
Khutwa Khutwa (Step by Step) , Ossama Mohammed, Syria, 22’. “In a village in Syria, [the filmmaker] accompanied young men who are caught between religious and political ideologies. Fascinated by the power of authority, many of them choose to become soldiers.”
Kwaku Ananse, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/Mexico/USA, 26’ (WP). “Recounts a tale from Ghana: The spider wants and collects all bits of wisdom but ultimately the vessel breaks—the young woman has to face up to her father’s polygamous life but in the end encounters herself.”
La Fugue, Jean-Bernard Marlin, France, 22’ (WP). A “social worker believes that only if he does a good enough job, will his charge be able to begin a new life.”
Love Games, Yumi Joung, Republic of Korea, 15’ (IP). Animation.
Misterio, Chema García Ibarra, Spain, 12’ (IP).
Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, Rachel Mayeri, Scotland/USA, 11’ (IP). “In 2012, artist Rachel Mayeri shot a film expressly for chimpanzees and later showed it to some in a zoo.” Here film shows how “the caged apes at the zoo respond to their relatives moving freely in space.”
SANCTITY, Ahd Kamel, France, 37’ (IP).
Ta av mig, Victor Lindgren, Sweden, 15’ (WP).
Tabatô, João Viana, Portugal, 13’ (WP).
The Silent Passenger, Hirofumi Nakamoto, Japan, 14’ (WP). Nakamoto “catches hermit crabs that live only on a certain island in Japan and then lets them out in his hotel room. A contemporary behavioral study.”
Traumfrau, Oliver Schwarz, Switzerland, 20’ (IP).
Una Ciudad En Una Ciudad, cylixe, Germany, 18’ (WP). “A heterotopia in Caracas, a place that symptomatically reflects social circumstances. The video artist cylixe encounters in Una Ciudad En Una Ciudad residents of the tallest squat on earth. How does ownership work if nobody owns the property?”
Utan titel, Leontine Arvidsson, Sweden, 4’ (WP).
UZUSHIO -Seto Current-, Naoto Kawamoto, Japan, 10’ (WP).
Whaled Women, Ewa Einhorn/Jeuno JE Kim, Sweden, 9’ (WP).
2011 12 30, Leontine Arvidsson, Sweden, 3’ (WP).
More on the 2013 lineups: Sundance (rounds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and Slamdance, Rotterdam (rounds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and Berlin (rounds 1, 2, 3, 4).
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