Berlin

Spacemen

Age of Cannibals

Lamento

The Innocents

Amma & papa

The first six films for the 2014 Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme have been invited: four feature films and two documentaries. "This year, I paid special attention to variety in content and cinematic aesthetics," says section head Linda Söffker in describing her selections. "Directors who tell familiar stories using new images, with an interesting script, or filmmakers who take trips and find their subjects while travelling, or who explore and play with a genre, these individuals enrich young German film."

The directors of the feature films invited thus far have already attracted attention in the film and festival world with earlier works. Lamento, produced by Jost Hering and Maxim Juretzka (BuntFilm), is an HFF “Konrad Wolf” graduation film by Jöns Jönsson. The film won the 2013 “First Steps Award” and will now be presented to an international audience at the Berlinale. Lamento is a quiet, touching film that revolves around survivor's guilt (starring Gunilla Röör) following a suicide. Swedish director Jöns Jönsson is not a newcomer to the Berlinale, having been a guest in Berlinale Shorts 2009 with his short film Havet.

Johannes Naber’s new film Zeit der Kannibalen is an exciting and scathing cinematic feat that paints a picture of global economy in its worst human perversions, with hearty helpings of sarcasm and black humour (starring Devid Striesow, Sebastian Blomberg and Katharina Schüttler). Johannes Naber won the 2011 "Max Ophüls Preis" in Saarbrücken for his debut film Der Albaner, which he later presented to audiences at the 2011 Berlinale Kinotag as a guest of the Perspektive programme.

The third long feature film, Der Samurai, is a nightmarish thriller by Till Kleinert, who previously revealed his love for the genre in some of his short films. For this film, his dffb graduation project, he found two brave producers in his long-time companions from the filmmaker association Schattenkante (Linus de Paoli, Anna de Paoli). Till Kleinert's poetic, dialogue-free film Kokon won the 2009 German Short Film Award in gold for Best Short Film. Der Samurai (starring Pit Bukowski and Michel Diercks) will celebrate its world premiere at the Berlinale as a Perspektive Midnight Movie, drawing on the tradition of independent films that attained cult status as late shows.

The 36-minute fiction graduation film Die Unschuldigen by Oskar Sulowski (Film Academy Baden-Württemberg), which premiered in early December at the Grand Off Independent Film Festival in Warsaw, will celebrate its German cinema premiere in Perspektive. Told entirely from the perspective of a six-year-old boy (Juri Winkler), the film is a fragmentary look at the problems of its adults (Clemens Schick, Iza Kala) and their reflections on the child.

The first invited feature-length documentary film of Perspektive 2014 comes from the HFF Munich. Amma & Appa is a very personal film that focuses on the wedding plans of director Franziska Schönenberger and her fiancé and co-director Jayakrishnan Subramanian. The documentary spotlights the clash of Bavarian and Indian value systems that must be faced with sensitivity and humour.

In the 40-minute documentary Raumfahrer, the observation slit in a prison transport bus gives texture to the thoughts of its passengers. Georg Nonnenmacher, best known for his expert work in cinematic lighting, presents his second directorial work, after Spielverderber (2007).

At the Berlinale Kinotag on February 16, 2014, Perspektive Deutsches Kino will present the winner of the "DFJW Award Dialogue en perspective" (sponsored by the Franco-German Youth Association) from the current Perspektive programme, the winner of the 2014 feature competition "Max Ophüls Preis" and the winner of the 2013 documentary competition "First Steps Award" (Neuland, director: Anna Thommen)

The complete 2014 Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme will be announced in mid-January.

First film stills are available from the following links:

Zeit der Kannibalen

© Pascal Schmit

http://www.berlinale.de/media/images/download/20141499_1.jpg

Lamento

http://www.berlinale.de/media/images/download/20141500_1.jpg

Der Samurai

© Emi Maria Bohacek

http://www.berlinale.de/media/images/download/20142440_1.jpg

Die Unschuldigen

http://www.berlinale.de/media/images/download/20142827_1.jpg

Raumfahrer

http://www.berlinale.de/media/images/download/20143619_1.jpg

Amma & Appa

http://www.berlinale.de/media/images/download/20143662_1.jpg