Berlin

In February 2018 the Panorama will present its first programme curated by new section head Paz Lázaro together with Michael Stütz and Andreas Struck.

To date, the first eleven films have been confirmed:

In the German documentary Zentralflughafen THF (Central Airport THF), Brazilian-Algerian director Karim Aïnouz films the everyday lives of refugees in the hangars of the defunct Berlin airport Tempelhof. While they dream of having finally reached their destination, Berliners flee from their everyday lives to the public park on Tempelhofer Feld.

In Timur Bekmambetov’s US fiction film Profile, a British journalist goes undercover and infiltrates the digital propaganda channels of the so-called Islamic State, which has been mobilising ever greater numbers of young women from Europe. Her daily internet contacts with ISIS recruiters gradually pull her in and push the limits of her investigation.

In Yocho (Yocho (Foreboding)), the latest science fiction film by Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, aliens take over human emotions. Their uncanny system of subjugation kindles a paranoia that turns individual initiative into obedience. Inspired by a manga of the same name is River's Edge by Isao Yukisada. In the 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the economic boom in Japan, a group of young people struggle to reconnect with their feelings. Anger and frustration unleash a frenzy of sex and turmoil.

Four productions from Latin America have already been confirmed. La omisión (The Omission), Argentinian filmmaker Sebastián Schjaer’s first full-length fiction film, intimately depicts a transient worker. Wrapped in thick winter clothing, she defies the cold of Tierra del Fuego and the expectations put on her as a young mother. Also from Argentina is Malambo, el hombre bueno (Malambo, the Good Man) by Santiago Loza. Mesmerizing black-and-white images tell the story of a malambo dancer whose body becomes his adversary. The "malambistas" train a lifetime for competitions – and when a dancer finally wins he has to retire. A struggle for freedom in which torment and fulfilment are remarkably one. In dense images, the Brazilian documentary Ex-Pajé (Ex Shaman) by Luiz Bolognesi shows the imminent ethnocide of the indigenous Paiter Suruí who live in the Amazon basin. A former Christianized shaman turns to the spirits he had abandoned in order to preserve their cultural identity.

Another film from Brazil is dealing with “body politics”: Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag). The female trans*body becomes a political means of expression in both public and private space. The black, transgender singer Linn da Quebrada deconstructs how alpha males conceive of themselves. Kiko Goifman and Claudia Priscilla portray a charismatic artist who reflects on gender and has an extraordinary stage presence.

The dreamlike cinematographic poem Obscuro Barroco by Greek director Evangelia Kranioti focuses on a transgender Brazilian personality: Luana Muniz (1961-2017), icon of queer subculture, drifts through the world of Rio de Janeiro, a city of extremes, with its political conflicts, carnival masquerades, and novel bodies whose transformations no longer acknowledge clear gender lines.

Two works deal with another important topic of the Panorama 2018 -  "resistance to machismo": La omisión and the Austrian fiction film L'Animale by Katharina Mückstein, where an 18-year-old high school graduate and her motocross clique are the source of unease in the neighbourhood. Her need to belong, her experience of male dominance and the ardent devotion to her clique arouse conflicting emotions in her.

After the success of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 and Concerning Violence in the Panorama, Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson will return to present his new documentary That Summer. In it he brings back the eccentric universe of the symbiotic mother-daughter duo from the documentary classic Grey Gardens. That Summer presents what was believed to have been lost: footage from the summer of 1972, filmed by Peter Beard and Lee Radziwill, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's sister. Additional material - shot by Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Albert Maysles, and Vincent Fremont - provides insight into the dynamics of the former artist community in the Hamptons.

L'Animale – Austria 

By Katharina Mückstein

With Sophie Stockinger, Kathrin Resetarits, Dominik Warta, Julia Franz Richter, Jack Hofer, Dominic Marcus Singer, Simon Morzé

World premiere

Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag) – Brazil

By Claudia Priscilla, Kiko Goifman

With Linn da Quebrada, Jup do Bairro, Liniker

Documentary

World premiere

Ex Pajé (Ex Shaman) – Brazil

By Luiz Bolognesi

Documentary

World premiere

Malambo, el hombre bueno (Malambo, the Good Man) – Argentina

By Santiago Loza

With Gaspar Jofre, Fernando Muñoz, Pablo Lugones, Nubecita Vargas, Gabriela Pastor, Carlos Defeo

World premiere

Obscuro Barroco – France / Greece

By Evangelia Kranioti

Documentary

World premiere

La omisión (The Omission) – Argentina / The Netherlands / Switzerland

By Sebastián Schjaer

With Sofía Brito, Lisandro Rodriguez, Malena Hernández Díaz, Victoria Raposo, Pablo Sigal

World premiere

Profile – USA / UK / Cyprus

By Timur Bekmambetov

With Valene Kane, Shazad Latif, Christine Adams, Morgan Watkins, Amir Rahimzadeh

World premiere

River's Edge – Japan

By Isao Yukisada

With Fumi Nikaidou, Ryo Yoshizawa, SUMIRE , Shiori Doi, Aoi Morikawa

International premiere

That Summer – Sweden / Denmark / USA

By Göran Hugo Olsson

With Peter Beard, Lee Radziwill, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale, Andy Warhol

Documentary

European premiere

Yocho (Yocho (Foreboding)) – Japan

By Kiyoshi Kurosawa

With Kaho, Shota Sometani, Masahiro Higashide

European premiere

Zentralflughafen THF (Central Airport THF) – Germany / Brazil / France

By Karim Aïnouz

Documentary

World premiere